Author: by Staff

Doctoral candidates Sander Huiberts and Richard Van Tol have been searching for a coherent framework for game audio, hoping to help designers and developers of different disciplines communicate and expand the borders of this emerging field. Based on a review of existing literature and repertoire, the two have formulated a framework for game audio, describing the dimensions of game audio and introducing design properties for each dimension: for example, delving into typologies that draw parallels between the worlds of film and game sound: "A field of knowledge that is closely related to game audio is that of film sound. A commonly known film sound categorization comes from Walter Murch in Weis and Belton, (1985: 357). Sound is divided into foreground, mid-ground and background, each describing a different level of attention intended by the designer. Foreground is meant to be listened to, while mid-ground and background are more or less to be simply heard. Mid-ground provides a context to foreground and has a direct bearing on the subject in hand, while background sets the scene of it all. Others, such as film sound theoretician Michael Chion (1994), have introduced similar "three-stage" taxonomies. We foresee that this classification can play an important role in the recently emerged area of real time adaptive mixing in games, which revolves around dynamically focusing the attention of the player on specific parts of the auditory game environment. However, these three levels of attention provide no insight in the structure and composition of game audio." The full feature contains the complete results of the academics' research and conclusions in their effort to formulate a useful framework for game audio (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from other websites).