Unit 73 Sound

Unit 73: Sound for Computer Games

P2 Understand the methods and principles of sound design and production 

Exercise 1.

Research and explain when you would use the following sound formats

Sound File Formats:
Uncompressed: e.g wav, aiff, au, smp, voc.
These files are used usually when the consumer wants more quality, however they have more space compared to a compression file, which makes these files very unlikely to be seen in platforms that have small storage space.

Lossy compression: e.g mp3,ra, vox.
A Lossy compression files are the opposite of a uncompressed file. The files are compressed so it doesn't have great quality, however these types of files have less storage which results in these files being used in much smaller platforms, such as the phone.

Audio Sampling
1.How can resolution and bit-depth constrain file size?
The resolution can constrain the file size by changing the size, this causes the file to either take more space or less which can effect the quality. The bit-depth can constrain the file size by having more or less (Bits) which will effect the quality.

2.Explain what the following words mean:

Sample rate- The Sample rate is a digital signal process. (The number of times an analog is measured Sampled per second)

Mono- Is intended to be heard as if it were a single channel of sound perceived as coming from one position

Stereo- Is intended to be heard as if it were two channels of sound to convey the impression of sound coming from different directions (Left, middle and right)

Surround- Is a system of stereophony involving three or more speakers surrounding the listener so that it gives a more realistic effect (Back, front, left, middle, right)

Exercise 2.

Audio limitations of games platforms

How can the following information limit the recording of sound?

DSP-Digital Signal Processor:
When a piece of information is converted to digital form, due to quantisation, some information is lost. Processing of signals involves more power consumption which leads to high cost and complex designs. It can also filter and compress the file which will effect the recording.

RAM-Random Access Memory
RAM can limit the recording by storing the information in a lossy format.

File format (e.g. Mp3, Wav, Aiff)
File formats can also limit the recording by using a lossy format. (Low quality)

Audio output (e.g. Mono, Stereo, Surround)
The Audio output can limit the recording of sound by using different sound types e.g. Surround, stereo and mono.

PCM- Pulse Code Modulation
The PCM can limit the recording of sound by compacting the information onto discs which compresses the information.

Audio Recording Systems
In what types of scenario may you use the following audio recording equipment?
For example, Multi-track recording, Midi- Multi Instrument Interface, DAT, Analogue, Software Plugins, Software Sequencer.

Multi-track recording can be used to mix sounds and software (e.g. piano, drums etc) which can also be edited solo on each track.
Midi-(Multi Instrument interface) can be used to replicate musical instruments.
DAT- Can be used to record the surroundings (Sounds)
Analogue-recording corresponds the variation in air pressure of the original sound.(The numbers have to be converted to analog signals to be able to be listened to.
Software plugin-can be used to add features to the sound track.

Sound for Computer Games

Sound for Computer Games

1. A range of music/FX sources.
Asset store
Flash kit
Free sound.org
Royalty free
Produce your own
Buy rights for a song
Ask permission

2. Video game music purposes
a. Last of us ost
The "Last of us" soundtrack is very effective when showing the emotion within the game. With the use of classical music and instruments that works well with the storyline, the player will connect better when shown a dramatic event in gameplay.  The tone of the game was intended to make it emotional for the player as opposed to being scary.The soundtrack is similar throughout the gameplay as its trying to make a sad and more emotional atmosphere. The purpose of this soundtrack is that it makes the player connect with the story and to make the player feel like they are watching a movie.

b. Mario
The "Mario" soundtrack is a classic as most people would recognize the soundtrack and know its a Mario game. The track is repetitive throughout the gameplay which makes it easy to recognize as it was an addicting game. The mood of the soundtrack makes the player seem to be more determined to finish the level, while also getting annoyed with the constant soundtrack. The track usually speeds up when your needed to be quicker, this can make the player mess up when being detracted by the sounds.

c Life is Strange.
The "Life is Strange" soundtrack has a peaceful and quite atmosphere about it, which is unique due to the opposite feeling of gameplay. This can throw off the player by tricking them with sudden change in dramatic music, this is effective as the player doesn't see it coming. At the main menu the games track sounds very peaceful and changes completely when the game starts in a storm, this makes the game seem more dramatic than it actually is.      

3. Legal considerations
The music must not be copyrighted, (unless given permission to use it/ buy rights). Can use "Royalty free" Regulations Of Com can remove ads and other media if at least one complaint were made. ASA- Code of conduct CAP-BCAP


Garage Band- Mac
Logic Pro-Mac

Audacity- Consumer
Q Base-Pro
Abelton-Pay

Audition-Pro
Sound forge consume
Soundation

Personnel

Personnel

Size of Team

In different types of games the size of the group depends on how much stuff like editing is needed. Games like GTA 5 and Skyrim are games that had a big amount of developers working on there games because of the quality and how big the game is overall. Games need to meet requirements which are deadlines and the overall quality, this effects the amount of developers on one game.

In the teams they have:

An Animator

Assistant Producer 

Audio Engineer

Creative director

External Producer

Game Designer

Game Programmer

Game Artist

Lead Artist

Lead Programmer

Level Editor

Marketing Executive 

Games that have more money gone into them, will have more than one of these developers. Usually when needed more they bring in one or two more in for that section of the games development. These are examples on what the type of developer does.

The Animator:

The Animator is responsible for the movement and the function of the game. This developer uses all that the software can give them when it comes to the animations. 

Assistant Producer

The Assistant producer is responsible for keeping watch on the development team and making sure it has good enough quality before publishing,

Audio Engineer

The Audio Engineer is responsible for the soundtrack, Including the music,Sound effects, character voices and ambient effects.

Creative Director

Creative directors are responsible for the overall look and feel for the game, They also have to check if the soundtrack and the quality is okay for the feel of the game to be good.

External Producer

External producer is responsible for ensuring the successful delivery of a game, while working externally from the development team. Its also to make sure that the game is advertised  as commercially as possible.

Game Designer

Devising what a game exists of how it plays, defining all the elements.They communicate this to the the art assets and the computer code. 

Game Programmer

Designing and writing the computer games code, that runs and controls the game.

Game Artist

Creating the visual elements of a game i.e. Characters,objects vehicles and textures.They also create concept art and story boards during production.

Lead Artist

Lead artist is responsible for the overall look of the game. And devising the visual style and directing the production of all visual materials throughout the game.

Lead programmer.

Lead programmer is responsible for Leading all of the development team that are responsible for the code which runs and controls the game

Level Editor

Level editor is responsible for defining creating interactive architecture for a segment of a game.  

Marketing executive 

Marketing executive is responsible for promoting your employers products, or service ideas. They also want to make people aware of the product through t.v, radio and the press.

Skills and Experiences

All developers have different needed skills and experiences, Most of these developers above need A levels or higher education. Others like the idea of rewards being shown through the work you are applying for. For example a Market executive has to show confidence in their actions and for applying for local activity or achievements for doing something that involves being confident will make the company want you. Also wanting to be a "Lead" of a type of development, you would have to show your a leader through hard work in the company or by showing evidence that you are a good leader before and that the team would benefit by having them.

Game Design Story Telling in Games.

Game Design Story Telling in Games.

Task 1.

Six Good Storylines in video games

Call of Duty Ghosts
In Call Of Duty Ghost the Campaign is said to have some "easter eggs" to alter the campaign a bit.

The Setting:
The Setting of the game is a war-torn U.S.A ten years after an ODIN strike launched via satellite after a hijacking devastated the landscape and invasion from the Federation, a conglomeration of several South American countries. The single player features a dog companion named Riley, fighting in outer space, a story featuring a team "Ghosts" who are remnants of elite U.S Special Operations Forces teams, and various other features.
This game was chosen to be in the top ten because it had interesting game-play and results.

Call of Duty (Zombies)
In Call of Duty Zombies, the story is an easter egg which you would have to discover to find out.

Call of Duty added some new achievements which was about zombies, They were "secret Achievements" which made players play for a longer period of time. The player has to do a range of different puzzles to get the achievement. The story is about how a man called Richtofen and how he experimented on a subject which led to the zombie out break. He gave his daughter (Samantha) a dog which he then later on experimented on, the dog then bit her and she became the leader of the zombies. Richtofen wants to become the leader of the zombies and when completing one of the easter eggs, he switches sides. On the last map "Origin" theirs a clip that you can watch when you finish the easter egg. Which you find Samantha and her friends playing a board game.

Among The Sleep
In Among The Sleep, you play as a young child which experiences bad things: a monster, darkness etc.

In the Among the Sleep you start off as a happy child that has just had its birthday, the games atmosphere suddenly changes and makes you think its the father that is the evil monster that the child is seeing. When further on in the game, more and more ideas come to the consumer that it is the farther because the mother was nice and the farther wasn't to be seen except a monster. Being a child will make things look twice the size which makes sense that it could be the farther. At the very end you go down stairs and find out that it was in fact the mother that was the monster because shes an alcoholic.
This campaign makes you think, and can make you relate to the subject in some cases.

Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider is about how she's a young frightened young woman that turns to a hardened survivor.
At the start the ship crashes and she finds her self in a cave, when she finally escapes she tries to locate the other survivors, she finds more evidence that the island is inhabited. She's armed only with raw instincts and the ability to push beyond the limits of human endurance. When the survivors attempt an escape, the captors turn on them, hunting them down and killing them.

Life is Strange




Is a choose your own story based game which also has the effect that you can rewind your chosen choice, which can make the player see both sides of an situation that just happened.

Life is Strange is about a young casual girl that isn't popular. At the start of the game she has a dream about a tornado hitting the school, which turns out to be an actual vision of the future. She then finds out later that she can rewind time, by saving her friend. This game allows the player to make their own decisions depending on what they want the game to behave like. This changes the future of the game and behavior between characters.

Command and Conquer red alert 3
Red alert 3 introduces a new faction and places some history in the campaign. 

In Red alert 3 you have three campaigns, which you play as different factions. These factions have different storylines, however you end up in the same play as before. An example of one of the storylines is the Soviets. The Soviets use a time travel to stop the Allies from winning, however this introduces a new faction, which both soviets and allies have to work together.
This game has been chosen to be second because of the 3 campaigns and the history within the game and a overall good gameplay.

Video Games that dont have storylines:

1. Pacman
2. Agar.io
3. Pong
4. Space invaders
5. Goat Simulator
6. Tetris

These video games dont have storylines as they are made to be fun and to be for causal gamers. These type of games are usually found on the mobile and PC platforms.

The difference between video game storylines and films are that in video games there interactive with the audience and can only progress by the player, while a film can just continue. Can do more types of moves and effects which a film would struggle creating. Also with video games the storyline can change according to how the player wants it to end like.
With games usually they dont require an actor playing a role and are only used for voice acting. Also with video games, hidden storylines can be placed a movie wouldn't be able to do.

A story in a film, moved into a video game.

Movie: Survivor

Characters
Sam: Works in a office, (learns about terrorists) high in work place. Hes an Inspector. Motivation: He trusts Kate and wants to keep people safe.
Kate: A New security guard that came for DC. (Likes art work) "The Underworld"          
Motivation: She had friends that died by an explosion from the terrorist attack (Nine Eleven) which she is a protector.
Bill: An older guy that also works in the office and has higher security clearance.
He is also working with the terrorists.
Fred: Is the main terrorist and is making the plans for bombs in London.
Paul: (Has a problem with Kate)
Sally: works on the computers and helps Kate when escaping.
Assassin: was hired to kill Kate as she was a witness and might cause further problems in the future. Motivation: To become a billionaire

Plot
This story is placed in London. This is about terrorists and how a woman called Kate is trying to keep the place safe. She then gets framed for something she hasn't done which the cops and terrorists want her. She has to survive and stop the terrorists from making a bigger explosion.
The terrorist wants to make another big event (like nine eleven) while making a lot of money
They wanted to bomb New York in the "Time Square" at New years

Beginning:
Starts of with a battlefield and a attack helicopter, which crashes and the pilots are taken hostage. The pilots/soldiers burn them alive. It then continues the story in London which is placed around a office which a new security guard has joined, (Which she is gifted at). She is seen as a problem to the bad guys because she became suspicious on a man that came into the office, which Bill let through, with no clearance needed. The terrorists are creating a bomb which they hope reach the office.
Most of the people in the work place dont like the main character "Kate"

Middle
When waiting for Bill to return to his birthday party, a organised bomb was activated and killed everyone inside, The main character "Kate" went to get a gift which stopped her from being blown up. Bill is the reason for the explosion, as he is working for the terrorists.
At this point they are trying to find "Kate" which they believe she might have been involved, due to her skills. Bill and Kate find each other and have a mini fight when he tries to shoot her, she then shoots him which goes online and makes her seem worse.
the terrorists have created a tracking device which they can track anyone that has one. The police have given a warrant on Kate's arrest. The online video has gone on the news and the police are looking for her.Some of the cops that are friends with Kate are looking for her or are giving her money.
The terrorists are preparing another attack that involves the bomb at the beginning. They used a sniper to blow up a building.which had no point involved. Sam is trying to insure to the workers that she is a good person, however they still have thoughts that she was involved due to the evidence and that the fact she is still running.As Kate exits the train the terrorist spots her then loses her. The cops also arrive knowing shes in the area. Kate then gets spotted which results into a chase. The terrorist know where she is due to a tracking device. She then goes to the underground station which the cops and terrorists follow then shortly while after lose her. The terrorist tries to shoot her yet fails due to the result of her stabbing him. When she escaped she broke into a flat which she finds Sam. Sam brakes the tracker, however the terrorist already know her location. The terrorist enters the location while Kate and Sam are busy looking for clues. They then collide with the man which she has to run away from. Sam gets injured from the explosion which makes her seem much of a bigger target. Sally removes the vision from the cameras which helps Kate enter and access data which she needed for a passport. when the man that was supposedly meant to kill Kate spoke to the terrorist he lied about her being alive. She then uses the false identification to go pass the airports security. Kate exits the plane and has gone to New York. They find out that she is headed to New York, however they are already to late when they make contact with the airport.

End
She pays a taxi driver to help her get out of the area to "time square". The terrorist are planning to bomb the place in a short amount of time, killing millions. They move the explosive containers to a high point of a large building, above the "Time Square"The other half of the terrorist are down below moving other containers. Kate then fights a man that came from no where and runs away into the crowd. At this point they have less than 5 minutes to execute the plan. They reach the roof and aims with the sniper at the large container. Kate reaches the top of the building in time to stop him. They have a fight which he falls of the roof. The cops final get to the roof to find her, and they investigate the area to confirm her story.