unit 73: Sound for computer games

Understand the methods and principles of sound design and production

Sound format files:

Uncompressed: uncompressed is usually used for a better quality sound mainly used in cinemas for surround 3d sound. this is loses pretty much no data as this is the raw cut of everything so nothing is taken away or added to it.

Wav: .Wav or .Wave is a Microsoft standard when saving any audio file once recorded, this would be used when recording any sound that you wanted, vocals/guitar ect..

aiff: this extension is the same as .Wav except this one is for mac, again it is the default save for any audio file saved on a mac

Au: au. file extension is quite an old one developed by Sunmicrosysystems and its mainly used if you are going for an 8bit style type audio in your game, this is great if you're making a retro game but pretty terrible for anything else.

VOC: The VOC file extension is tied into the Creative Labs audio hardware device, meaning that if you bought this product that would help record/mix audio anything to do with this would be linked in with the program itself meaning it would be harder to distribute. No one would use this now as this is completely outdated software and would make it hard for people to move onto working with other software.

Lossy Compression: Lossy compression is audio that loses a considerable amount of data meaning the overall quality of the sound will be considerably worse than an uncompressed version.

Story telling in games

Story telling in video games

Top ten games

1. world of warcraft is an RPG game in which you take on the roll of a massive selection of characters from humans all the way to goblins, when you've chosen your character you then get to choose there class such as a warrior or a mage and so on. finally after this you are brought into a massive world to level up your skills and meet new friends to level up with. the story behind World of Warcraft is so big that i can't even give a brief summary of the game its that big. there are 5 massive expansions added on to the main game each on progressing the story line further and further adding more and more content, you could write a handful of books from the story line in this game which is why its impossible to give a summary of the story. you can tell a lot of effort has been put into this games story line.

2. another example of this would be counter-strike, arguably the first pioneers for the fps genre. Counter-strike is an online game with no campaign missions, unlike most fps’s of today like Call of Duty. In counter-strike you either play as 1 of two teams, the terrorists or the counter terrorists. The aim of the terrorist’s side is to plant the bomb at a bomb site and make sure that no one diffuses it while the counter terrorists have to stop them from doing so. This game is heavily based around gunplay and teamwork.

3. One great example of this is the resident evil series, specifically 4 as it is regarded as one of the best ones. This game is based on a random unknown village in an unspecified part of Europe, the player is sent in to save his friend. While in the village though he finds the blood thirsty villagers trying to kill him. This game is great because it sets up a scary atmosphere very well, a lot of enemies will jump out at you creating a jump scare effect. Another way is that the game gives you very little ammo, and with what ammo you do have you have an inventory system that you have to organise to fit stuff into it. This is the handicap the game gives you. This topped with some scary and hard boss fights makes a hard and scary game.

4. Another example is Runescape. Runescape is a free to play MMORPG containing thousands upon thousands of people playing it. Set in the world of Runescape your player is sent to complete various quests for people to gain higher stats and sometimes good item rewards to use in combat. The main point of runescape is to achieve a higher level in all of your skills, for example the cooking skill, cooking food in runescape gives you experience points in the cooking skill. The maximum level you can get for a skill is 99 and this is what most players aim for in most skills.

5. Probably one of the most popular simulation games of all time is the Sims. This game is about real life and It’s as simple as that, you first of start by making a family, or just a single sim, in which you then buy a house for your sim to live in. after that you get them a job and make sure that all of their needs are fulfilled for example energy and hunger and Once you’ve done all of that you wait for your sim to die, or you could just kill them yourself as you are essentially the god of the sim world, it’s all up to you.

6. Fifa is a good sports game and arguably one of the most popular one as well. Fifa is based on its real life counterpart football, the aim of the game is two teams verse each other at trying to kick a ball into the other team’s nets while defending and attacking the opposing teams.

7. portal is a physics based puzzle game. The game involves the player traversing an abandoned science lab getting guided by a corrupt AI computer using a portal gun to get from one game to another.

8. Skyrim is quite a popular RPG game which is also a third or first person game. You take the role of whatever race and gendered character you decide to choose and embark on an adventure to save the land of skyrim from the evil dragon Alduin, along the way you meet a variety of different people and can join a variety of different societies in the game.

9.Apart from splinter cell, metal gear solid is arguably one of the most popular stealth game out there on the market. You play as snake trying to infiltrate Russia to retrieve someone from the clutch of the Russians, you must sneak your way past enemies, defeat difficult bosses and infiltrate your way into enemy strong holds all while staying undetected. Combat is hard in this game when you have alerted other guards which gives you all the more reason to use stealth to get about.

sources of music and legal considerations

Sources of music & FX and legal considerations

1. Firstly i will be listing a range of sources for music/FX the can be found in games.

you can get a variety of sound FX from stock website or free sound websites such as freesound.org these provide free sound effects completely free of copyright. you may need to do some research whether or not the website is completely true with its statement of copyright free as some websites may claim to be exactly that but are in fact in no position to distribute the sound FX. 

2. a.my first example of sound in games is adaptive sound, this is used in games to tension or to inform the player that something is about to happen for example in the game metal gear solid, when the player is spotted by an enemy there is a sharp alerting sound played and then the music is suddenly changed to a more fast paced track to make the player feel like they need to hurry to cover and hide away from the enemies. the sound can be found here

B. portal: the music in portal is very up beat and incorporates a lot of machine noises like bleeps and bloops to keep up with the theme of technology as you are in a science facility full of science and technological innovations. the music also goes very well with all the puzzles throughout the whole of the game keeping you entertained while you are trying to solve them, or when you are fighting the final boss of the game its very sinister to go along with the nature of the boss itself. the sound effects throughout the game are very cartoon like in nature and go very well with the theme of the game, for instance when you fire the portal gun it just goes so well with the portal that appears in front of you. the music for portal can be found here

C. one game in which it uses sound as information is resident evil. resident evil is a horror game based around the main character chris redfield. this type of music in the game is called linear sound, this is to help create suspense within the game and evoke a sense of fear within the player normally accompanied by breathing of the player to further create an atmosphere of fear. the sound can be found here

Survivor story and motives

Survivor

The movies main protagonist Kate abbot, is an FBI agent sent to England to work on a new case working at an airport checking people’s passports to make sure they are legit to enter the country. When she is review one person’s passport she goes to the person who is the head of the group who are searching people passports to flag her suspicions up to him, the man (Bill) then flat out refuses any accusation that the man in particular is of any concern, Kate then finds this very odd as she is just doing as she has been told, she then later on finds that Bill has stamped out 6 reports that where flagged previously for other people. These 6 people coincidentally are the 6 main antagonists within this movie. all of this i would say is the beginning to the movie, everything after this is the middle portion of the movie.

next moving on to the middle section of the movie. this part of the movie is where you find out that the UK service that Kate has been assigned to is backing Bill up with his reaction to Kates findings and that she should not stop this man from entering as his wife died because they where stopping her from entering and missing her needed medication to live. she then asks Kate for a final time if she wants to go through with this and she replies yes. then they storm off in a rage and the only one to side with her is an old boss of hers from her previous job in the states.

unit 73: sound for computer games

a. 1. Rust: there is no actual music in rust mostly for the fact that the game is still technically in development but doesn't actually suit music because it being a survival game you near to hear for important sounds such as another player footsteps or a near by animal. the sound effects mostly consist of in game noises like cutting trees or the fire of guns.

2. portal: the music in portal is very up beat and incorporates a lot of machine noises like bleeps and bloops to keep up with the theme of technology as you are in a science facility full of science and technological innovations. the music also goes very well with all the puzzles throughout the whole of the game keeping you entertained while you are trying to solve them, or when you are fighting the final boss of the game its very sinister to go along with the nature of the boss itself. the sound effects throughout the game are very cartoon like in nature and go very well with the theme of the game, for instance when you fire the portal gun it just goes so well with the portal that appears in front of you.

b. music and sound effects are so important within video games because the set us up with certain emotions that the games designers want us to feel at certain parts of the game. for example, more prominently in earlier games, there was a sequence of notes that where played that where on something called the pentatonics scale.  "Developers need a way to tell the player when they're on the right track (and preferably non-verbally, given the international nature of gaming). The major pentatonic scale is a great example of an audible reward cue: five little notes that can be played in any order for a musical motif that says, universally, "You're doing alright, kid"." (this quote can be found here). another way in which the game developers include music in games is for horror games, these sounds are called non linear sounds, these are the sort of sounds that evoke a sense of fear in the player and worry.

e. timbre simplified is the difference between two musical notes, for example experience musicians will be able to tell the difference between two of the same keys played by two different instruments, for example a piano and a guitar. even  if these notes are the same pitch and loudness.

psychology of sound

one game in which it uses sound as information is resident evil. resident evil is a horror game based around the main character chris redfield. this type of music in the game is called linear sound, this is to help create suspense within the game and evoke a sense of fear within the player normally accompanied by breathing of the player to further create an atmosphere of fear. the sound can be found here

a second example of sound in games is adaptive sound, this is used in games to tension or to inform the player that something is about to happen for example in the game metal gear solid, when the player is spotted by an enemy there is a sharp alerting sound played and then the music is suddenly changed to a more fast paced track to make the player feel like they need to hurry to cover and hide away from the enemies. the sound can be found here