Re-active and adaptive sounds in games and movies (9/4/2013)

For the following task we were asked to analyse the re-active and adaptive sounds featured in two games online and one scene from a movie. You can see my findings below.

 

Game examples:

The Last Stand:

Re-active sounds:

• When the player shoots their gun it makes a firing sound.
• When a zombie is hit the sound of the bullet going into their body can be heard.
• When a zombie dies they make a “AGHH” noise.
• Barrier makes breaking noises when it is hit by attacking zombies.
• When the zombies break through the barrier and touch the player you hear them tearing into them.
• When the player reloads their weapon it makes a reloading sound.

Adaptive sounds:

• Constant audio loop of crickets in the background.
• Zombies groan when walking towards the player.

Overall Thoughts on the effect:

• Even though there isn’t a lot of audio in this game it doesn’t stop it from being a lot of fun. The constant loop of crickets in the background may get repetitive, but it is used to contrast with the zombie attacks as it is meant to resemble the 'calm before the storm'. This is something that shouldn’t be heard when the zombies attack, but helps give a greater impact when the attack is over and the sun rises. Would have been nice though to have received audio feedback when clicking on the buttons that determine what you do each day in-between attacks. Also no foot steps are made by anyone, but I suppose this would have been distracting when accompanied with the chaotic nature of the game. 

Hong Kong Ninja:

Re-active sounds:

• When the player presses a button to attack or perform a special attack they make a swinging noise one would hear in a 8-bit game.
• When jumping a “whoosh” sound effect can be heard.
• When the player touches objects that can be picked up an 8-bit sound occurs to indicate it has been of use.
• Picking up a weapon makes an equipping noise.
• Using swords make “whoosh” sounds and firing a gun makes “bang” noises.
• When the player performs a combo they make kung fu type noises e.g. “who ha!”.
• Clicking buttons on the menu gives you feedback in the form of ‘beeps'. 
• When enemies are hit by combos they make appropriate reactions to pain and the sound of the attack is heard in order to make a audio connection.
• When enemies fall on the floor they make a “thump” sound.
• When an object is destroyed they make a breaking sound.

Adaptive sounds:

• Awesome rocking soundtrack that changes with every area.
• When cars or helicopters drive past they make the appropriate noises.

Overall Thoughts on the effect:

• A lot of audio is used in this game which helps to make it a great game play experience. It makes the game feel like a classic 8-bit beat em up game such as ‘Streets of Rage’ whilst obtaining an art style that is clearly more detailed yet retro at times. Everything the player does has some sort of audio feedback which is good as, although my last example was meant to keep an atmosphere and contrast the safe and dangerous times, this game is just meant to keep the player's adrenaline pumping the whole time with awesome music and hard hitting attacks.  

Movie example:

Wallace and Gromit – The Wrong Trousers (Train Scene):

Re-active sounds:

• As Gromit places the pieces of track onto the floor you can hear each individual piece click into place.   
• When it is time for the characters to say a line, in order to add to the comedy or drama they say the line appropriately.
• Each foot step the wrong trousers make makes a suction noise on the floor.
• Every gun shot fired by the penguin sounds like a gun shot.

Adaptive sounds:

• The soundtrack in the background starts as silence until it slowly builds up as the chase gets faster and faster, getter louder as the heroes get closer to the penguin and when their realise that they are running out of track. 
• As the toy train trails along the track you can hear the sounds of tooting and moving as you would hear with a toy of this design.
• By the end of the scene it cuts between the penguin falling from the sky and Wallace and Gromit looking up at him. The wind rushes past the penguin whilst only the sound of track being laid can be heard when focused on Wallace and Gromit. Therefore, when Gromit finally hits the wall and the penguin lands inside the milk bottle it breaks the suspense. This is closely followed by victory music.    

Overall thoughts on the affect:

• Struggling at first to pick an example since movies aren’t interactive I found out that even stop motion movies which have their sound put in afterwards can be used. You just replace player input with actor/character input. Therefore I decided to use the classic train scene from Wallace and Gromit as it remains to this day one of my favourite scenes in an animated movie.It is a prime example of both great animation and use of audio as the sound had to be incorporated into the scene after the animation. Thus the animators had to get the stop motion just right, otherwise they would mess up the scene. On top of the voice acting there is a lot of sound in this scene, the music playing in the background to build suspense, the sound of the track being laid, gun fire and the sound of a train moving all combine to make the scene even more effective and create the intended atmosphere. The time I refer to in the movie is 24:20 – 26:33. 

 

Harvard Referencing:

• Aardman Animations (1993) Wallace and Gromit - The Wrong Trousers. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKZdsPvJq60 (Accessed: 9 April 2013).
• ConArtists (Unknown) The Last Stand. Available at: http://armorgames.com/play/269 (Accessed: 9 April 2013).
• Miniclip (Unknown) Hong Kong Ninja. Available at: http://www.miniclip.com/games/hong-kong-ninja/en/#t-c-f (Accessed: 9 April 2013).