Developing a New Major

look at the page of notes from the peer evals - some good things - some very specific things people need to work on in the next project - better communication, more respect for the team, more idea generation, more respect for others’ ideas

talk about Craig’s game - radio game show - trivia quiz - what was your job as the studio audience? what kind of sound effects should he add? what would make it a better game?

look at the board game and book report assignments -  new detail added - don’t think of an idea now - pick a topic, do research - goal is to generate a bunch of ideas based on the info ou find so topic an integral part of the game - going to do some brainstorming on Wednesday - have them look at week 9 on mambo for hte details - quesiton is what else can ya do with the dance pad?

audio in games

audio = music, sound effects, dialogue

in a lot of games - the sound design is just a list of files, only a few are ever tested, and the design is only done to the extent of attaching a sound to an object. for some games you might really only need some background mp3 files and a few standard sound effects

bad audio makes you aware of the audio, breaks the immersion

need to create an audio design doc (part of/addition to the game design doc) - sets out the audio enviornment of the game, to show what technology being used. it’s the bible for the audio team but everyone will read/skim it - says what’s the general audio tone of hte game, brief statement about how music, sound effects and dialogue should work in that environment in general and hten details about how that will be implemented, has a list of all the sounds you need including sounds for weapson, transportation, and interface

way to give an cue about the state of the game, about changes in the state of the game. ex: the sound the mushroom powerups make in Mario - player can be focusing on what’s coming next and hear that they got the powerup

way to let htem know the change in location - tone of music changes when you enter the boss area - more threatening sound effects - sound helps tell the story, signaling the start of a new chapter in the story or the begining of a new level

many sound effects are actually composites, layers of sounds to create a new sound or a more realistic sound - for example in the Jurassic Park game , the T. rex roar used was a blend of elephant, lion, alligator, and a couple of other animal sounds. layers come into play also when trying to create ambient sound - places are full of noises -for exaple on a city street you might hear traffic, people walking, people talking, music from radios heard in cars, birds, planes, wind - amient sound creates the world in which we live in a game

music in games different purpose than games in film - in games music creates and reflects the emotional state of the player, whereas in film, the music reflects the emotional state of the characters on screen and gives the audience a visceral response to that state.

game muscians using concept of microscoring - creating hundreds of small score chunks that the game engine puts together as needed as player moves thru the game

game audio guys need to know how to mix the sound, how to edit, how to use sound libraries and how to record their own sounds

game music is not interactive music - the player doen’st have any direct involvement with the music like they do in rhythm & music games

games that are all sound (for people who can’t see - AudioOdyssey - for sighted and visually impaired to play together- http://gambit.mit.edu/loadgame/audiodyssey.php — this page has a 1:24 news story about the game with some screen shots - http://www.aip.org/dbis/stories/2008/18122.html

games without sound for people who can’t hear - games are starting to include subtitles - Ubisoft starting doing it in 2008 - Far Cry 2, Prince of Persia, and Shaun White Snowboarding. - games aren’t required to have subtitles. think of all the uses for sound we talked about - cue things in the interface have been clicked, cue changing part s of the game, cue victories - those need to be shown in multiple ways as well as sound, need subtitles for cut scenes, for any spoken instructions, for any spoken character interaction.

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Game design, Video game, Video game music