New Wine in New Skins - Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments - page 385

Just a chip off the Old block? labelled: How do we ensure that the wine (sound

design, 1 aesthetics) we put into the new skins (the
medium: computer games) is not mouldy, but
fresh and fruity?
To cut a long story short: I do not have a definite
answer and there probably isn't one. But a travel
through the creative history of film and game
sound, and through the consideration of some of
the intrinsic qualities of computer-based interac-
tive games, suggests several creative approaches
that could very well be a useful contribution. The
aim of the article is thus not to provide ready-made
solutions, but rather to enrich an existing discourse
by cross-fertilizing with other fields. Therefore,
those of you who believe that the journey some-
times is the reward, please read on.

You might suggest this is not a problem and, per-
haps, even quite a normal situation. In fact, once
again using film as an example, movie makers
have drawn their aesthetical points of reference
upon theatre, photography, pure document, and so
on. But the greatest advances within the medium
occurred when it developed its very own, emanci-
pated aesthetics. In their “Realtime Art Manifesto”,
Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn suggest that,
to develop a unique language for the real time 3D
medium and to avoid imitation of any old medium,
artists should: “Imitate life and not photography,
or drawings, or comic strips or even old-school
games” (Harvey & Samyn, 2006). This is prob-
ably overstating (after all, it is a manifesto!) but
still raises an important point. I suggest that the
computer game represents a young medium that
still needs to find its own, autonomous identity,
in particular concerning sound aesthetics.
I propose that an understanding of the driving
force behind the maturing and emancipation of
film sound can contribute to aesthetic innovation
in game sound design. This sounds contradictory
at first, but there are good reasons for this strategy.
In principal, I argue that film sound undertook a
similar path towards maturity. Of course, it would
be misleading and naïve historicism to think that
the aesthetic developments of film can be directly
applied to games. An examination of the history
of film sound predominately serves as point of
reference, showing what basic strategies of in-
novation could be used. Underlying principles
are carved out and translated to the realm of game
sound by relating them to specific qualities of the
medium. To this end, historical, theoretical, tech-
nical, cultural, and formal aspects of film sound
aesthetics are investigated. Ultimately, the idea
is to encourage a fresh approach to game sound
design that, although inspired by film sound in
some ways, actually detaches it from this heritage.
In this article I would like to contribute to a
discussion which is slowly emerging and could be

Overview

The first section will describe the state of the art in
game sound design, and shall elaborate upon the
reasons for the creative limitations as they stand. I
will outline the recent historical developments in
creative practice and technology while also tak-
ing the underlying discourse into account. I will
focus on significant contributions to innovations,
inspired by both the technological advances and
the innovative approaches taken by mainstream
commercial and independent developers.
Following this, the second section will provide
an overview of relevant developments within film
sound design, from the arrival of sound film to the
present day. Most importantly, it will describe the
new design strategies resulting from the “libera-
tion of the soundtrack”.
The third and final section proposes directions
for game sound design, which in particular build
upon the underlying concepts that motivated the
innovative aesthetics in game and film sound and
partially proposing entirely new approaches based
on the essential qualities of interactive computer
games and the unique experience they provide.
These propositions will also be discussed in the
light of technological approaches that could be