Video game music presentations (23/4/2013)

Today's session was nostalgic and overall a lot of fun. I was able to listen to a ton of great music and share with the group many of my favorite tracks from video games that included two examples from my most beloved music composer Shōji Meguro.

My examples included the following which you can see in my presentation slides below.

After I presented my list I then listened to the rest of the group's presentations which included a number of tracks I have never heard and so I wrote down the references in order to listen to them in my spare time. These include:

• Metro 2033 - End Theme.
• Street of Rage - Intro.
• Mortal Kombat II - Choose your destiny.
• Assassins Creed 2 - Ezio's family/Venice rooftops.
• The Hobbit - Working in the Mill.
• Final Fantasy X - Menu Theme.
• Okami - The Rising Sun.
• 8 Bit Runner - general sound that is created through the player succeeding in collecting points.

It was interesting to see how taste in music varied between the members in the group since some preferred older 8-bit tracks and others modern music. Similar to myself, the majority seemed to enjoy both equally and also loved tracks that built to something amazing.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to listen to everyone's choices as we ran out of time and had to listen to a presentation called 'Analyzing sound and music in games' before we left. The presentation looked at the 'aspects of sound' which are used in order to create effective audio in games.

• Creating Atmosphere: As the heading suggests this is to create the overall theme for the game from dark to action packed. 
• Assigning meaning to an event: This is when the appropriate sound is given for a positive or negative action the player understands it to be so e.g. a health kit should make a positive sound when used as it's giving health, not a negative sound effect. When something sad is meant to be happening inappropriate heavy metal shouldn't be played as it ruins the atmosphere unless this is intentional. 
• Appeal to a certain market: As the heading suggests this type of music will appeal to certain fans only such as rock may be used for an action game, whereas harmony for a fantasy genre. 
• Providing rhythm for gameplay: This is when the player is rewarded with sound for completing goals or collecting points. This is most obvious in the game 8 Bit Runner as it does just this.
• Cueing gameplay events: Sound that helps tell the player where a sound is coming from.
• Linked to broader set of concepts: This refers to the impact music can have on people on a personal and emotional level due to its use and build up.  

Using the above will help me to complete the latest task for next week.

The goal: To select two games from our presentation and analyse in-depth the sound used during a game level. Then do the same for a movie scene.  

The above makes me think of 'Left 4 Dead' straight away as it uses music ques for when certain types of special zombies are approaching the player. These include the Tank, a big brutish enemy that players fear due to their devastating damage and resilience. 

Our lecturer also recommend that we play 'Polynomial' which is a game in which the levels are created by the sound imported by the player. This is similar to 'Aerosurf' only its a sort of sci-fi space ship fighting game instead of a racing one.