The  game is based on a swamp-soap-opera concept and has platform mechanics. One of the focus points in the game is also the dialogue. We are at the moment working with a conversation system that – during the game play – will contribute to an interactive music scoring.

More details on the actual audio design and examples will be revealed soon – so stay tuned!

As Alexander Brandon points out in the article series ‘Aural Fixation’, published on previous issues of Game Developers Magazine – some of the methods to overcome the challenges in interactive audio design are to use minimal themes and ambient tracks as a part of the music design.

Here is a summary on some of the methods:

• Minimal themes: Minor musical themes that indicate that the player is closer to a ‘treasure’ or an ‘enemy’. For instance if the game player meets a peaceful character – the music can indicate a ‘neutral’ emotional feeling. If the player then meets an enemy, who is slightly dangerous, but not lethal – then the music could indicate a ’small tension’. The music score can then be developed into different types of situations like: neutral, low tension, small tension and high tension.
• Ambient tracks: A room can have a ‘feeling’. When listening to ambient music tracks you can choose whether you want to listen ‘actively’ or ‘passively’. It can give a virtual environment character and thereby add a feeling to the visual gaming experience. An ambient soundtrack can also blend with the environmental sound design.
• More than one soundtrack: A solution to avoid repetitiveness could be the use of more than one soundtrack. This could be done by composing variations to each music or ambience piece that could change over time. Meaning that, if the player has been on the same sequence more than 10 minutes the music could slowly transform into a new piece. But this issue can be discussed much further – In my own experience the music should evolve into a different piece after only 5 minutes.
• Interactive music scoring: Difficult part in interactive music is to enhance the perceived drama of game player. A solution to this could be to trigger new themes, instruments and scales every time the player interacts with an asset that is going to have an importance for the players mission.
• Silence: Not being afraid of using ’silence’ – Silence meaning the use of pure sound effects during game play. This can be a very powerful technique.
• Close acoustic link: Create a close link between the graphics and the perceived acoustics of audio.
• Audio testing: Focused game testing on interactive audio design and audio implementation. Games testers with a keen interest and ‘ear’ for audio and music should focus on how well the musical context and sound effects work in game.

The above methods require a close collaboration with audio programmers and more innovative ways of audio integration. It is especially important to consider the newest audio technologies in the fields of:

• 3D audio positioning
• DSP
• Filtering
• Propagation simulation
• Reverberation simulation

To improve interactive audio design in games it is also crucial to exceed the existing implementation options by integrating other game engines such as:

• Physics
• Geometry
• AI

Interactive music scoring and integrating the methods mentioned are some of the solutions to improve game players audio experience. BUT it is also of great importance to implement the newest audio technology and thereby create an exceptional gaming experience for player.

My next post will be on audio testing and test procedures.

Audio – whether it be music, sound effects or dialogue – adds the extra dimension to the visual user interface. In fact when audio in a game is bad – we notice it. When audio during gameplay is exceptionally good – we also notice it!

I would like to refer to Alexander Brandon’s article series in ‘Aural Fixation’, published on previous issues of Game Developers Magazine.

One of the things that Alexander Brandon points out is that music should not always be a prerequisite in games. He writes that some game environments would infact benefit from the use of only sound effects depending on the game play and story.

Large budget games that give the player an artistic experience beyond reality, should include soundtracks, that deliver sonically interesting music that corresponds to the drama enhanced by player.

BUT the greatest challenge of audio design in games is that most game players switch of the music during game play. Regarding this issue – two questions can be asked

• Is the player ‘bored’ with the soundtrack after a while?
• Is the music not corresponding accordingly to game play and story line?
• Is the soundtrack too repetitive?

In most cases: yes. Reptition is one of the greatest challenges in games. Brandon points out some of the ways to overcome the problems of repetition in music design:

• Composition of variations to each music or ambience piece that could change over time. Meaning that, if the player has been on the same sequence more than 10 minutes the music could slowly transform into a new piece.
• Implement a more interactive music design – for instance by triggering new themes, instruments and scales every time the player interacts with an asset that is going to have an importance for players mission.
• Compose minimal themes that indicate that the player is closer to a ‘treasure’ or an ‘enemy’ – just like in movies, where the characters have themes that indicate their personality – a very famous one: Darth Vader!

To be able to implement the above – several factors have to be considered:

1. The audio design team should be involved at an early stage of game development
2. Close collaboration with audio programmers to implement the newest audio technologies and thereby developing the audio engine much further

My next post is a summary on methods to improve interactive audio design.