Captivating Sound
10/1/19
https://download.captivatingsound.com/Sander_Huiberts_CaptivatingSound.pdf
Five types of (classifications) immersion (42) (design of game)
Spatial - space/moving
Emotional - narrative
Cognitive - problem solving
Sensory-motoric - feedback loops of repetitious action
Psychological - immersion outside of game
Types of Involvement (43) (player’s interaction with game)
Tactical - on-the-spot decision making
Performative - control ranging from learning controls to fluency
Affective - “related to the cognitive, emotional and kinaesthetic feedback loop that is formed between the game process and the player.”
Shared - controlling a represented avatar in social space
Narrative - the player’s narrative derived from the game’s narrative
Spatial - exploration and exploitation of game space
Three Dimensions of Immersion (player’s takeaway from the game)
Sensory (45)
audiovisual stimulation of being in the game world
“The more senses pleased, the lesser external (real‐life) impulses are noticeable. Without sound in games, you notice the ticking clock, the barking dogs outside etc, distracting you from the game” (46)
Challenge Based (46)
Competing and problem solving
Imaginative (47)
“concerns the engagement with the ‘imaginary world and fantasy, game characters, worlds and story line”
“Since audio, alongside the visuals, plays such a fundamental role in the game experience, it can safely be assumed 4.1 The positive or negative influence of audio on immersion 51 that game audio can influence the degree to which players are (becoming) immersed.“ (50)
Audio in Relation to Dimension of Immersion (52)
Audio enhances a change in pace, anticipates upcoming events or stimulates action‐related tension 44 Challenge‐based
Audio constitutes an atmosphere or setting 36 Sensory/Imaginative64
Audio contributes to the feeling of presence or constitutes a world 30 Sensory
Audio induces or supports the player’s emotions 20 Imaginative
Audio improves concentration or focuses upon ‘stealth mode’ 7 Challenge‐based
Negative Effects of Audio for Immersion (53)
Wrong music
Unrealistic sounds
non-responsive/too responsive
voice acting quality
Repetitive or boring sounds/music
Lack of audio
Elements of Immersive Audio (55)
Feeling of Presence
Tele-presence / feeling of physically being in a remote or fictitious environment
Sensory Gratification
Enjoyment of audiovisual effects, music
The ‘good’ feeling/sound of scoring and achieving small to large rewards ie. headshot with ping and hit marker or victory music and confetti
“a detailed game world often contributes to a stronger connection with the game as the ‘finesse’ makes the world more convincing and pleasant” (58)
Detail through diegetic sound sources
Randomized triggers, samples, and synthesis to avoid repetition.
10/8/19
IZEA (61)
sound is capable of positioning an object that is not visible on screen in the game world (61)
Effect Diegetic
“convey the presence of game characters, objects or other instances in the Activity of the game that can be interacted with but are not in range of the avatar” (61)
other rooms or behind
Zone Diegetic
“sonify what surrounds the player and is a very useful category for adding references that are not present in the graphics” (62)
“allowing the player to imagine what is not within reach yet”
Interface non‐diegetic
“least narrative possibilities of all the categories, making this category less powerful with respect to increasing the feeling of presence.” (62)
Affect non‐diegetic
“used for adding a (cultural or atmospheric) reference that does not necessarily have to be present in the game and is especially valuable for adding references that are not visible on screen”
ie music
Sensory Immersion: Sensory Gratification (63)
Enhancing sensory gratification with dynamics
randomized soundscape
listener fatigue
volume or frequency accentuation (65)
Enhancing sensory gratification with spatial audio (66)
“In games that do not feature a world enabling players to experience a feeling of presence, surround sound can still make the experience more intense”
Sound changing through speakers or the usage of low frequencies (66)
Grenade explosions
Doppler affect
Enhancing sensory gratification with appealing audio (66)
LocoRoco (2006)
Does not reinforce “the feeling of presence” but rather the vibe or tone.
Audio Enhancing Challenge-Based Immersion (68)
Audio and the tempo of gameplay
“audio is mentioned by participants for its positive influence on challenge‐based immersion when it corresponds with the player’s actions and supports the gameplay. Fundamental to this is the relation between the tempo of (mainly) music and the pace of the gameplay”
Different pacing between strategy/puzzle (cognative) and skill (motor) based games.
“‘A brisk, repetitive march will quicken things, while romantic or New Age music tends to soften stress, relaxing the passage of time, even making it stand still.’”
“To enhance the player’s immersion, music can be used to help the player through the stages of the game that are time‐consuming or effortful. For instance, during the Engagement (the first stage of immersion), when the player is learning the controls and rules of the game (Brown & Cairns, 2004, p. 2) the audio can influence his perception of the time spent on this process.” (70)
“normal relaxed heart beat is 60 to 80 beats per minute” (70)
“The music of Zuma Deluxe (2003) is about 102 beats per minute” (70)
Fragmented music to change pace.
Similar to film scoring.
Audio and the structure of the game (73)
“‘In Halo 3 when you know its going to get hard to beat all the enemies and the music gets louder. The audio has to be perfectly synchronised with the game itself, then it feels like your in the game.’ (q87‐88:r16)”
Adaptive music
“Designers can stimulate this by making the music system interactive or adaptive and letting the music correspond with the 'peaks and valleys' of gameplay. For some games, repetition is found as an aspect that can be used in the design to comfort players when gameplay is also repetitive, although too much repetition is best avoided” (75)
Audiodriven gameplay (75)
“music can also actively drive the actions of the player”
“Vib Ribbon (1999), a game played on the Sony PlayStation that automatically generates levels from tracks abstracted from an audio CD that has been inserted into the game console's CD tray” (76)
Synchronization causes tempo to dictate gameplay (77)
“repetition can be very important to become acquainted with the game and the skills required from the player” (79)
Audio dictating the gameplay (79)
Drive
“In 2002, the audio game Drive (2002) was released at the Utrecht School of the Arts (see figure 12). It was one of the first racing games for the blind and did not include any visuals. The steering functionality of the game was excluded from the game concept, as it made racing games very difficult for blind players, but instead the focus lay on translating the experience of velocity to the auditory domain.” (80)
“As the complete gameplay system depends on sound, one of the challenges is to listen to the audio for the sound of boosters and taking action in time. When a higher velocity level is achieved, picking up the boosters becomes more difficult as the speed increases. To alternate the process of picking up boosters and make it a little more difficult extra sound effects try to divert the attention of the player. One of the used techniques was playing back audio files at the times the boosters were approaching the player. These sound instances, mainly approaching vehicles with added Doppler effect, attract the focus of the user and make concentrating on the boosters more challenging. Also, a passenger (Bob) talks to the player, making funny comments, to make picking up the boosters more stimulating.” (80)
Audio is the focus on what to react to
AUDIO ENHANCING IMAGINATIVE IMMERSION (82)
“A key aspect for the imaginative dimension of immersion is the player’s empathy with the game.”
Empathy is key to ‘total immersion’
“Music helps to hypnotize us into the make‐believe world of the film, making plausible all that constitutes such genres as fantasy, horror and science fiction. In all types of films, rather than supporting the realistic image on screen, the music allows us to sense the invisible and inaudible, the spiritual and emotional processes of the characters portrayed.” Sonnenschein, (2001, p. 155) (83)
Characters & Events
“Enhancing the empathy with characters and events”
Voice acting
verbal meaning - factual information that is said (84)
intonational meaning - the way the words are said (84)
timbre - overall actors voice in comparison to the character IE. singing computer in portal = good, big burly guy with squeaky voice = bad (85)
Weapon should also reflect character
Setting
“Enhancing the believability of the setting”
Music
‘Game’ music - 8bit like (87)
Identity of simplicity and fun
Film music (88)
Flexible, adaptive, deep
Star Wars
IMuse
Pop music (89)
identify subculture
commercial motivation
GTA and Tony Hawk = good; Devil May Cry = meh
If the song or artist is able to match the identity of the game world it works (90)
Table 7 image cap (page 93)
Story
“Audio can be used to enhance the story and this is recognised by players as positively influencing immersion” (96)
Primary & Secondary Emotions
Primary
Character
Avatar’s portrayed emotions
Secondary
Audience
Cognitive response to audio
“-Mario has a certain appeal, in general, the designers do not add a lot of emotional meaning to this character. If Mario dies, the player might be annoyed for a short while, but mostly does not empathise with Mario’s death.” (96)
Extra
“The audio storytelling during the loading screens keeps tension, presents short flashbacks or creates atmosphere, while keeping the player focused on the story, while preventing the real world or real world thoughts from interrupting.” (101)
Chart stuff (104)