Diegetic Music - Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments - page 68

not only sets visual circumstances but also event
qualities. Some pieces induce more difficult tracks
than others.

bass, for example) arranged as multiple lanes.
Color coding is often used to represent sound
timbre ( Audiosurf ). Other visualization techniques
are based on the actual waveform of the recording
or on its Fourier transformation (commonly used
in media player plug-ins and also in games). For
completeness, it should be mentioned that it is,
of course, not enough to create only a static scene
or a still shot. Since music is a temporal art its
visualisation has to develop over time, too.
In music video games, as well as in video clips,
music constitutes the central value of the medium.
It is not subject to functional dependencies on
the visual layer. Conversely, the visual layer is
contingent upon music, as was already described.
Although the visual scene typically does not show
or even include any sound sources in a traditional
sense (like those described in the previous section),
music has to be declared a diegetic entity, even
more than the visuals. These is only a translation
of an assortment of musical aspects into visual
metaphors. They illustrate, comment, concretize,
and channel associations which the music may
evoke (Kungel, 2004). They simplify conven-
tional visually marked interaction techniques. But
the interaction takes place in the music domain.
The visuals do not and cannot grasp the musical
diegesis as a whole. 3 In this scenario the diegesis
is literally constituted by music. It is the domain
of musical possibilities.
In this (its own) world, music is subject to no
restrictions. The visual layer has to follow. The
imaginary world that derives from this is equally
subject to no logical or rational restrictions. The
routings of the obstacle courses in Audiosurf run
freely in a weightless space: even the background
graphics and effects have nothing in common with
real sky or space depictions. Practical restrictions,
such as those discussed above for onstage per-
formed music (like radio reception interference,
wrong notes and so forth), likewise do not exist.
Hence, the performative quality can be at the
highest stage, that is, studio level.

the Musical Diegesis

The visual instances of musical features are
aesthetically looser in video clips. In the gaming
scenario they have to convey enough information
to put the game mechanics across to the player.
Hence, they have to be aesthetically more consis-
tent and presented in a well-structured way. Often
a deviation of the pitch-time notation, known
from conventional music scores (pitch is aligned
vertically, time horizontally), forms the conceptual
basis of the illustrations. Upcoming events scroll
from right to left. Its vertical alignment indicates
a qualitative value—not necessarily pitch—of the
event. The orientation can, of course, vary. Shultz
(2008) distinguishes three modes:

• Reading Mode : corresponds to score no-

tation as previously described and imple-
mented, for example, in Donkey Konga
(Namco, 2003)

• Falling Mode : the time-axis is vertically

oriented, the pitch/quality-axis horizontal-
ly, upcoming events “drop down” ( Dance
Dance Revolution by Konami (1998))

• Driving Mode : just like falling mode but

with the time-axis in z-direction (depth),
upcoming events approach from ahead
( Guitar Hero ).

The illustrations do not have to be musically
accurate. They are often simplified for the sake of
better playability. In Guitar Hero , for instance, no
exact pitch is represented, only melodic contour.
Even this is scaled down to the narrow ambit that
the game controller supplies. It is, in fact, not
necessary to translate note events into some kind
of stylization. Structural entities other than pitch
values can be indicated as well. In Amplitude, it is
the polyphony of multiple tracks (rhythm, vocals,