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ment of interactive artefacts of everyday life, an
area of research and design which is investigated
by the Sonic Interaction Design community. 24
Understanding the possible associations of action,
sound, and object (interface and/or virtual) is of
great importance in this context. The relationships
are manifold, and very seldom do we encounter
simple analogies or isomorphisms between sound
and action. A simple differentiation could be
trigger versus constant manipulation (and their
combination). This can be further diversified into
more or less isomorphous and more or less direct
connections (for more elaborate discussion, see
Chion, 1998 and also Jensenius, 2007). These
possibilities are of specific interest to game sound
design as they contribute directly to the experi-
ence of agency, ergo-audition, and the pleasure of
self-hearing in a game. I would like to point out
here that the most simple and direct mappings are
not necessarily the most interesting and pleasing
ones. Additionally, let us always consider the use
of dynamic, procedural techniques in the design:
A gestural-sonic link may be modulated, depend-
ing upon the artefacts or the player's condition or
state, or can convey the shifting of agency from the
player to the virtual artefact or the game system
and vice-versa.
playing with form, the subversion of convention,
the unexpected and ambiguous can be essential
driving forces for innovation and engaging expe-
rience. In the long run, believing that satisfying
expectations is the only way to go, is a dangerous
error. Humans tend to get bored and eventually
prefer to be challenged (in digestible doses) and
to encounter new things. Thus, the first lesson is
to leave conventions behind sometimes and to
play! Do not just produce for the market, do not
make it too easy for your consumers and, more
importantly, do not produce for consumers but
for players.
Art and craft Meets Procedurality
Game sound design has to marry the high demands
for craft and artistic inspiration known from film
sound design with the procedurality of the medium.
Sound design for games requires not only the de-
sign of complex sounds but the design of systems
and processes that can generate, or modify them,
and embed them in an interactive, ever changing
experience. Interactive systems may also learn
from the player's agency, from the tactics and
strategies he develops while interacting with the
gameworld. Ultimately, this leads to a vision of
games not as simple event and state machines but
rather as evolving and adapting systems, always in
dialogue with the player, implicitly or explicitly.
The game system becomes another actor. 25 Of
course, this radical approach is not the only one
to take and it will not always make sense to do so.
Taking this approach depends on the experience
and of the “hermeneutic affordances” 26 that the
designers want to provide.
Real time mixing, digital signal processing,
and adaptive and procedural techniques are the
technologies that enable this development and
some game sound designers have started to move
towards this direction. This does not replace more
traditional approaches to game (sound) design but
helps to increase the breadth of possible gaming
experiences. In fact, looking at all the technology
cONcLUsION
Go Play!
In this essay, I have expressed concern that game
sound design is being restricted at an early stage
of its history to certain implicit paradigms mani-
fested in technological developments, creative
practice, and discourse. Certainly, the emergence
of a major game industry that serves a mass
market has brought many advances and benefits
to the medium. However, just as Hollywood has
experienced, this threatens to ossify the medium
before it can blossom and develop. The examples
from the history of film sound have shown that
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