Level 3 Games Design
Unit 73 understanding sound in games
Task 1 Compare and contrast
The two games that I will be comparing are
The last of us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y97u-U0nvJM
The music made in The last of us was made and created by Gustavo
Santaolalla and he is a very famous man in the games industry.
Little big planet Dead heat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRHZ0g94SoQ
Little big planets dead heat sound track was made by a man
named Barry Adamson and he is well known in the music industries.
Compare
Both of the artists are well known for example Gustavo
Santaolalla has also made sound tracks like Can dry leaves help us and Barry Adamson
has made Mr Eddy’s theme.
Both of the sound tracks don’t use much Foley as I don’t hear
many natural sounds when I listen to the sounds
I think that both tracks use Timbre but I also think that
The last of us uses more timbre than dead heat does.
Neither game ran into legal issues when they were made as
both of the artists used their own instruments to create their own sound tracks.
I think that both games music would be compressed because if
not the disc could run out of space with the full game on top of it and if this
happens it could make the game unplayable and so I think that would have made
the music file a MP3, RA or VOX file.
I believe that both games have a Mono sound track as when I listen
to them I only hear the music coming from one location and if it was stereo or
surround then it would mean that I would hear the music all around me or some
in one ear and some in the other but I done on either.
Contrast
The mood both games set are different as the last of us sets
more of a mystery type of feel to the game where as the track Dead Heat makes
me feel like the level is dangerous because of the way the tone goes in the
music.
I believe that both of the producers of these two tracks
wanted the player to feel different things for example The last of us could
have wanted to make the player think about what could happen next and this can
get the player hooked on the game as they would want to know more about what is
going to happen and the music shows this where as Little big planet’s dead heat
wants to make the player hyped and makes them feel like they need to rush and
get to the end fast or they could lose and I think that then upbeat tone of the
game shows this.
Both types of sound have a different wave length you can
tell this because if you look at the video Dead heat is a longer track than The
last of us and this could mean the Wave length is longer
Task 2 principles of sound production
I believe that The last of us used timbre more than little
big planet because in the whole thing you can hear a guitar that was recorded
and the sent through some software to create the sound track but I don’t hear
many instruments when I listen to Little big planets dead heat so I think that
it was mainly created by using software on the computer.
I didn’t hear any natural sounds like wind blowing through
leaves when I was listening to both tracks and because of this I don’t think
that they had much if any natural sounds in the tracks.
There are two types of compression (Compressed and
Uncompressed) and with these two there are different files for them for example
Compressed has MP3, RA and VOX whereas Uncompressed has WAV, AIFF, AU, SMP and
VOC. While both of these games where made on a blue ray disk I believe that
they are both compressed because of how big both games are and because of this
the game would take up a lot of space meaning that they would need as much
space as possible and so compressing the music would give them more space.
When I am listening to these games I think that they are
both MONO types of music because of the fact that I only hear the song coming
from one place and this would be MONO the other types would be Stereo and
Surround but I don’t think it is these as Stereo uses 2 speakers when recording
sound to give the impression of sound coming from one ear instead of both and Surround
uses 3-4 speakers to give the impression that the sound is all around you but
when I am listening to it I don’t feel it is these two and I think it is MONO
sound.
When they are making the game they would need to think about
resolution because the higher the resolution the more memory but it would also make
the quality of sound better and so if the resolution is too low that the sound
would be really bad and rough with a lot of static and cuts but if it is in a
high resolution then it would be better sound in smooth quality and I think
that both tracks have a high resolution in the game.
When making the sound tracks they need to think about RAM
because if the sound takes too much RAM then the game could be lagging or not
work all together and when thinking of this you could name your files different
things with short names to make them take less memory and also the game itself would
take a lot of memory and RAM.
When making the sound Gustavo Santaolalla used real sounds
like playing a guitar and then sent it through some software to smoothen it out
and they he would put it together with other pieces of music he made or found
but when finding this music you must be careful because if you take music
without permission then you could end up being sued and have the game taken
down so you must be careful.
