Your Brain on Video Games

Thought-provoking TED talk that focuses predominantly on the positive effects of action shooters for vision-based tasks.

http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_bavelier_your_brain_on_video_games.html

The Mighty Fine Actions at DoubleFine

Double Fine’s at it again, revolutionizing things and whatnot! This time, they’re opening up their game prototyping process to the public, a process they call the Amnesia Fortnight.  There are three days left for the public to vote for what game pitches will be turned into game prototypes.  Over the next 2 weeks, there will be a live stream of the teams developing those prototypes.

This is a phenomenal opportunity to see the game design process as well as how different teams approach it.

Kinda applicable to what we're doing in class.

 For info, check their site out!

http://www.humblebundle.com/double-fine#

Pheus & Mor

http://www.kongregate.com/games/PegasGames/pheus-and-mor?acomplete=pheus+and+mor

I was talking with one of my friend's about my original game design concept and he recommended I play this game.

One of the cool mechanics in it is that you have a separate controls for both Pheus and Mor.  This allows you to manipulate both simultaneously  if you so choose.  I found it rather disorienting to manage both at once at first but I slowly got the hang of it over the course of the game.

The game has a meaningful underlying story about the love between a boy and his dog.  Its mechanics reinforce the idea that this is good and mutual as a result of each character having a different skill set that's necessary to overcome the game's obstacles.  The boy can jump and slide on the ground but cannot swim, while the dog swims in water and can break walls down.  Additionally, some obstacles require Pheus, the boy, to use Mor as a stepping stool to transcend his own limits.  Through his dog, his beloved friend, he is able to achieve greater heights than he would alone.  This height metaphor runs deep in the philosophy of the game.

Enough rambling.  Play it!

Music is My Collin in Life

Collins continues onto dynamic music composition in chapter 8 of her book, Game Sound.  She describes the four advantages of dynamic music as: 1.) the ability to create music that changes with each play-through (which therefore increases audience interest by mitigating listener fatigue) 2.) the ability to create a multicolored production by transforming themes in the same composition (increases the cohesion of the musical soundscape of a production while also allowing the composer to utilize Wagnerian concepts of leitmotifs), 3.) the ability to add new surprises and increase gameplay enjoyment (dynamic music is modular and variable; hearkens back to point #1)  and 4.) the ability to add musical elements as gameplay features.

She continues on to discuss how games are non-linear and what the unique challenges for music are  within the medium.

The most important part of this chapter is Collins' breakdown of the manipulatable factors within music.   She covers ten separate aspects of music that can be manipulated.  In order to do this, she breaks apart the fundamentals of our perception of music.  This allows us to analyze what we can change while maintaining musical cohesion, which is important because games need to be interactive and maintain user interest.

Curiously enough,  I also met Guy Whitmore, another one of Collin's references, while I was in San Francisco.  My former employer, Ric Viers of BlastwaveFX, got me into a private party at Pyramind Studios--and, looking back on it, I was actually meeting some rather big names while I was there... Still can't believe it happened.

Collin All Audio Guys

In chapter 5 of Game Sound, author Karen Collins outlines the basic scope of audio production within video games.  She covers the different stages of production for sound within games while explaining the roles and responsibilities specific to each.  As with any production, there are three stages: Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production.

This reading was a breeze for me, as this is my major focus area, and reinforced concepts that I've already studied.  The article was heavy in technical terms and concepts, though, which makes me curious as to how well received it would be to laymen.  This goes back to my lack of knowledge of how well a typical person would be able to understand and process high-concept ideas in sound design amidst a flurry of technical terms.  I'm entrenched in that world, and lack the laymen's perspective now.  

In a really geeky moment, I just want to say that I met one of Collins' cited sources, Damian Kastbauer, at the Audio Engineering Conference this past weekend.  The two of us, oddly enough, have tweeted between each other in the past.  I also attended several lectures by another one of her sources, Charles Deenan.  It is beyond peculiar to actually be able to put a face and personality on an academic source that is not one of my professors.  This is undoubtably my first time being able to do so.

Collins Chapter 8

So he talks about music/audio as changeable, so that it can and should react to both the changing gameplay and player input. He also talks about how it's important that music doesn't get too repetitive throughout a game and he outlines ten approaches to variability in music. Overall, this made me realize that music in games is much more complicated that it seems at first. There's a balance music producers have to find where the music isn't distracting to the player and it still creates a mood/feel to enhance the gameplay experience. Music is almost underrated in this sense, at least it was for me. As we learned in chapter five, it not only helps guide a player through the game, but it gives the game more meaning and makes it more immersive.

Collin 8, and more music!

Collins throws out 4 goals he believes music should strive for:
1. The ability to create music that changes with each play-through (whether he means through each level or through playing the whole game a second time I'm not sure. It seems that if the music was pre-recorded and assigned parts that the ability for it to change from the first play through would be unrealistic).
2. The ability to create multicolored production by transforming themes in the same composition. (I'd think of an example being a music score that would portray different regions and therefore be recognizable or just reflecting the theme of the overall game. aka, 8 bit music for an arcade style game).
3. Add new surprises and increase gameplay enjoyment. (This could be when a player finds a hidden item and is rewarded with the typical zelda like sound da da da daaaaa!)
4. Add elements that increase gameplay features. ( This I think of all the surprising sound effects that reinforced what is happening in the game.)

Poorly developed music is something that becomes tiring, as Collins calls it: listener's fatigue. Nothing's worse than spending time and energy in game design only to hear that people are muting your game and listening to their own music. Your score should be taking advantage of the player's sense of sound, and if it's becoming something that is mundane then the game's engagement value will suffer.

There are plenty of issues that come with sound development. A few years participating in a band or orchestra has taught me to appreciate the collaboration of instruments and timing. Within games, I've always recognized the poor transition in music, but with good transitions you'll hardly even notice. Many challenges face game sound design, the biggest one in my opinion is conflicting actions. Say a player is moving from one area to the next, each holding a different sound score, but then is encountered with a dialog scene or reward scene. Even more so, what if you have two different players each in a different scene within a game? If you had chose to play different music in different areas for multiplayer games, then there'll again be conflict.

My best suggestion for those looking to switch scenes and improve transitions between actions would be fade in and fade outs. Just like DJs, the music should seamlessly transition from one feel to another. From peaceful to battle scene and so on.

Music is probably one of the most underplayed roles in game design, which is too bad. It's probably too late in game development before inexperienced designers realize it's integration with game play.