New Wine in New Skins - Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments - page 391

celerates. The real time strategy game Darwinia
(Ambrosia Software, 2007) features insectoid,
geometric life-forms, which produce synthetic
sounds reminiscent of actual insect sounds. These
are combined with all kinds of energetic sounds,
hums and wobbles, which are attached to static
or moving game entities, generating an entirely
emitter-based soundscape. Dyson (Kremers and
May, 2009), is an interesting hybrid between ab-
stract and concrete sounds. Planets, represented by
simple circles, have to be conquered by planting
seeds. The sounds of seeds rooting in a planet are
a combination of a soft rustle with a faint melodic
tone emanating from the planet. When seeds start
to battle, the soundtrack becomes reminiscent of
a swordfight but with a rough, lo-fidelity texture.
The different planets also emit different sounds:
The sounds emanating from the conquered planets
are ambiguous and are reminiscent of the sounds
made by machinery in a laboratory, combined with
faint beeps that oscillate between machine signals,
and crickets. Planting new seedlings emits a glass-
like, percussive sound which has no connection
to the visual representation (nor does it function
as a metaphor) but, rather, defines an experiential
quality of the interaction with the game.

-), Splinter Cell (Ubisoft, 2002 -) and Prey (2K
Games/3D Realms, 2005)-not to mention games
from the survival horror genre, such as the Silent
Hill series (Konami, 1999-2009).
Harvey and Samyn from “Tale of Tales” 14
are an independent design team who use sound
extensively to develop an interactive ambience.
The Path (Tale of Tales, 2009) is an interesting
example, as it implements a procedural, open
gameworld complemented by a distinctive sonic
aesthetic that largely builds on interactive ambi-
ence. There are no sounds for the direct interactions
with objects in the gameworld as such but, instead,
the ambience responds to the user's movements
and actions. For example, when the avatar runs,
the camera slowly moves away, the screen blurs
slightly, and sharp and more aggressive string
tones “intrude” upon the melancholic string and
piano soundtrack. Moreover a pumping, dull
sound similar to a heartbeat is played, masking
the surrounding sounds. In this way, sound fosters
a dual role in acting as the traditional soundtrack
and as a component of narration, or rather a com-
ment on the player's action, ultimately making
him feel responsible for the change of ambience
that has occurred. It enunciates the action of sus-
tained running as unpleasant, inappropriate, and
potentially dangerous. Interactive Ambience

summary: Innovation with
the Handbrake On

Interactive ambiences, as Bridgett points out, are
still an undervalued design opportunity (Bridgett,
2007b). A related aesthetical concept has been
labelled “antimusic” by Ed Lima, describing
his approach of using very little musical scor-
ing in Doom 3 (Activision, 2004) and of using
carefully crafted interactive ambiences instead
(Lima, 2005). This example shows the potential of
using just simple, two-dimensional (foreground-
background), static ambience design paradigms.
Interactive ambiences, or ambiences that are
crafted to support dramatic effects, already play a
role in some mass-market titles. An early example
is Thief: The Dark Project (Eidos, 1998). Some
other notable examples are Half-Life (Valve, 1998

The “parents” indeed have left a deep mark in the
mind of their bastard progeny: Film sound often
seems to be a lodestar for the game sound com-
munity. Like children looking for safety, many
productions are oriented towards filmic, stereo-
typical, “best practices”-after all, if it worked in
film, why should it not work for games? Certainly,
technological advances have left their mark. Some
faint voices call for an innovative exploitation of
interactive, procedural technology. But still, the
“parental” paradigms of using the technology
either to replicate film aesthetics or to “simulate