Guidelines for Sound Design in Computer Games - Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments - page 374

emotional state may be addressed through the idea
of resonance. Finally, and although resonance
must be granted during the whole experience, the
initial moment-that is, the first resonant achieve-
ment-is particularly challenging. It is clear that it
will be harder to go from a state of no resonance
to a state of resonance than it will be (later) to
move between resonance states. The latter situ-
ation, being well designed, should allow a more
continuous transition.
To address the achievement of initial resonance,
at least two approaches can be explored. One is to
speculate about the initial mindset and emotional
state of the player and gently move from there. That
is no different from what is done in other forms of
communication: It is a good idea to perform some
sort of introduction before getting into the core of
the message. Still, the contents of the introduction
have to be tuned according to the context of the
listeners, which frequently has to be estimated.
Although this approach is technically simple it
may be ineffective due to the lack of indicators
about both the starting context and the evolution
of the process. So, a second class of approaches,
where there is some way to read indicators that
permit a better judgment about those aspects,
will allow more efficiency. For this purpose, any
known technique to dynamically infer a player's
emotional state will be useful. In the scope of
the present study we find particular relevance in
those techniques that take into account the player's
physiological rhythms, namely heartbeat, breath
rate, and brain waves because of their potential
exploitation in terms of sound (see Guideline
5). The problem with the actual reading of such
indicators is the device apparatus which is likely
to be found intrusive and, as such, contraindicated
in terms of the experience.
The relationships between emotions and heart-
beat, breath rate, and brain waves have long been
explored (for example, Atwater, 1997; Leeds,
2001). Musical examples are Shamic drumming,
that induce theta brain waves with consequent
approximation to deep sleep and trance state, and

Balinese Gamelan, which has a beat phenomenon
that generates frequencies of about 4 to 8 Hz and
this also targets the theta brain waves. Another
example, more commonly acknowledged, includ-
ing in computer games-for instance, inFamous
(Sucker Punch Productions, 2009) and Uncharted:
Drake's Fortune (Naughty Dog, 2007)-is the use
of strong beats that gradually increase in rhythm
and intensity in order to emulate the heart rate
that would match the designed emotional state.
Depending on the intended purpose, these
practices may be used to inform game design.
Once again, the acoustic elements used to design
the conditions for entrainment should fit in with
the design of the soundscape according to the
principles covered in Guideline 1.

APPLYING tHE GUIDELINEs

When we argue for the relevance of the integration
of sound in the design of interaction processes,
based on the observation of the discrepancy
between current game sound use and the value
that sound assumes in everyday life, it may seem
we are implicitly claiming for a balancing in the
gameworld similar to that in real world regard-
ing the prominence of sound in interaction. This
is not the case. We are addressing the design of
a virtual world where, in principle, there is no
reason for us to be anchored to the constraints of
the real world. So, the designer should pursue not
fidelity to reality but, rather, creativity.
Again, this should not be confused with a dis-
cussion around the search for realism, although
that is also an interesting matter to approach in
the context of this text (see Farnell, 2011). It may
be clear by now that we prize an exploration of
sound that goes beyond the concerns for realism.
We acknowledge that a rich experience does not
require a realistic approach to sound. Of course, the
ability to achieve realistic features-at some sound
layers-is interesting in the sense that it enlarges
the boundaries of the space of possibilities, but it