Introduction
From Interactive Audio Wiki
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Game Audio Educational Web Site Overview
The IASIG Education Initiative is dedicated to helping provide resources to the audio interactive community to help better teach and learn about interactive audio as it applies to games. This site was begun in early 2004 and hopefully will be continually updated by the community at large as new information becomes available and older information becomes out of date.
Game audio requires a myriad of specialized audio skills. Currently there are few web sites and books that provide resources to educate new people that want to get involved in game audio. The project sets out to offer another resource for people to use in learning about game audio.
Some of the other goals in designing a website like this include:
- Shortening the learning curve of new audio personnel in game audio by providing resources that people can learn from.
- Create a clear reference for terminology and creation methods in the world of game audio.
- Supplying schools with information to create game audio education into their curriculum.
This site contains resources for educators and students as well as information for the community of composers and sound designers who work in the field of game audio. Although it is our goal to provide as much useful knowlege as possible, there are many other resources such as books and internet sites that we recommend. Throughout this website you'll find many links to other websites as well as book recommendations and educational programs that may provide additional help in learning about interactive gaming audio.
Game audio has many specialties from music composition and sound design, dialog and foley, to implementation and programming. In this site we try and describe these areas of expertise and try and give good examples of work in the field and where to look to find for information.
This site is not meant to teach the various disciplines of game audio directly. It is meant mainly to describe in brief the and then supply resources and links to other places where students can learn about creating game audio. It is primarily meant to be an overview of the skills required without going to in-depth about teaching them.
In reading this if you have other information that you want to contribute, please get involved and join the IASIG. Contribution to this document is the only way to keep it current and a valuable resource for others in our specialty of game audio.
Brief History of Game Audio
Since the birth of audio in video games in the 1970s with games like Pong and the first Atari console the progression of game audio from simple blips and bleeps to fully interactive orchestral scores has been a long road paved with innovation.
As manufacturers put more money into their sound cards the ability of the composer and sound designer to create more transparent and realistic audio marched on through the 80's and 90's leading us to be able to create fairly rich and robust audio experiences today. Many innovations fueled the success of todays formats including early FM synthesis modules, MIDI, dynamic audio streaming, sampling and DLS, then through to multi-channel audio, dynamic DSPs and interactive music playback.
Technology wasn't the only thing that led innovation in creating interactive scores. Before the start of video game success in the 1970's, non-linear scores by composers such as John Cage or Steve Reich also contributed much to the way we started thinking about how music is made for interactive mediums. These contributions changed the way we thought about audio, and influence how we create interactive music today.
These combinations and the desire of game audio professionals to create more emotional audio experiences have also contributed to creating open standards in the industry. Manufacturers are able to adopt these standards and make the ability for people to make game audio easier and more effecient.
In addition the tools for making music have improved enormously. Now instead of having to create music that looked more like math, formats have brought about a revolution in music that now allow us to write music in a program that understands it.
Here are some additional internet links that provide a good understanding where game audio has come from.
- GameSpot Presents: A Brief Timeline of Video Game Music by Glenn McDonald
- Armchair Arcade: The Rise and Fall of Game Audio by Matt Barton
- History of Game Music by Veli-Pekka Tätilä
- GamesSound.com History by Karen Collins
Pioneers
Since Game Audio is a field that encompasses many different disciplines from composition to sound design, there are many individuals that contributed to progress in the field. Many of the same techniques that filmakers used can be translated to the work that is done in modern Game Audio. Linear mediums made contributions to audio and defined the way listen and emotional connect with entertainment.
There are many great sites dedicated to each discipline, here are some links:
Cross-Discipline Sites
- FilmSound.org - Excellent resource for articles and interviews about sound design techniques in film production.
Future of Game Audio
Functions of Game Audio
Game audio serves many of the same functions as film audio, with a few notable differences. Depending on genre, platform and on the player’s familiarity with a game, some games can function without sound altogether, and as such, can be played with sound muted. Games such as Twisted Metal 4, (989 Studios 1999) for instance, allow the player to remove the game’s audio and replace it with their own chosen CD. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar Games 2004) has “radio stations” available so that a player can select the kinds of music that they want to hear. Games for portable players such as Play Station Portable (PSP) or Game Boy Advance are designed with the knowledge that these games are often played in the presence of other people and may require silence. Therefore, not all of the functions described below will be present in every game. It should also be noted that there is considerable overlap between many of these categories, and none of the functions should be deemed mutually exclusive.
Commercial Functions: (sell games, sell artists, sell soundtracks, sell movies, sell other games, branding/familiarization): It is a growing trend in games to incorporate popular music artists—both to help sell the game, and to help sell the artists. Interaction between the two industries is increasing, with Electronic Arts forming EA Trax as a marketing partner with labels “so as to not only find new music in all of our games, but hopefully create a music destination that gamers can rely on”. Video games have become an outlet for breaking new bands, and for gaining exposure for bands who are looking for a wider market. Games have helped to bring publicity to new artists, such as Good Charlotte, whose song ‘The Anthem’ brought them attention after being included in Madden NFL 2003 (EA Sports 2002). Soundtracks to games sold separately as music CDs have also become increasingly popular, even reaching platinum status, such as NBA Live 2003 (Electronic Arts 2002).
Moreover, just as movie monologues are often chances for “star turns”, to show off their talents, celebrities are increasingly being involved in live-action and voice-over in games. Inevitably, fans of the celebrities may seek out the games, and help to revive interest in old movies being remade as games, such as Scarface (Vivendi Universal 2005), The Godfather (Electronic Arts 2006), etc. In much the same way the game industry is collaborating with the music industry, the movie industry and games are seeing increased tie-ins. Many popular games franchises have experienced Hollywood success (Tomb Raider (Paramount 2001), Resident Evil (Constantine 2002), Silent Hill (Focus 2006), Doom (Universal 2005), etc.). There is also increasing cross-pollination between the music of film and games. Hollywood composers such as Michael Giacchino and Howard Shore have turned their talents to scoring games. Game compositions are entering films, such as Tim Larkin’s score for Uru: Ages Beyond Myst (Ubisoft 2003), which was adopted by Stephen Spielberg for the Münich film trailer (Dreamworks 2005). There are even cases of games marketing other games, sly referencing to similar products. In Maniac Mansion (1987), a LucasArts game, for instance, a broken record plays a few seconds of the ‘Glass City’ theme from another LucasArts game, Loom (1989).
Games are also increasingly seeing audio “branding”; audio cues which remain the same or similar across several games in a series (such as the title themes, main cues, sound aesthetic, etc.) which help to brand the game. This is increasingly important with episodic or serialised games, which have downloadable add-on episodes or levels to the original game purchase. The theme song or the sound aesthetic helps the player to quickly identify the game in advertising and other marketing, and to feel comfortable with new games or episodes of a series fairly quickly.
Semiotic Functions: (convey emotional meaning, preparatory, focus our attention, identify goals, identify objects/decrease learning curve, comment, add slant/bias): Sound symbols in games help to identify goals and focus the player’s perception on certain objects. In many games, for example, the lesser enemies all have the same music, and beneficial items like gems or pieces of heart likewise all have the same or similar sounding cues. In other words, symbols and leitmotifs are often used to assist the player in identifying other characters, moods, environments, and objects, to help the game become more comprehensible and decrease the learning curve.
A crucial semiotic role of sound in games is the preparatory functions that it serves, for instance, to alarm the player to an upcoming event. Anticipating action is a critical part of being successful in many games, particularly adventure games. Acousmatic sound—that is, sound with no clear origin visually—may inspire us to look to the direction of a sound. Equally as important as the preparatory elements of game audio is the use of sound to add a slant or a bias into gameplay, changing a player’s perspective, either to help or to trick the player.
Emotional Functions (closely related to semiotic): (affect player's state, create intimacy): Here, a distinction must be made between communication of meaning through music, and mood induction: Mood induction changes how the player is feeling, while semiotic emotional aspects simply convey information. The player may receive the cue depicting sadness, without him or herself feeling sad. Mood induction and physiological responses are typically experienced when the player’s character is at significant risk of peril, as in the chaotic and fast boss music (the final major enemy of a level or series of levels in a game). A considerable amount of sound in gameplay has an emotional effect: such as to disturb or enhance gameplay, as in the increase of tempo in battle scenes, or, for instance, in the game Space Invaders, in which the four-tone descending bass line repeats at increasing tempo as the game progresses. In this way, sound works to control or manipulate the player’s emotions, guiding responses to the game.
Structural Functions : (create or reinforce structure, improve/mask structure, locate player. enchance continuity, indicate changes in narrative, situate player in game matrix): As in film, music and sound is often used in games to reinforce or improve structure and enhance continuity, but in games this structural function can go even further: For games like Vib Ribbon (SCEI 1999), the music can literally create the structure of the gameplay. Released in Japan for the Playstation, the game allows the user to put in his or her own music CDs, which then influences the game’s generation of level mapping. The game scans the user’s CD and makes two obstacle courses for each song (one easy and one difficult), so the game is as varied as the music the player chooses. Although this case is fairly unique, the potential is certainly there for using music to create structures or to personalise games. More commonly, however, music in games is used to enhance the overall structure of the game. These can include direct structural cues, such as links or bridges between two scenes, or which indicate the opening or ending of gameplay, or a particular part of gameplay. A drop to silence (the “boredom switch”) can also tell the player that they should have passed that segment of the game, that the game is waiting for a player to overcome a particular challenge or exit the area. A pause or break in music can indicate a change in narrative, or, continuous music across disparate scenes can help to signal the continuation of a particular theme.
Narrative Functions: (advance plot, locate player in storyline, foreshadow, tell us who/what/where we are, access character's thoughts, reveal goals): In many cases, audio cues can help to situate the player in the game matrix, in the sense that various locales or levels are usually given different musical themes. By listening to the music, the player is able to identify their whereabouts. Music at the end of boss scenes similarly changes momentarily to let us know we have graduated to a new level, even if physically we remain in the same place in the game. Similarly, audio is often used to locate the player in the storyline, anchoring the player in terms of where/when/what they are, as well as foreshadowing what is coming next.
Dialogue can likewise serve as a major event in the narrative (such as disclosing clues, or assigning goals). Non-verbal sound can likewise reveal details about a character—whether they are a friend or a foe, for instance, either by their musical accompaniment or by the accent/language/timbre of their voice and, voice-over narrations can let us access a character’s thoughts and feelings. They can also, therefore, help us to identify with and empathise with characters, helping to create a more immersive environment.
Immersive Functions : (add realism (emphasize real sounds, spatialiation) cover external noise, create illusion): A critical role audio plays in games is the suspension of disbelief, adding realism or creating illusion, to immerse a player in the game. The illusion of being immersed in a three-dimensional atmosphere is greatly enhanced by the audio. An important immersive element of early film was the historical function of covering distracting noises of the projector in the silent era of film. A similar function may be attributed to sounds created for an arcade environment. Arcade games tended to have less polyphony and more sound effects and percussion, as part of the necessity of the environment, which meant that the games must be heard over the din to attract players. In consoles designed for home gameplay, music may mask the distractions of the computer fan, or sounds made by the surrounding environment. The sound in a game can function, then, to help drown out or mask external sound in order to focus on the task at hand.
Kinetic Functions: (edutainment, fitness, motivation): Tied to the emotional response are the kinetic reactions to games audio—those elements designed to have the player physically respond to the sound event. Seen most obviously in games such as Dance Dance Revolution (Konami 2000), some games are designed to have players directly interact and respond with the sound. Of course, such games are fun to play, but the music is also sometimes intended as part of the edutainment role of some of these games (training basic motor skills in toddlers, for instance), or designed for aiding in physical fitness, such as EyeToy Kinetic (Sony 2005), which is clearly implicated in the marketing of these games. The sound in the case of kinetic games serves as a main motivating factor, arousing the player physically, and is also the part of the game on which the player must focus attention and with which the player interacts.
Aesthetic Functions: (genre identity, intertextual referencing, beauty, "cool factor"): In the days of the arcades, when games would compete side-by-side for quarters, sound was a critical factor in helping to entice a player to a particular game. As such, sound technology for the arcades grew far more quickly than sound for home consoles, as creators knew the value of having an attractive sound in their game. While the popularity of arcades has faded, sound is still used to create beauty or atmosphere, and can make the difference between a game being “cool”, or “uncool”. As evidence, sound and music are typically given ratings in reviews.
The aesthetics can also give us clues as to what genre of game we can expect. The introductory music to a game that is slow and soft, for instance, usually indicates the game has a slow pace and will take considerable time. Faster music is usually indicative of shorter and more action-orientated games. Certain genres of music adapt well to certain types of games, especially since different types of games have different requirements for interactivity in audio. Where sequences of gameplay are short (action shooters, for instance), the music is more likely to be scored, whereas in driving games, with less demand for direct interactivity, licensed music or longer sequences can be used.
