Music

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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
• Brian
  Gomez
• Simon Amarasingham

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Introductions
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Simon AmarasinghamStored in a vat of oxygenated
treacle until the year 2000.
   
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Simon AmarasinghamAfter which he and brother
Kemal founded dSonic
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Simon AmarasinghamAnd with some help from a
shaman living amongst wild Alaskan bears
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Simon AmarasinghamdSonic has grown and thrived
         
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Brian GomezDiscovered amongst ancient tribal
artifacts in the Amazonian Jungle
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Brian GomezAt an early age showed a talent for
devising bizarre traps using dung beetles
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Brian GomezA skill which was only appreciated
once Brian gave up massage therapy
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Brian Gomezand became a Game Designer
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Whats this all about?

• Audio is not generally considered part of the
  game designers tool box
• Audio is added after the designing has been done
• So there is untapped potential for gameplay ideas

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Disclaimer

• Gameplay ideas will be suggested
• Many specific ideas are not unique
• But using audio for game design is not ubiquitous

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A Complete Treatise on the Merits of
Interdisciplinary Cooperation
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mmmm...cake
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Actually much tastier when the different
ingredients are combined thoughtfully
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End of A Complete Treatise on the Merits of
Interdisciplinary Cooperation
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Why use sound in game design?
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Sound is everywhere
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Humans can only get visual information by looking
directly at something
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And most of us can only look in one direction at
a time
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Worse still, if our view of an object is blocked,
we can't see it
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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 cant do this with your eyeballs

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One point of inferiority - accuracy

• Hearing is not as good as sight for accurately
  pinpointing objects

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Use in gameplay
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A quick word on prototyping

• Even simple prototypes can teach you a lot
• Helps communicate concept
• Programming not necessarily required

Worthwhile because
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Its all in the execution
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Walking and Chewing Gum
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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

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Music can do more than one thing at a
time...Smart ass
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Music can do more than one thing at a time

• Luckily, you dont 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

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Example Ye Olde Unreal Tournamentanno
domine 2004
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• Keep It Simple, Stupid
• (when designing audio playback schemes)

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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

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Complexity

• Is tempting
• It is easy for systems to become complex with
  each added idea (feature creep)

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Complexity

• Things that seem like a good idea on paper dont
  always pan out

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Complexitye.g. automatically composed music

• Perhaps achieved by encoding the rules of
  harmony randomly generating a melody voila
  music!
• Sounds good in theory
• Many attempts

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Complexitye.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
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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

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Simple stuff can work

• E.g. Thief 2 Randomly played short
  tension-building stings under NPC conversations

• Players read meaning into the random association
  of music dialogue

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Whats the story?
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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

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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.

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Sub-text

• Game dialogue is often On-the-Nose, lacks
  subtext
• Music can subconsciously alter a players 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
• doesnt need localization

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Game-play ideas
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History of The HUD
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History of The HUD
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History of The Disappearing HUD
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History of The Disappearing HUD

• Modern consoles can deliver Visual, Aural, and
  Tactile feedback to convey situational awareness
  
• ...yet were still very focused on just the
  Visual
• Sound and Music can be used to reduce HUD
  Clutter
• Use your games 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, theres only so much sound can convey.
• I know what youre thinking. Did he fire six
  shots, or only five?

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Dirt
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Automatically generated dialogue

• Full Spectrum Warrior Clive Barkers Jericho
  both used a system to procedurally generate
  realistic in-game 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)

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Portal
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Decoy speaker

• Remember the Noise Maker Arrow in Thief?
• In a deathmatch, what if you couldnt always
  trust your ears...?
• Noise Makers of various types exist in games to
  fool AI. (And bots dont 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

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Find your way with sound

• Keep the waterfall sound in front of you

to avoid falling off the bridge when visibility
is reduced
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Learning a language
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Leave out music or SFX
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Whats stopping us?
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What's stopping us?

• The game industry is filled
• with smart, creative minds
• no problem there

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What's stopping us?

• But game designers and audio folk dont usually
  play in the same
• backyard

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What's stopping us?

• Games are usually designed first

Then audio is added later
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What's stopping us?

• This is how our processes are set up
• and processes arent easy to
• change

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What's stopping us?

• because no-one in particular is responsible

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What's stopping us?

• Here is a loop worth breaking out of!

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What's stopping us?

• But it will take some people doing things
  differently

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The Up Side

• Requires no new, complex technology
• No extra time
• No more money

• Just the same resources, organized differently,
  to create something original