Article on a blind teenager that plays video games using sound.
Ben Breen, 19, uses muscle memory to play games like guitar hero,
He's been able to beat his sighted friends at mortal combat games and rockband.
Ben Breen has strong GCSE's and achieved a Degree in the International Baccalaureate.
He went for a computer taster day at the Kent association for the blind and discovered a game called Grizzly Gulch Western Extravaganza. It was a simple sound oriented 4-key adventure game aimed specifically at blind gamers. He began to learn how to use a computer with screen reading software and from then on he started buying games.
He then turned to the Wii and found that if his timing was right at tennis he could return the ball without any major difficulty.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2266516/Meet-blind-teenager-Ben-Breen-cracked-video-game-world-relying-solely-sound.html
Wednesday, 30 October 2013
Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Aspects of Sound
Analysing Sound and Music in Games
Creating Atmosphere
This may set the overall theme, sound is core to making a space a place. This could be music, ambient sounds or sound effects.
Assigning meaning to an event
these are happy sounds, something that sounds rewarding to the player for example the picking up of an XP boost.
Appeal to a Certain Market
This is mostly done through music on games such as Dj hero vs Guitar hero
Providing Rhythm for gameplay
bit trip runner, this can be used in games to give the player a sense of momentum and adrenaline, or the synchronised sounds with player movements.
Cueing Gameplay Events
5.1 surround sound noises coming from a certain direction, this works great in games such as horrors.
Linked to Broader set of concepts
sound and music may have deeper contextual relevance to individuals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFGnBoS95SU I think there a 2 different kinds of atmosphere in this scene. 1 being the lighting used, and 2nd being the piano soundtrack in the background. Also as the pod is descending into a building in the city there are people singing this song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4cWPKRhwIc
This gives a really sense of importance about the place, like this is a new eden thats been created in the heavens, this place is magical. Its so relaxing and keeps the gob smacked effect in motion from the previous scene which has you floating through the city. also this song is echoing through the halls, it starts quite faint and gets louder as you get closer to it, this is guiding the character through the level and is a great example of 'cueing gameplay events'.
Once you've stepped out of the pod you find yourself walking through water with candles lit all around you, this can provide really interesting ambient and background sounds, especially with the water, there's always something relaxing about hearing water droplets. It also provides Foley sounds of your footsteps as you walk through the water. Again as you step out of the pod you get assigned an objective which has a distinct sound which is used throughout the game, its a rememberable sound and could be considered 'assigning meaning to an event' sounds and Bioshock 2 uses plenty of these in the form of 'Pick ups' throughout the game.
Once you enter the city more atmospheric sounds come into play as you can here people all around you having conversations with eachother, birds flying, church bells, and children playing around a burst water pipe. Another great feature that Bioshock does is instead of using a general soundtrack that plays in the background while your walking around the world, the game uses old radio's, so as the player is discovering the world you will hear various old fashioned songs from the 60's. Of course there not everywhere so at times all the player will here are the sounds of his surroundings.
Creating Atmosphere
This may set the overall theme, sound is core to making a space a place. This could be music, ambient sounds or sound effects.
Assigning meaning to an event
these are happy sounds, something that sounds rewarding to the player for example the picking up of an XP boost.
Appeal to a Certain Market
This is mostly done through music on games such as Dj hero vs Guitar hero
Providing Rhythm for gameplay
bit trip runner, this can be used in games to give the player a sense of momentum and adrenaline, or the synchronised sounds with player movements.
Cueing Gameplay Events
5.1 surround sound noises coming from a certain direction, this works great in games such as horrors.
Linked to Broader set of concepts
sound and music may have deeper contextual relevance to individuals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFGnBoS95SU I think there a 2 different kinds of atmosphere in this scene. 1 being the lighting used, and 2nd being the piano soundtrack in the background. Also as the pod is descending into a building in the city there are people singing this song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4cWPKRhwIc
This gives a really sense of importance about the place, like this is a new eden thats been created in the heavens, this place is magical. Its so relaxing and keeps the gob smacked effect in motion from the previous scene which has you floating through the city. also this song is echoing through the halls, it starts quite faint and gets louder as you get closer to it, this is guiding the character through the level and is a great example of 'cueing gameplay events'.
Once you've stepped out of the pod you find yourself walking through water with candles lit all around you, this can provide really interesting ambient and background sounds, especially with the water, there's always something relaxing about hearing water droplets. It also provides Foley sounds of your footsteps as you walk through the water. Again as you step out of the pod you get assigned an objective which has a distinct sound which is used throughout the game, its a rememberable sound and could be considered 'assigning meaning to an event' sounds and Bioshock 2 uses plenty of these in the form of 'Pick ups' throughout the game.
Once you enter the city more atmospheric sounds come into play as you can here people all around you having conversations with eachother, birds flying, church bells, and children playing around a burst water pipe. Another great feature that Bioshock does is instead of using a general soundtrack that plays in the background while your walking around the world, the game uses old radio's, so as the player is discovering the world you will hear various old fashioned songs from the 60's. Of course there not everywhere so at times all the player will here are the sounds of his surroundings.
Wednesday, 9 October 2013
My Top Ten Soundtracks For Games/ Game Trailers
My top ten soundtracks in a game/ game trailers
In order of which I played them:
Crash bandicoot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnPEh331aLE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WKCGCtYd3M
1:09
Crach Bandicoot is the first game I remember playing, my uncle gave it to me a long with a PS1 as he worked for Sony at the time and helped develop the game. His name is John Roberts and is in the link provided. Even today I find this game and all the other crash bandicoot games to be so much fun, sadly my uncle no longer works for Sony...
Baulders gate dark alliance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JLmmFqr6aU
Baulders Gate Dark Alliance was the first kind of fantasy adventure game I had ever played and was actually the first game I owned on PS2. It was a down looking angle similar to the Diablo franchise and used similar mechanics.
Pokemon yellow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PKoLnPzzp8
This is probably the most addictive game I ever owned on Gameboy, I played several other pokemon games after this, but I remember this one the most and found it the most fun. I can still even remember some of the soundtracks from this game.
EA Games http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPYkOMj-3iI
I remember the sound of this quite well because at the time most EA games was using this on there games, however the game I remember it most from was The Lord of The Rings. This game was probably one of my most favourite from my childhood. I think it was because at the time Lord of the Rings films were being released and I loved how the game puts you in the same scenes from the film and allows you to play characters from film and each different one witnessed a different campaign. I also think this game was one of the best games to be taken on from a film as they usually suck.
GTA San Andreas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXCRGh7_TkA
I remember putting way to much time into this game from my childhood. Even though this game was an 18 it was probably the most wanted game from young teenagers and most of them had it, I think thats what convinced my parents to actually get it for me. The soundtracks I remember best from this game was the ones used on the radio featured in the game. As I played it so much most of them just stuck in including the one in the link.
Fear http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y6UzJQjEbQ
I picked Fear not for its soundtracks but actually the sound effects and ambient sounds it uses, being a horror game it rely's on this heavily. In fact I think this is probably my favourite horror game despite it giving me nightmares the first time I played it, bare in mind I was 11 and this was an 18. one of the things I loved the most was when there was any paranormal activity around you at the time you would get some electronic interference and the sound that gave off scared me every time because you knew something was there but couldnt see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14R5EKJut90 bioshock 2
Bioshock has to be a fantastic game for sounds. One of the great editions to Bioshock games I love is that when the player is walking around there is no real soundtrack playing. What the games done instead is place radios around the game world or vending machines and old fashioned items of the 1960's which play songs from the time period which works as the soundtrack.The reason I chose the 2nd one is because I think it has a much better storyline than the first, especially people that have played the first one will understand a lot of whats going on and therefore enjoy the game more experiencing events after the first, it mentions things about Andrew Ryan for example and whats happend since he died. (spoilers)
assassins creed embers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMgryPsS5wM
Assassins Creed Embers is a short animation about 30 mins long which shows the events of 'Ezio's last moments that take place after the 'Revelations' game. Now being a huge fan of the AC games, Ezio has been in 3 of them and over the 3 years its taken for the games to come out its made you bond with this character more than any other from the games. This video is basically showing you his final moments of life before passing away, personally i would of preferred it if they made this playable instead of a video, but the soundtracks used makes the video really emotional to watch considering me, and a lot of fans have bonded with this character.
Battlefield 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_t8JYv6Q4k&list=FLllkov6ahM4hpNkoUa38qxw&index=677
Now this game (now Battlefield 4) has to be one of my top games of all time. As I'm a massive fan of FPs games this has everything you would want in one. Amazing graphics, amazing gameplay, massive maps, 64 player servers, destructible environment where you can level buildings, and the sound effets used are incredible. Especially the sounds of the destruction being shot at and destroyedm or the sound of an RPG flying past you.
Mass Effect 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiqzv8rntes
Now I actually never played the full game of this, I only played the demo which features the first mission I think. But the reason I put this on here is because the first few moments of the game are so upsetting and emotional, these massive aliens have come down the destroy your world and causing chaos everywhere. The soundtrack used in the link has to be one of my favourite ever in a game.
Wednesday, 2 October 2013
Adaptive and Reactive Sounds
Audio is probably one of the main features in games, if you took it away from games it would ruin it completely especially for immersive games where is plays a big part. In some games you may not even notice the audio or background music but if removed the game would play totally different.
Audio can also help lead the player through the game world or cause things to happen for example, you may be walking up to a corner of a corridor and a guard around the corner may here you coming and react to it.
In game sounds can be split into two types, Adaptive and Reactive sounds.
Adaptive sounds which the player doesnt effect or have control over, such as background and ambient sounds, they are triggered by the game instead of the player.
Reactive Sounds are triggered as a response from the player, such as gunshots and footsteps. They can also be triggered by player actions instead of just the player for example, throwing a rock to distract a guard.
Breaking down the adaptive and reactive sounds from a flash game and a film scene.
Thing Thing 2
The game is a side scrolling shooter in which you play a man with a gun and have to survive as long as you can through various levels.
The only Adaptive sound I could find was the soundtrack playing on a loop in the background.
The reactive sounds would be the gunshots, bullets landing on the floor, blood splatters, and picking up ammo.
Prometheus
Here is the soundtrack used in the scene which is a much better quality.
being a big Alien fan seing this scene has to be one of my best movie moments in my opinion.
I think the soundtrack plays a huge part in this scene as it gives the sense of size and power as this ship is trying to take off.
Adaptive Sounds would be the soundtrack being played, maybe things like wind and dust.
Reactive sounds consists of the sounds the ship makes, the explosions, the crash as it lands, the air the shoots out the vents as it takes off. The sound of the escape pod being launched.
Audio can also help lead the player through the game world or cause things to happen for example, you may be walking up to a corner of a corridor and a guard around the corner may here you coming and react to it.
In game sounds can be split into two types, Adaptive and Reactive sounds.
Adaptive sounds which the player doesnt effect or have control over, such as background and ambient sounds, they are triggered by the game instead of the player.
Reactive Sounds are triggered as a response from the player, such as gunshots and footsteps. They can also be triggered by player actions instead of just the player for example, throwing a rock to distract a guard.
Breaking down the adaptive and reactive sounds from a flash game and a film scene.
The game is a side scrolling shooter in which you play a man with a gun and have to survive as long as you can through various levels.
The only Adaptive sound I could find was the soundtrack playing on a loop in the background.
The reactive sounds would be the gunshots, bullets landing on the floor, blood splatters, and picking up ammo.
Prometheus
I actually wanted to get some of the footage before this clip as well as this but I couldn't find it anywhere, even this is bad quality.
Here is the soundtrack used in the scene which is a much better quality.
being a big Alien fan seing this scene has to be one of my best movie moments in my opinion.
I think the soundtrack plays a huge part in this scene as it gives the sense of size and power as this ship is trying to take off.
Adaptive Sounds would be the soundtrack being played, maybe things like wind and dust.
Reactive sounds consists of the sounds the ship makes, the explosions, the crash as it lands, the air the shoots out the vents as it takes off. The sound of the escape pod being launched.
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