The Effects of Sound in Games

The Effect of Sound in Games

1. Dark Souls "Artorias boss fight theme"- this music has a highly ominous and threatening tone that immediately makes the player to just how tough the fight will be, it serves to intimidate the player and add atmosphere to an already brutal boss fight. But the song also has more sombre undertones to allude to the sad backstory of the boss your facing making the player also feel sorry for the boss as they slay it. This sense of sadness amidst fear of something greater than you also reflects the backstory of the boss and seems to have been done on part of the developer in an attempt to make the player feel akin to the character of Artorias as his fate of losing his mind and attacking all those he comes across parallels the fate that you have often been told you are doomed to face as an undead. I believe that the developers were successful in this as you have gained some small titbits of information on his back story and this works as a climax to bring all the pieces together. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbTI_Bzy29I).

2. Bioshock Infinite "Welcome to Colombia"- The music starts off with unsettling strings getting faster at a rapid rate which places a sense of fear into the player, reflecting what the protagonist, Booker DeWitt is feeling at the time. At the climax of the strings there is a slight pause before a calming piano piece begins, making the player feel safe and relaxed as they gaze over the new environment of the seeming utopia of Colombia. But towards the end of the song it seems somewhat sinister which makes the player keep their guard up and begin to question this supposed paradise. This is an effective piece that the developers have put in as it is deeply immersive and immediately makes the player feel what the developers had in mind for Booker. 
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8Y6_qq05Bg)

3. Silent Hill 2 "Promise Reprise"- Immediately this piece builds tension and suspense right from the beginning with its sinister and unnerving piano music. It swiftly makes the player begin to fear the unknown as they wander around the town of Silent Hill. this piece is clearly designed by the developers to make the player feel paranoia and question what’s around every corner and build up the atmosphere of isolation in a twisted and nightmarish town and does so to great effect, building tension that only heightens he player's fear and curiosity. 
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N_PXTGdlGw)

4. Metal Gear Solid 3 "Main Theme"- This song starts out quieter and uses sound effects that puts the listener in mind of a jungle, quickly giving the player a more immersive feeling for the game's setting of a jungle environment, Soon it's pace quickens and begins to play the epic orchestral section which places a sense of grand action and adventure in the player which reflects some of the more of the high action sequences the game holds. Part way through however the music it begins to slow and become less high intensity but raises the feeling of tension, in turn this reflects the main portion of gameplay as it puts the player more in mind of the stealth action that the series is famous for. It suddenly quickens its pace back to that of the intensity of the main part of the theme which seems to symbolise the way that the gameplay can shift in an instance from high tension stealth to quick passed action in an instant. After the music calms down again it becomes far more mellow and sad, alluding to the story and its more emotional moments. The music was composed by Harry Gregson Williams and serves as almost an auditory shorthand for what the game entails and how certain parts will make the player feel which I believe it does well. 
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNVCD1dsnJI)

5. Mega Man 2 “intro theme” – the opening screen of Mega Man 2 starts off at the base of a skyscraper with a soft and more relaxed opening piece of music to accompany it as text appears to give new players a basic idea on the backstory of the first game, after the text has finished the screen begins to pan upwards towards the top of the skyscraper and as it does so he music accompanying it also begins to increase in pace which helps to gradually build up the players excitement. As the screen reaches the top of the skyscraper the music suddenly increase to a very fast pace which swiftly gets the player even more excited for what they’re about to play, this use of music accompanying the game is a quick and effective way to get your player hyped up for it and more invested at the earliest possible stage which is what I believe the developer intended. I believe that the piece is highly effective at this purpose and has gone down as one of the most famous songs in gaming history.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT9DST_M_g8)

why is music and sound fx so important within games development?

Sound effects have an incredible influence on the overall game experience. While a game may be able to get by without music or dialogue, one without sound effects will be very disappointing. It’s inconceivable to think of players firing “silent” weapons or seeing soundless conflagrations erupt in their paths. Early games may have been rudimentary, but their designers always understood that sound effects are more than just entertainment. The complexity of today’s game sound has led to an entirely distinct job description and career path—involving the creation of nearly everything the player will hear.

Purpose of Game Sound Effects

Sound effects exist specifically to give feedback to players, immerse them inside the virtual realm, and provide an entertaining experience—all of which are key ingredients to a successful video game. Since a game is nothing more than lines of code and pixels of collared light, the sense of sound is what adds warmth and familiarity to what is happening on the screen. Although many current games employ 3D and even hyper realistic images, the player is still only looking at pixels; the only “real” sense fully experienced by the player is sound. Granted, players aren’t hearing a “real” bird chirp or weapon fire—but the sound they do hear is an actual recording of the real object or a close reproduction of it. Whether it is a “real” sound or not, the impact is the same and the sound plays its specific role.

http://designingsound.org/2010/10/aaron-marks-special-function-of-game-sound-effects/

What is waveform?

Amplitude: As waves travel, they set up patterns of disturbance. The amplitude of a wave is its maximum disturbance from its undisturbed position. Take care, the amplitude is not the distance between the top and bottom of a wave.

Frequency: The frequency of a wave is the number of waves produced by a source each second. It is also the number of waves that pass a certain point each second. The unit of frequency is the hertz (Hz). It is common for kilohertz (kHz), megahertz (MHz) and gigahertz (GHz) to be used when waves have very high frequencies. For example, most people cannot hear a high-pitched sound above 20 kHz, radio stations broadcast radio waves with frequencies of about 100MHz, while most wireless computer networks operate at 2.4GHz.

Wavelength: The wavelength of a wave is the distance between a point on one wave and the same point on the next wave. It is often easiest to measure this from the crest of one wave to the crest of the next wave, but it doesn't matter where as long as it is the same point in each wave.

Pitch: the quality of a sound governed by the rate of vibrations producing it; the degree of highness or lowness of a tone.

Hertz: Named after Heinrich Hertz and abbreviated as Hz or illustrated as the f symbol, hertz equals one (0.00000000125) cycle per second, measuring the waves or frequencies of electric changes each second. Hertz is commonly used to measure a computer monitor's refresh rate and in computer processors. In the picture below of a wave, one oscillation is a representation of a cycle or hertz.

Decibel level: The decibel (dB) is used to measure sound level, but it is also widely used in electronics, signals and communication. The dB is a logarithmic way of describing a ratio. The ratio may be power, sound pressure, voltage or intensity or several other things.

Sound Generation: Sound waves are generated by any vibrating body. For example, when a violin string vibrates upon being bowed or plucked, its movement in one direction pushes the molecules of the air before it, crowding them together in its path. When it moves back again past its original position and on to the other side, it leaves behind it a nearly empty space, i.e., a space with relatively few molecules in it.

Jack Foley: In 33 years jack Foley the sound-effects pioneer worked on stage 10 at universal studios, all the time he never received an on-screen credit for his own inventive and that cost his cost-saving contributions dearly, but the art he created by himself in the early days of sound technology they decided to name it after him and it is always featured in every film at all the cinemas.

Every sound we hear at the cinemas that isn’t music or dialog is always a sound effect, from the footsteps to being punched or kicked, from the clothes rustling in the wind, the sound we hear was either created by Foley himself or was placed there by a sound editor, they most likely went out and took it from a vast selection from a wide range of sound effects or they went out to record it themselves, they might have combined it with some others sounds and or altered the pitch.

Nearly all the sounds pictures have dialog and some sort of music but they are missing the noise of the movement and the sounds all around them,  soon some other the sound editors started using Foleys idea in their own movies and started to create footsteps for the actors but they would constantly use the same track over and over again, Foley then came up with the idea of projecting the moving image in a sound stage and syncing the sounds with the actors movement they started to use different surfaces and many different props they could find, it was then said that Foley could make it sound like there were three men walking by only using two feet and a cane.

WHAT IS TIMBRE?

Sounds may be generally characterized by pitch, loudness, and quality. Sound "quality" or "timbre" describes those characteristics of sound which allow the ear to distinguish sounds which have the same pitch and loudness. Timbre is then a general term for the distinguishable characteristics of a tone. Timbre is mainly determined by the harmonic content of a sound and the dynamic characteristics of the sound such as vibrato and the attack-decay envelope of the sound.

Some investigators report that it takes a duration of about 60 Ms to recognize the timbre of a tone, and that any tone shorter than about 4 Ms is perceived as an atonal click. It is suggested that it takes about a 4 dB change in mid or high harmonics to be perceived as a change in timbre, whereas about 10 dB of change in one of the lower harmonics is required.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/timbre.html

Legal considerations of using sound in games

The legal considerations of using sound in your project can be massive and when not done correctly can have massive implications and consequences. Things like copyright are one of the biggest things to take in to consideration when creating a game. Copyright is a system in which the creator of something has control over it and it can’t be used by just anyone to profit off of it. Things such as songs that are used in games often have lengthy legal processes before they are usable in the game, this is often where the creator and the people who wish to use it reach an agreement in which the creator will receive something in return for the use of their work, which most often takes the form of a fee demanded up front for its usage, royalties entitling the creator to a share of the proceeds the project generates, or a mix of the two. These agreements are a highly important part of the legal process. Another use is from royalty free sources, these are free for the public to use as they see fit. Sources of things like this include sites like freesound.org and often work based on the agreement that the creator will credited as is appropriate in the hopes of getting them publicity and recognition. Another way is to create the sounds yourself as you will not need any agreements or anything and will be able to be more independent and less likely to face any legal implications from doing so.

Shapeman assignment wayne

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GcME3iGMJaNWrvqRb9lDdFqPDAlEGg7Te6tS8e4nYnA/edit

James assignment 1

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18hshnMxDqEJ5qhW0sklWN1NsKiC_SCahpGrH6tWfV9M/edit#heading=h.gjdgxs

Stimulus

STIMULUS

What is a brief?

A brief is a set of requirements given to someone about what needs to be included in that finished products. Briefs can either be very strict with a set list of things that must be done in certain ways or very free with just a general idea of a concept, allowing the creator to be highly imaginative with what they do.

Client briefs are those given to you by the person you are working for to create their desired product whereas own briefs entail tasks and goals you set yourself to accomplish for the product.

Looking into products already on sale and other factors surrounding the market can be a great source of information to work from. Market research like this is a key part of any products development

Ideas Generation

An easy way to find inspiration and a new perspective on what you want to create is brainstorming, where by a creator will use anything that inspires them whether it’s listening to music, playing a game, looking at things others have created and much more

Mood boards are a collection of images and items gathered and placed together intended influence a person in the style they will take with what they create.

Thumbnail Sketching is a technique where an artist will sketch a small drawing as a quick way of exploring multiple ideas in a short time frame, helping them develop their ideas quickly and efficiently

Concept drawings are used to present an idea that someone wants put into the product. Concept art covers all aspects of things found in games like characters, objects, weapons, environments and much more.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

Copyright law is used by creators and artists to protect the product they have created, stopping others from simply taking their creation and using it as their own or anyone simply ripping them off in something that is created later.

Libel is a false statement put forward in an attempt to slander or damage a person or company’s reputation or public image. This can distort the view of the public and be highly damaging to the person(s) in question.

The debate about female characters in games is an old one with many people siding many different ways on the issue. Generally though games tend to over sexualise female characters by often giving them very revealing outfits or making their proportions take a very high focus with an early example of this being Lara Croft, though she herself was shown to be in control of her life and never needing to be rescued by a man constantly creating the conflict between the ideas of whether she’s an example of the objectification of women or not

Things such as race, religion and other factors have to be approached very cautiously when creating a game as not to create a product that is deemed offensive by anyone in order to avoid negative repercussions.

Creating concept art for video games

Creating concept art for video games

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WMjRhleRhw-BK4VqYVxVxi2en0ZLLTgOail9gkYGFNs/edit

Josh Assignment 1

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HaeAY_aEaJBxYlv8sBEr1EYtFFJkHBhJm5sGmtkVAMo/edit

Assignment 1 Wayne

Part 1
10 Genres and examples

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yna4d4sXhJ6CN7CX4SXi5LMdA2PmPeH7-0t9Ci2qLKU/edit

Part 2
ETHICS: Impacts of computer games on society, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

With games being more popular and mainstream than ever before the chances of someone getting hooked on one of these games to a dangerous degree is far more likely and even common in places such as South Korea. Examples of this type of addiction can have dire consequences with cases of people suffering fatal health problems like heart attacks or blood clots, other cases have been involve the death of a child due to neglect by their parents.

Other effcts that an excessive amount of playtime can have is to create an environment of social isolation, leading to a negative impact on social skills. in turn this may create a lack of socialization making them feel isolated in public and unable to communicate well in person. in turn this can cause them to isolate themselves further, retreating back to the games they've became hooked on for their faux social interaction. This feeling of only being comfortable within the life they've built in the game can also lead to health problems as the more time spent within the game the less time they have to maintain proper physical activity, showing the links between social isolation and an excessive amount of playing time.

Feeling the need to support this new virtual life they have created for themselves and stay ahead of the competition, they most likely will invest a rather large amount of money into having the best gaming rig that they can. This trend is far more predominant among PC gamers, who will often spend vast amounts of money on but a single component within their PCs. other costs of gaming can be things like a subscription service to play a game such as that employed by the popular MMORPG World Of Warcraft. A more underhand tactic often employed by games developers is to place "free to play" elements within their games, tempting the player to buy additional content and wearing the player down till they eventually give in and purchase the bonus content. in concept this practice is perfectly justifiable within the context of a game that is actually free to play as the developers do need to make money off of their product and the customer has not payed to play, but these elements have recently been making its way more and more into games that retail anywhere up to £50 with "free to play psychology" being a somewhat controversial topic within the games industry at the moment.

Despite all these factors gaming has a remarkable amount of benefits from how it can affect a persons way of thinking to things such as better hand eye co-ordination. Gaming has been proved to improve a persons reaction times, how many objects someone an track at once and strategic thinking thanks to things like RTS games and puzzel games particularly when introduced at a young age. Games have also been proven to help older people, helping them with their memory and focus. Games consoles such as the wii also help players to get a good exorcise and lose weight.

Part 3
Game Concept Sketch
Box character armor and obtainable armor set, Vagantem Lupus armor.

The tattered cloak around the head and shoulders connotes much use and due to its placement suggests its purpose may be to protect against less favorable weather such as rain or to conceal identity. The cloak beneath the armor plating is designed to link into the backstory to the armor set as it is from a land to the north, Yorossa, a land home to many mercenaries and sellswords. The lengthy blue coat under the armor grants some additional protection from the cold (a hint at its hidden higher defense against frost damage), this armor has a striking similarity to that of an infamous mercenary, its silver color has faded and dulled over time time. the placement of smaller pieces of less heavy plate armor means it provides adequate defense whilst leaving the user able to move fairly unrestricted. (a hint that this armor is designed for a lighter mid defense combat rouge type build)

Early game boss (eleventh out of twenty four regular bosses and one secret boss), Consuming Demon

One of the many demons to be released onto the earth when the seven hell gates were opens this is a fast moving demon with razor sharp talons and a barbed tail, it has four arms each with three claws designed for ripping through enemies, each attack does piercing damage instead of magic or crushing damage. one of its attacks is an animation where each of its arms grabs one of the player character's limbs and its torso opens up to reveal rows of fangs and teeth that bite at the player and then spit them out again if they still have health remaining. after the boss dips below 55% health it will start to spit acid from its torso mouth that lands as a blob on the floor and slowly does up to 345 damage whilst beginning to slowly eat away at the weapon degradation bar. this boss is designed to be tough to use a tank class again as it has a 20% chance of ignoring armor and a 40% chance of ignoring parma shields, 30% chance to ignore regular shields and a 15% chance to ignore greatshields. This boss is weak to lightning damage and resistant to magic damage.

End of game boss (twenty fourth out of twenty four regular bosses and one secret boss), Fallen King Raime

A once near god like figure with a seemingly endless lifespan, the old King Raime heralded an age of prosperity across nine kingdoms after coming to power, raising an army and overthrowing the magus tribes controlling the lands. A boss with good defences in all areas with particularly high resistance to all elemental damage types save for dark which he has a slightly lower resistance, thus making that his weakness. he has a higher defence against against crushing physical damage meaning players using weapons like maces or war hammers will find the battle harder than players using weapons with higher piercing damage like swords. when the boss' health goes down to 40% health he will change into his second form with his health going up to 90% again. tendrils will burst from his body and begin to wrap around his body and left arm, the hand he holds his sword in with some covering his sword making it in itself more corrupted and grotesque. his damage output will increase by 35% but he will become significantly slower. his defense against dark slightly but his defense against holy and lightning damage will fall in proportion to this. upon further fighting him further and lowering his health to 30% he will change into his third and final form, where more tendrils burst and change his form into a huge, unevenly proportioned monstrosity inspired by Dark Souls' Manus Father Of The Abyss. His attack patterns change and once again become stronger, but now loses no speed. his defense drops slightly in all areas making it easier to deal him damage. upon defeating him the player will a highly distorted sentence among his death scream where he will thank the player. through out the fight the player will hear him making strange noises and sounds that are sentences that have been reversed and edited to sound more demonic, these will be thngs like warnings to the player where he will tell you to get away quickly, or him asking you to kill him. showing some remnants of the former kings humanity within the twisted husk he now inhabits.

It's visual style is a mixture of photo realistic and exaggerated as it features more realistic looking textures, objects and characters but also incorporates a lot of unrealistic fantasy elements such as the creatures, enemies, environments and many other things scattered throughout the world.

Part 4

game: Dying Knights
genre: rpg fantasy hack 'n slash
Dying Knight is a dark souls inspired game in which your creatable character awakens battered and bruised in a dark forest with no idea where you are, how you got there, or even who you are as you quest onward in search of answers you see that the world you find yourself in is dying and decaying with a once proud civilization all but crumbled before you. as you journey on you find that small pockets of the former kings own sorcerers guild had brought about this apocalypse by dabbling in black magic and eventually opening up 7 gates of hell, releasing countless demons and corrupting the souls of man, giving some horrifying new forms. you must carry yourself forward through these dark times to seal these gates and stop the endless flow of darkness consuming the world, with few sane humans left you must decide whether they will wish to help you or harm you in their own branching character quests. with a wide range of both human and demonic enemies and you being all nearly entirely alone in this bleak once great land the challenges you face will be great your strength will be tested. the main bosses are 3 arch demons summoned when the hell gates opened, a corrupted high priest, the fallen kings guard, the monstrous malevolent corrupted queen, and the final boss being the old king himself, now almost unrecognizable and filled with both demonic and angelic powers as you try to defeat him to seal the final hell gate to save the land as an attempt to reclaim your identity but on your journey in this new nightmarish land you learn that even as you come across those finding you familiar, its not who you were that matters now, but who you will become and the legend you will craft

the gameplay will be heavily centered around the combat, with fast and flowing movements added to its more methodical style of medieval combat, making the player think about how they're going to approach each enemy and what the best equipment for the job is. there will be a wide range of damage types with two purely physical ones (crushing and piercing) worked better against different types of enemy, as well as elemental damage types such as fire, lightning, frost, holy, dark, and poison each infusable on to weapons for bonus damage and effects against enemies. on top of that there will also be a large amount of attribute types used to upgrade your character, with the player being given a starting class with certain attributes that the player can then freely upgrade or ignore entirely allowing them to create a build unique to them. there will also be no restrictions on any class being able to wear certain types of armor or use certain types of equipment leaving more freedom for the player to shape the character how they so choose. another aspect of this will be the customizable character creation where a player will be able to change how they look to suit themselves.
Another key part of the game will be the focus found within its boss fights. these boss fights will be designed to be challenging, making the player focus at all times and have to come up with strategies to defeat each one. the sense of triumph upon vanquishing one of these bosses should feel highly rewarding, making the player feel as if they've over come a great challenge