Developing a New Major

big questions – why is audio an important aspect of game development, how do we use voiceovers, sound effects, music differently and effectively , how is game music different from movie music?, would be cool to have them record their own sound effect using their mics and garageband – could do as a group – try out some of the foley examples on p.l 273-274, from end of chapter – #1, 4, 8,9

gotta plan for music and sound early on in the game planning process – it’s as important to the game’s success as art and it takes just as long to develop adn implement effectively

audio sets mood – real world full of little sounds – people notice if there’s silence, they expect the background sounds, enhances the atmosphere, can give player cues – bad guys coming, something to watch for, where something weird is happening, makes game more immersive (sound effects make game seem more realistic. bad sound can ruin a good looking project because it will force people to notice it (the sound) and game stops being immersive.

someone has to do a sound design for the game – part of the initial game planning – the lead sound/audio guy has to manage the implementation of that sound design, keep everyone on track and meeting deadlines and costs. Game sound people need a great imagination, good education (notice it calls for classes on literature and art history – things to give you ideas), need reliable equipment, good sounds – lots of sounds – libraries, orchestral arrangements…, and live usicians who are obsessive about great performances (same for the voice guys)

games have a couple of problems with sound – they’re non–linear so you don’t know how people are going to come into a setting/scene or where they’ve been before – - and you the designer don’t know what kind of sound the player has – little built in laptop speakers, cheap external speakers, big ass sound system – different playback might need different sound mixes to avoid distortion

types of in-game audio

• sampled sound – recorded, includes voices, music
• interface sounds
• in-game sounds like explosions & footsteps – easier to make realistic sounds than realistic graphics

audio works with the interface – click sounds when buttons pushed

need separate volume controls for dialogue, sound effects, music. Need subtitles if ya have dialogue

different tools used in the industry – Protools, Sound Forge, sample libraries for different instruments, Microsoft Xact for Xbox titles, Scream for PS2 titees and MS’s DirectMusic Producer for Direct Music titles

formats

• 1990s – MIDI – small files, info on the insturment qualities sotred elsewhere (different on each machine so quality of audio depends on teh quality of the instrument instrument nad playback on each player’s system
• DLS1 – tracked audio + MIDI = downloadable sound level 1, replaced in 1999 by DLS2 from Microsoft
• Redbook AUdio for games on CD is best way to store music

sound effects – give players feedback and cues to what to do next (engine sounds to tell ya when to shift). Sounds can be recorded with multiple mics in the real world, sampled to use in the game to create realistic sounds. Or they can be created on a foley stage – using things like shoes, boxes of nails and wood chunks to recreate the sounds or to create sounds that in context we will assume are the real sounds. you can get out of sound libraries too – we have in ppecs – but people recognize some of the more popular sounds from popular libraries. if you have the money – get your own sounds

Voiceovers – dialogue and narration, one thing that is often outsourced. the voice artists read the scripts. you have to tell them anything special you want – accents, personality, context. might just do in chunks of one or 2 lines at a time or specific sounds. they get put in where needed – since game not linear – software needs to trigger the dialogue/sound chunks. You need to have variety – dn’t want the same grunts every time ya hit a wall, don’t want an NPC to saw the same dumb line every time you hit them, or the character to tell the same dumb joke every tiem they shoot someone — make sthe game less immersive – book says good games often have up to 20 variants of any given sound or line

Music – score = instrumental music to create mood; songs take pre-existing songs that are licensed to be used in the game – this happens more in movies than in games right now. There are libraries like Associated Production Music (APM) that has songs and instrumental music that you can license stuff from. can get music from indie musicians too – list of places on p. 282

looping music – to make continuous soundtrack – if they’re short tho player will notice repeats and be distracted – need longer songs, could have themes that start and end the same so you could put the themes together in different combox, loops should change to take into account the context – nice forest or nice forest with evil monster battle need different loop

game vs film – film composers have to remember games are nonlinear – no way to watch a finished game and decide where to put tin sounds, can’t see all the paths a player might choose. Cmposer works with character and setting descriptions, story synopsis, level descriptions, objectives, types of stuff in the game – decide what music and sounds seem reasonable. Can score cut scenes traditionally. game composers have to come into the process earlier during pre production when there’s not much to see

adaptive music – changes to match up with what player is doing in the game – needs lots of cooperative work with game designer, the programmers, the composer. you write tiny chunks of music and the software rapidly calls the chunks in the right combos

fans like game soundtracks – check out overclocked remix site – lets fans remix songs and share with others. They listen to CDs with the game soundtracks on them. (find some video of the Games LIve performances – is the like the 2003 E3 concert by Tallarico mentionedin the book?)

Game Audio Network Guild (GANG) and the Project Bar-B-Q game audio think tank annual conference – interesting resources to check out

Trackback URL

Game development, Music, Sound effect