Open your mind (and your mouth) and learn about a new kind of game design

In the field of game design, we know a lot about designing games for a proper state of flow, but what are some of the bigger possibilities for helping players enter a meditative trance? At GDC 2017, game designer Robin Arnott will be presenting a talk on this very subject, but we wanted to get inside his head a little early and learn about the field for ourselves. 

The result was hands-down one of the weirdest streams we’ve ever done on the Gamasutra Twitch channel, but it also proved to be one of the most provocative and thought-provoking conversations we’ve been lucky enough to have. 

In particular, Arnott was able to explain the incredible value of using tone-capturing technology for his game SoundSelf that analyzes voice input and searches for usable data that can be translated to onscreen data. But it’s not just the raw levels he’s looking at.

“In terms of how I’m using that information in the design, it’s not just the tones I’m listening for, it’s the spaces between the tones, it’s the ratios of the tones, there’s so much rich data,” Arnott told us. “Even the overtones in your voice, what makes your voice sound different from mine…there’s all this rich data that we can pull from to make an experience that really meets [the player.]”

For the full conversation with Arnott, be sure to watch the video above, and subscribe to the Gamasutra Twitch channel for more trenchant conversations with game developers, editor roundtables, and gameplay commentary. 

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