{"title":"Essential Skills for Working with Developers","authors":"Noah Kellman","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190938680.003.0016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190938680.003.0016","url":null,"abstract":"There are specific technical resources that developers use that composers should also understand in order to have a productive workflow and to function as part of the team. One example of such a resource is version control, a system used to organize and track a team’s work by storing each change on a server. Though this is a surprisingly difficult resource to work with, it is discussed in this chapter in a concise and understandable manner. The optimization of audio is also a critical concept to understand when creating sound for a game. Each game has only a certain amount of hard disk space and memory allocated to the audio. Optimization is the technique of using this space as efficiently as possible so that one can achieve the desired sound without overloading the game’s resources. This chapter covers a variety of creative ways that composers can optimize their music without sacrificing quality.","PeriodicalId":325867,"journal":{"name":"The Game Music Handbook","volume":"140 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122452213","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Music in Virtual Reality","authors":"Noah Kellman","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190938680.003.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190938680.003.0012","url":null,"abstract":"Virtual reality (VR) is a platform that is only just beginning to find its footing in the consumer industry. With a highly diverse line of products available, composers are challenged with different technological specifications for each VR project. This chapter discusses how VR, as a medium, is unique, covering important concepts and technological differences like degrees of freedom (DOF), positional tracking systems, binaural audio, ambisonics, and more. It then goes on to explore some different methods for designing scores for VR.","PeriodicalId":325867,"journal":{"name":"The Game Music Handbook","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122350397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Music versus Sound Design","authors":"Noah Kellman","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190938680.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190938680.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"Each video game has its own unique, visual aesthetic, and it’s up to the composer to complement this visual world by creating a sonic atmosphere. Many of the greatest games have incorporated musical elements into their sound effects and ambiences. As the field of game music continues to grow, so does the importance of sound design as part of the composer’s skill set. This chapter explores how music and sound effects have interacted throughout the history of game music, defining these relationships for the reader in understandable terms with clear distinctions and accessible examples. This chapter explores FEZ (2012) as an example, along with a variety of other examples in which the music and sound effects were conceived with different levels of interconnectivity.","PeriodicalId":325867,"journal":{"name":"The Game Music Handbook","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124757078","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Game Engines and Implementing Music in Unity","authors":"Noah Kellman","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190938680.003.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190938680.003.0013","url":null,"abstract":"A game engine streamlines the process of game programming by including an array of built-in features that allow programmers to skip the incredibly difficult step of developing physics from scratch. By using game engines like Unity or Unreal, programmers can use the objects provided by those engines, and with knowledge of how they behave, begin creating a game almost right away. Unity is one of the leading game engines today and is particularly well-loved within the indie game economy because it is free and allows developers to easily integrate their games across multiple platforms. This chapter dives into many different audio features of Unity and how one can use them creatively, including a discussion of all of the audio components available in Unity, as well as the mixing functionality. This builds a foundation for the following chapter, which provides a practical lesson on using programming to design the audio landscape of a game in Unity beyond the limitations of the engine’s built-in functionality.","PeriodicalId":325867,"journal":{"name":"The Game Music Handbook","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133475976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Using Musical Codes to Enhance the Gaming Experience","authors":"Noah Kellman","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190938680.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190938680.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"Musical codes are musical devices, including melodies, timbres, or themes that carry predetermined associations for the listener. These types of codes have been used frequently in the world of film. However, the strange visual landscapes of video games provide composers with interesting opportunities to utilize and combine these codes in new ways to elicit different responses from the player. This chapter explores the different characteristics of sound that carry associations and how one can use these sounds to create new ones. It dives into a variety of well-known games that have used this technique and discusses the effectiveness, or conversely the ineffectiveness, of the resulting portrayal. Since codes can also be attached to a specific time period, this chapter also covers the concept of using codes in the creation of musical anachronism: using musical codes to layer multiple time periods on top of each other to blur the game’s timeline or create a stacked temporal atmosphere.","PeriodicalId":325867,"journal":{"name":"The Game Music Handbook","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122116269","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Epilogue","authors":"Noah Kellman","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190938680.003.0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190938680.003.0017","url":null,"abstract":"When it comes down to it, writing game music is an incredibly fun and enriching experience, but a career in game music can be highly competitive and difficult to navigate. This chapter explores the business side of creating game music, focusing primarily on the indie game market. The reader learns about different negotiating factors that go into a game audio contract, and is presented with practical knowledge about where and how to network. The chapter also includes information about organizing one’s workflow to achieve maximum creativity. These concepts will be illuminated through interviews with prominent composers in the field, discussing how they manage their careers and maintain good workflows.","PeriodicalId":325867,"journal":{"name":"The Game Music Handbook","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115588954","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}