On a regular base, designers and students question where to find general resources on game audio. There are some websites that provide links to articles, papers and other valuable resources that are useful to start with. The list below isn’t meant to be complete and is aimed at helping you to start with finding references. Useful suggestions are welcome at all times, preferably in a comment below.
Guitar player photo by puja
This post is about an old thesis written in 2002 for the Utrecht School of the Arts, School of Music and Technology.[1] It contains guidelines for the usability of audio-only menus. It’s written in Dutch and I’d like to share some insights that might be useful for designing audio menus or audio games.
In the past years, I’ve designed quite some audio menus for audio games and supervised projects that used audio-only interaction for blind users. Below I share some of my experiences concerning these menus, and include the original recommendations of the thesis.
illustration by zkukkuiz
PrettyUglyGameSoundStudy (or PUGS) is an experiment to gather as many examples of audio in games that people consider either to be ‘good’ (or ‘pretty’) and ‘bad’ (or ‘ugly’). On one hand we wish to get a better understanding of game audio that people consider to work well in games and on the other we would like to get an overview of (typical) game audio blunders, from which the field can benefit. We hope that eventually this archive can grow out to be an inspiration (as well as the occasional good laugh) for those working in the field of game audio.
This is a document Richard van Tol and I compiled in 2006 for the GDC’06. If you’re into the experiences of blind gamers, in relation to regular video games, it can be an interesting read. There are no conclusions, it is just a compilation. Feel free to draw your own conclusions…
Continue reading “What blind gamers want the industry to know”
The IEZA framework defines the communication by means of audio in games. Richard van Tol and I published the theory of IEZA in an article on Gamasutra.
Based on our review of literature and repertoire we have formulated a framework that uses an alternate approach to classify game audio: the IEZA framework. The primary purpose is to refine insight in the communication by means of game audio by providing a coherent organization of four domains belonging to two dimensions.
The authors would like to thank Jan IJzermans for his conceptual contribution to IEZA, as well as the feedback to the article.
[Read the article about the IEZA framework at Gamasutra]
[PDF]
Dit is een artikel dat Richard van Tol en ik geschreven hebben voor het symposium eTonaal, dat gehouden werd op 27 juni, 2006. De sprekers discussieerden over muziek en nieuwe media. Mijn lezing ging over de voordelen en eigenschappen van popmuziek in games, terwijl de lezing van Kees Went ging over de nadelen van het gebruik van popmuziek in games. Het artikel dat Richard en ik schreven ging over zowel de voor- als de nadelen. Het is hieronder gearchiveerd, klik op de link hieronder om het te lezen op het mediaplatform Cut-Up.
In 2006, Richard van Tol and I visited the Game Developers Conference in behalf of the Utrecht School of the Arts. This is an (originally intended as internal) report which contains the developments in the field of game audio, after attending the audio sessions of the GDC ‘06.
Disclaimer: this is an document reporting the state of a rapidly developing field, many facts may be outdated. Mainly intended for “nostalgia” or reference! You can download the original report as PDF (Dutch) or read the article below this line, oftewel het artikel hieronder lezen: (Dutchy stuff has already started)
This is an article about visually disabled gamers written by Richard van Tol and me for the project Game Accessibility. It can be used as a very basic reference to gain understanding of the properties of this target group and the challenges that exist when designing audio games. Also, several audio games that are useful to start with when you are interested in blind gaming are discussed.
My PhD thesis on game audio and immersion will be published on this site (expected fall 2009). Enter your email address and you'll be informed of future updates on captivatingsound.com.
