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Music & Sound as Game Design Tools Please note that images and video clips have been removed from this version of the presentation by & Simon Amarasingham Brian Gomez Introductions Simon Amarasingham Stored in a vat of oxygenated treacle until the year 2000. Simon Amarasingham After which he and brother Kemal founded dSonic Simon Amarasingham And with some help from a shaman living amongst wild Alaskan bears Simon Amarasingham dSonic has grown and thrived Brian Gomez Discovered amongst ancient tribal artifacts in the Amazonian Jungle Brian Gomez At an early age showed a talent for devising bizarre traps using dung beetles Brian Gomez A skill which was only appreciated once Brian gave up massage therapy Brian Gomez …and became a Game Designer What’s this all about? Audio is not generally considered part of the game designer’s tool box Audio is added after the designing has been done So there is untapped potential for gameplay ideas… Disclaimer Gameplay ideas will be suggested Many specific ideas are not unique But using audio for game design is not ubiquitous A Complete Treatise on the Merits of Interdisciplinary Cooperation mmmm...cake Actually much tastier when the different ingredients are combined thoughtfully End of A Complete Treatise on the Merits of Interdisciplinary Cooperation Why use sound in game design? Sound is everywhere Humans can only get visual information by looking directly at something And most of us can only look in one direction at a time Worse still, if our view of an object is blocked, we can't see it Sound has none of these problems! Sound can be heard from any direction Or even many directions at one time Sound can be heard behind other objects You can’t do this with your eyeballs One point of inferiority - accuracy Hearing is not as good as sight for accurately pinpointing objects Use in gameplay A quick word on prototyping Even simple prototypes can teach you a lot Helps communicate concept Programming not necessarily required Worthwhile because… It’s all in the execution Walking and Chewing Gum Music can do more than one thing at a time Most music involves different instruments playing together Different melodies can play at the same time Bach wrote pieces with up to 6 "voices" playing simultaneously Music can do more than one thing at a time ...Smart ass Music can do more than one thing at a time Luckily, you don’t need to be Bach Adding/removing instruments from an arrangement could convey information Health dangerously low Enemies present Ammo running out Powered up enough to use special moves etc Example: Ye Olde Unreal Tournament anno domine 2004 Keep It Simple, Stupid (when designing audio playback schemes) Designing playback schemes The first thing on the list is to design a scheme for audio playback in your game Recommend prototyping! Aim for effectiveness Try to reduce complexity Complexity Is tempting It is easy for systems to become complex with each added idea (“feature creep”) Complexity Things that seem like a good idea on paper don’t always pan out Complexity e.g. automatically composed music Perhaps achieved by encoding the rules of harmony; randomly generating a melody; voila: music! Sounds good in theory Many attempts… Complexity e.g. automatically composed music …but so far no big successes possibly because automatic schemes tend to generate similar results every time e.g. a Spirograph can make an infinite number of pictures But never this: Complexity Complexity has limits The challenge is to make systems that are simple enough for everyone to grasp Otherwise similar ideas may be abandoned on the next project Simple stuff can work E.g. Thief 2: Randomly played short tensionbuilding stings under NPC conversations Players read meaning into the random association of music & dialogue What’s the story? Leitmotif Leitmotif: (n.) 1. a melodic passage or phrase, especially in Wagnerian opera, associated with a specific character, situation, or element. 2. A dominant and recurring theme, as in a novel.1 Composers use Leitmotifs to convey story without the use of words, as well as to add layers of meaning to the visual story. Film has been doing this for years... ...but the technique is virtually non-existent in games. 1 American Heritage Dictionary Leitmotif A couple of examples: “The Force Theme” from Star Wars “Jaws” cello “Peter and the Wolf” (Prokofiev composed this for his son who wanted to hear the story without having to read it) Music speaks to us on an almost subliminal level, evokes an emotional response. We can use music to convey complex layers of story and character without dialogue. Sub-text Game dialogue is often “On-the-Nose”, lacks subtext Music can subconsciously alter a player’s feeling about characters, environments and situations Music can convey distrust, paranoia, fear, anxiety, romance, betrayal, heroism, triumph, comedy, sarcasm… With collaboration between Writers, Designers and Composers, we can say more with less, reduce exposition and hackneyed dialogue, and add depth Added Bonus: Music doesn’t need localization … Game-play ideas History of The HUD History of The HUD History of The Disappearing HUD History of The Disappearing HUD Modern consoles can deliver Visual, Aural, and Tactile feedback to convey situational awareness… ...yet we’re still very focused on just the Visual Sound and Music can be used to reduce “HUD Clutter” Use your game’s soundscape to convey: Character State (e.g. Healthy vs. Wounded, Vulnerable vs. Invulnerable, Detected vs. Hidden) Proximity to Goals or Hazards Weapon/Spell/Ability Selection Resource Levels (Health, Mana, Ammo, etc.) Of course, there’s only so much sound can convey. “I know what you’re thinking. Did he fire six shots, or only five?” Dirt Automatically generated dialogue Full Spectrum Warrior & Clive Barker’s Jericho both used a system to procedurally generate realistic ingame “banter” between characters. This system had three goals: Reduce repetitive dialogue Develop character arcs, relationships, and personalities without relying on exposition or cut-scenes Provide useful tactical information to the player without cluttering up the HUD Were these goals met? Er, sort of (game play video) Portal Decoy speaker Remember the “Noise Maker Arrow” in Thief? In a deathmatch, what if you couldn’t always trust your ears...? Noise Makers of various types exist in games to fool AI. (And ‘bots don’t even have real “ears”.) This concept works on human players, too. (And they do have real ears.) Sound-based decoys Sound of a firefight Death/Jib Sounds False “Captured Flag” Sound Find your way with sound Keepavoid …to the waterfall falling off sound the bridge in front when of you… visibility is reduced Learning a language Leave out music or SFX What’s stopping us? What's stopping us? The game industry is filled with smart, creative minds – no problem there What's stopping us? But game designers and audio folk don’t usually play in the same backyard What's stopping us? Games are usually designed first Then audio is added later What's stopping us? This is how our processes are set up …and processes aren’t easy to change… What's stopping us? …because no-one in particular is responsible What's stopping us? Here is a loop worth breaking out of! What's stopping us? But it will take some people doing things differently The Up Side Requires no new, complex technology No extra time No more money Just the same resources, organized differently, to create something original
