Unit 73 - Sound for Computer Games

L3 Extended Diploma Games Development
Unit 73 - Sound for Computer games
Tutor: Josh, Rai
Name: Wyatt, Chapman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5 Different Gaming Songs that add emotion:

Last Of Us - All Gone (No Escape)  - The aim for this song is to make the mood feel as though all hope is gone, that all the main character can do is give up. This could invoke the player to feel sad. I would say that given the atmosphere and scenery within the game, this music would suit it well within a distressing part of the story.

Outlast - Male Ward Chase - The game mainly focuses on tense moments and hiding. The music is clearly meant to spark the event that you are in the worst situation. Being chased by an asylum patient that wants to become your friend, with a cleaver in his hand, is obviously not the best situation. Of-course being a smart person, you (the player) decide that it would be best to run. to help assist your brain in realizing that you should run, this tense music suddenly kicks in to help you panic, as you drastically press every object in hope that you can hide within it.

What the developer is trying to create in short is that you have just entered an event where you must run for you life to survive, making the player panic, causing them to struggle to think about how to get away.

SlenderMan - Concealed - SlenderMan is a purely atmospheric game, that relies on eerie music, making you wonder what might be lurking in the depths of the forest. This is just one of the soundtracks from SlenderMan The Arrival. This song would make you think that you had been spotted by SlenderMan, causing you to perhaps panic. Trying to run away, when in actuality you're running towards him.

I would say that the music does achieve it's goal in creating a situation where the player starts to panic, making them paranoid.

Halo 3 - One Final Effort - Near the end of halo 3 there is a moment when you would assume that it's going to be the end, that there was nothing Master Chief could have done. Yet suddenly, this music kicks in as Master Chief thinks of an amazing way to save Cortana and everyone else.

In my opinion the maker of the soundtrack did an excellent job at conveying emotions of hope, bravery and makes the player feel pretty awesome.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Eredin, King of the Hunt - This soundtrack creates a very sinister feeling toward the enemy. That he is the heart of evil, that even Geralt of Rivia struggles to challenge. The king of the hunt. Eredin.

The intent behind the music is to make the player feel as though maybe he should be wary of the hunt, because of their cold hearted nature, followed by their powers.

Why is Music important within game development

Music and sound FX are so important within a game or film. They are used to fully create the atmosphere. Using spine chilling music, you can create a game with low graphics, yet still setup a good scene. SlenderMan for example is mainly thriller based. Nothing really happens but it builds up the music as you go longer throughout the game, to put you off of the objective and more focused on running away. Music can also assist in making the player feel more emotionally attached to a character. The Last Of Us does this exceptionally well. It's a game that is solely focused on character attachments to increase the emotional trauma of the game's story/plot.

Keywords for Sounds:

• Wavelength - the distance between crests of sound waves.
• Amplitude - Refers to the intensity of sound.
• Frequency - 
• Pitch - How high or low a tone is.
• Hertz - The unit for frequency.
• Decibel - The unit used to measure the intensity of sound.

Foley - Creating artificial sounds for films or games. an example of this would be if they had a scene where a character slapped another, then they would probably use a slab of meat and hit it with a rolling pin to create the illusion of the person being slapped.

Timbre - The quality of musical sound or voices, from the pitch to the intensity.

3 Games that use sound as information/speech:

Outlast - In outlast there are tons of chase events, the developers used music to indicate that you are being chased. They used intense fast paste music and heavy breathing. When you find a place to hide and sit there for awhile as the enemy starts to lose interest in searching for you, the music slowly starts to die down, acting as a means to let you know that it's more secure to leave your hiding spot.

Zelda - when you find a treasure chest with a new item, a small tune is activated, to inform you that you have have found an important piece of equipment.

Metal Gear Sold V: The Phantom Pain -  When sneaking around a stronghold in MGS V: TPP and become spotted by an enemy, a high pitched alerting sound will be played to inform you that the enemy is aware of your presence.