Information Technology Reference
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Our auditory perception is good at interpret-
ing sounds as tokens of events. When we hear a
sound we know something has happened, matter
has interacted with matter. The sounds of broken
glass, of cars colliding, of footsteps, our own
breathing, and combustion engines all contain
information about materials, weights, speeds,
surface roughness and so on. In our everyday lives
we are constantly immersed in a soundscape that
we receive through two streams, one in the left
ear and one in the right. From day one we start
training our perception in order to be able to make
priorities and pick out the relevant information
from these two streams. Since sound reaches us
from all directions, it can be hypothesized that most
of the events we hear, we do not see. In the light
of the above, it becomes natural to use sounds as
means to convey feedback on both player actions
and other events occurring in the virtual world
of a computer game. Since sound tells us in a
totally natural way about things we do not see,
sound can be used to expand the game world far
beyond what is displayed on a screen. Sound is
very well suited for delivering the feedback and
creating the immersion necessary for successful
game concepts, as described by the GameFlow
concept above.
The use of sound to convey information about
events, creatures and things that are not visible adds
yet another dimension to the game experience:
imagination, a word originally meaning “picture
to oneself”. When we hear a sound without seeing
the sound source we make an interpretation of
what we have heard. The interpretation is based
on previous experiences of memories of and as-
sociations to sounds with similar properties. The
interpretation is often subconscious and made
without effort. To invite the players to use their
imagination, fantasy, and associations to fill out
the gaps in this way and complement what they
see on the screen is one way to make the players
emotionally and viscerally immersed in the game.
In a series of research and development projects
we have conducted investigations and experiments
based on questions related to the ideas outlined
above. These projects have shown that by shifting
the balance between graphics and other media
types and between eyes and other modalities,
games with new qualities can indeed be created:
games that attract new user groups and games
that can be used in new contexts, in new ways
and for new purposes.
In this context it is also relevant to make a
distinction between gameplay or game mechanics
and metaphor. Gameplay can be defined as the set
of rules and the mechanics that drive the game,
the game's fundamental natural laws. Metaphor
on the other hand defines the world in which these
abstract laws work. Gameplay can, for example,
define that you are able to navigate in 4 directions
called north, south, east and west, that you will
be presented with challenges you can either win
or lose, and that you win the game by winning
a defined number of these challenges. Metaphor
defines the world in which the navigation takes
place and the nature of the challenges. When
gameplay defines an abstract challenge, metaphor
can, for example, show an enemy soldier that
must be eliminated or it can present the player
with a falling egg that must be caught before it
hits the floor. A good game must have both a well-
designed gameplay and a metaphor that supports
that gameplay: both are equally important. Often,
the sound designer works with the metaphor side
of a game. The metaphor chosen dictates the
possibilities available to the sound designer. A
metaphor with a large number of natural sounds
that the players are likely to be able to relate to is
potentially more immersive than a metaphor with
few and/or unknown sounds.
two case studies
In two projects, alternative ways to balance visual
and audible stimuli in computer games have been
explored by the Interactive Institute, Sonic Studio.
In the first project, called
Beowulf
, a game for de-
vices with limited screen size, such as cell phones,
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