10 questions

So what did you think of the assignments?

How would you rate the assignments in terms of difficulty?  Look at them both, and just tell me which ones were easy, which ones were harder.  Or were they both easy or both hard? if so, can you give me an example of a subject you’ve learnt? 

For 3 in one gaming you did 2 games .. (so answer two out of the following three questions)

In the Space invader game, name one thing you learned during its development.  
In the maze game name one thing you learned during this assignment.
In the card game name one thing you learned during this assignment.

Right, here’s a slightly off the wall one:  did you learn any maths during this experience?  These assignments?

Do you think you gained any maths when you did any puzzles for the maze game? 

How do you rate your maths?  Give us a scale, are you good?  
What GCSE grade have you got etc?

How hard did you find the maths during these assignments?

Do you think your opinion’s towards maths has changed?

 - I think that the assignments, for this specific lesson, are harder and sometimes even unfair for the people who want to focus mainly on the artistic side of things, since not everyone knows how to code yet (even though later on it becomes a requirement that you know at least the basics, this is only the first year).

 - The assignments vary on difficulty depending on how you approach them. I always try to make things easy for myself, while still working at a somewhat high level in terms of quality of work. Anyway, imo, the first assignment was harder because it involved more coding. Also because I made BrainBox for the second assignment.

 - In the space invader game, I learned the visuals don't matter, as long as the gameplay makes up for it. In the maze game, I learned that you can make even two random subjects work perfectly fine, aka maths and maze type.

 - No.

- I guess my maze game is good for practicing puzzle solving, so yes?

 - 7/10, pretty damn good at common sense, the more complex stuff don't get my attention enough for me to try. I got a C grade in the higher paper in maths, without revising at all throughout the year, not even for the exam.

 - Not hard at all.

 - No.

Unit 73 - sound for computer games

BTEC Extended Diploma in Games Development
Unit 73: Sound for Computer Games
Assignment 2
Plan

This is my version of Brainbox, which is the game I chose for this assessment.

As we can see it has sort of a dark theme, with all those dark colours, purple, different shades of grey, and others. We can feel like a tense mood with all the spiders and the webs, etc. The platform for the game is PC.

To record, I will mainly be using a shotgun microphone, and I will also import sound effects that I will be creating on an electric piano. This means stereo recording.
The plan is to create 2 soundtracks which are going to be simple loops of melodies, as well as up to 4 different sound effects (death sound, picking up purple shards, going through a portal and unlocking a lock).
I'll try to make the melody loops appropriate to the style of the game, and while the other sound fx can be a bit more random, my aim is also to keep them somewhat relevant to the game. I haven't decided which sound fx I will be creating with the Foley technique and which ones I will be importing from websites that provide copyright free content (eg, freesound.org) and then later on edit them.

I will be mainly using mp3 and WAV file formats, since they are the best in terms of quality and space at the same time, and also they are the most popular, which means any software that I may use will definitely support them. For editing, I will use multiple options of editing, from the easy ones such as cropping and looping, to the harder ones such as bass, pitch, fade, speed, etc...

Execution
I'm going to post some screen shots of me editing and mastering the sounds for the game as I go, so here are they:

snd_bass.mp3

This is from one of the melody loops. For both of loops, I added a finger snap sound effect that works as the beat. In the pictures above and below, it already shows the melodies with the beat added to them. We can also see that one of the things I changed was the pitch, obviously among a few other modifications.

snd_guitar.mp3

Below are the other sound effects

snd_deathsound.mp3

This is the deathsound that plays obviously when Brainbox dies. It's very short and simple, and didn't take much mastering because it wasn't needed.

snd_portal.wav

Portal sound effect. Plays every time you go through a portal in the game. Just like the deathsound, it's quite short BUT it did take some mastering. The initial sound was achieved by me punching an empty paint bucket. I then proceeded to edit that sound, mainly adding a lot of bass, as well as distorting and changing the pitch, etc.

snd_shards.wav

This is the sound effect for collecting shards. It sounds like a soul being captured in the game Dark Souls, and that was kind of what I was going for. This sound effect was super easy to make and didn't take much mastering other than cropping and fading.

snd_unlocked.mp3

This is the sound effect for when you unlock a metal locker. It's short and it also didn't take much editing except for some pitch and bass changes.

Results

I will post a video with gameplay, showing the sound effects all working properly.

Meanwhile here are some screenshots with proof that I actually managed to put them in the game and make them work:

And here is the video showing that all the sound fx are working properly:

Evaluation

Overall I think I did a good job. I stuck to the plan (created two melody loops and four additional sound effects that went good with the sinister/mysterious, dark style of the game) and in the end it turned out great in my honest opinion. I really like the sounds that I've created and I think each one of them is appropriate for what they were used for. What I think I did well and at the same time think that I could've improved, were the melodies, especially the bass melody. I really liked it, and I think it was perfect for the style and for the mood of the game, but I could have added more to the loop itself, although I really liked it nonetheless.

However, even though the sound does fit the game quite well in my opinion, when I was planning it felt like it was going to fit it even better. I thought about using piano sounds as the looping melodies, but instead I ended up going with bass and guitar. Maybe if I would have chosen the piano instead, it would've turned out better in the end, but still, I'm honestly quite happy with the outcome of the bass and guitar, especially bass.

Another couple of improvements that I could make would be turn up the sound of the "souls" (the picking-up-shards-sound-effect-thing), since in my opinion was too loud before I changed it, and in the end I turned it down a bit too much I think; and last but not least, I think the guitar was a bit too loud, and the rhythm was kind of failing. If you actually pay attention, you can easily notice that the timing is off in the guitar melody in the first like 3 notes, but no biggie.

In conclusion, and keeping in mind that I've never done this before, I'm very happy with what I've done and I'm confident that I will get a good grade.

Unit 13 assignment for Caitlin

H1Z1

Oh how we all love and hate this game. How we wish a title with such a huge potential would be fixed once and for all. In this post, I'll be talking and explaining in more detail what is it about the promising game, H1Z1. The ironic thing about this post is that I have never played this game ever... - although, i have been following it from the beginning, watching people play it and reading articles and reddit posts about it. Needless to say, the only reason I never played the game it's because I don't have a good enough PC.

So, H1Z1 has two different gamemodes, i guess you can say. 1 is King of the Kill (KotK, before they split the two gamemodes, it was called Battle Royale) and the other one is Just Survive (JS). I'll be talking about this later on this post.

H1Z1 has been the center of attention, both for good and bad reasons (mostly bad reasons) since the open alpha version of the game was released back in early 2015. The reasons why there's been such a big drama are numerous - from the community hating the developers for being a money grabbing company, to hating the changes in the game, etc.

Let's start from the beginning. DayBreak, the developers and publishers of the title, firstly said, before the early alpha release, that the game would be free to play, nothing, you didn't have to pay a single pence to play the game. Later on, it all changed. They charged £14.99 for the early alpha access, which although it's a rip already (i mean, why would you pay to play a game that's not even finished yet, that will have numerous bugs and issues, and "will" end up being free to play when it's finished?) it's still comprehensive, since if the early access was free, there would be too many people connecting to the servers for example, creating chaos. But then, the unexpected (or expected happened). With the huge success (or over-success) of the game becoming super popular and hyped up, especially by the streaming community on twitch, DayBreak announced that the game would no longer be free to play once it was fully released. Outrageous. The community was very angry at the developers, and they had the right to be. The devs were turning out the be money grabbers, according to the fans.

Still within the same topic, since the game had two different communities all along (one that played the game for JS, and the other one for Battle Royale) the devs decided to split the gamemodes, having one different team of devs for each specific gamemode, which is understandable, since they had been struggling with all the issues within the game. Now, some people really liked the split, and thought it would be beneficial for the game, some didn't like it and here's the main reason why: when DayBreak splitted the game, people who didn't have the game yet would now have to pay twice the amount of money, £15 for King of the Kill and another £15 for Just Survive, which again, it's a money grabbing move by the devs. It was once said that the game would be free to play, then people had to pay a total of £30 if they wanted to play the two gamemodes... - in the early alpha version. Not to mention, by now, there were multiple, optional micro-transactions in the game already. Again, outrageous.

Some of the other reasons why people hate the game and the company it's because of all the bugs and glitches that the devs are apparently too lazy to fix, or to even try, and all the general issues with the game, from hackers to broken and over-powered features in the game that could and should easily be fixed, promised new features to get more money from the players, the fact that it seems like the devs care way more about the KofK gamemode when initially people got hyped up for the JS gamemode, etc.

 In conclusion and what people don't understand is that: H1Z1 is still in early alpha. The game is NOT done yet. Yes, there will be bugs and game-breaking glitches, YES there will be cheaters, yes there will be multiple issues with the game. And we all have to admit, the devs are smart for availing the popularity of the game, in order to make profit, even though, they lied to us. We just have to be patient and hope that the game comes out as the master-piece we want.

3 in one gaming assignment

For this assignment, i chose to create the maze game, or BrainBox game. It's a maze/puzzle game, with maths in it, aimed at 16 YOs doing their GCSEs. It's purpose is to help the students practising grade C maths problems.

The reason why i picked this game, it's because i'm not very good at coding, and what i want to do in the games industry isn't really around coding. Also, i feel like this game gave me more freedom to make it look good.

Here is a gameplay video of it:

And here is a video showing everything that is in the game, sprites, objects, rooms, etc:

Unfortunately, i don't have a video with feedback from other people that played the game, as the file for that video corrupted - although, i do have their reviews or/and written feedback:

Player 1: " I was quite impressed with the game, although, more with the graphic/looks side of things, rather than the actual gameplay - even though, it wasn't bad at all, i also enjoyed it, but yeah, i think the game looks really good. It was overall a very creative idea, with lots of original puzzles and mazes. The only thing i think could be improved is Sound - as there is none, and gameplay mechanics - as it's a little buggy. But overall, i really enjoyed playing the game."

Player 2: " The game is brilliant. I love how it looks - it's almost as if it was made by a somewhat known company - and i like how it plays too - especially the levels in it, there's lots of creativity. What i enjoyed less was the fact that there were no animations, the game kinda felt unfinished - if it had for example moving animations (as well as sound too) the game would have been even better! In conclusion, i really liked the theme of the game, as well as my overall experience. Also the fact that this is only his second game ever, it's mind blowing, in my opinion."

Assignment 1 - Understanding the use of music within games and the methodology of recording and production

Task 1

Compare and contrast the following Console game music (The Last of Us - Home and Halo 2 main theme).

The Last of Us - Home:

This is a song that i picked from the The Last of Us soundtrack, called Home. I chose this song because of its beauty - literally one of the most beautiful things i've ever heard, ever. It comes up right before the ending of the game, when Joel and Ellie are going back to Joel's home. I think the song is perfect for the scene because it sets the correct mood and gives the right emotions and feelings that you should be getting in that situation and that the devs wanted you to get. The song gives mainly a nostalgic feeling - of the town that Joel used to live in but had to leave - as well as quite a sad feeling really - because of the reasons why Joel had to leave the town. It also gives the impression of pain - that Joel has for what happened in that town - missing and last but not least, change.

Sound theory and Psychology:  Starting with the theory of sound, waveform, this song is smaller in terms of wavelength and amplitude and has less waves in terms of wave frequency. The song also has a low pitch compared to Halo's song. This results in the song being much more slow paced and much more quiet.

Just like any other game, sound is crucial in Last of Us. It's what gives you all the feelings and emotions throughout the game. Without the soundtrack / if the soundtrack wasn't this good, the game wouldn't have been even close the success it had. In this case, as i said, it gives us all the emotions and feelings and sets the mood for the scene - nostalgia. The nostalgic feeling is also what makes this song symbolic/iconic. The levels of sound or loudness, are pretty low which is perfect in my opinion since it's such a "delicate" song that's trying to also set a sort of more calm mood.

Audio Environment: Here's a video of the scene, from 15:27 till the end of the video:

As we can see they are in like a forest, entering the town. The song doesn't have much to do with the forest environment - it's more to do with "Joel's" town, so the song fits the atmosphere perfectly, as i said before, because we should be getting the feeling of nostalgia and sadness, whilst we see them going back Home - that's what they (the producers) wants us to experience.

Sources, game music and legal issues: For this song, there's nothing really to talk about the sources. The composer is from Argentina, but there's nothing in this song that tries to tell you that - even though some of the other songs in the soundtrack do. They also originally developed all the songs in this game - specifically for the game, so they didn't have to worry about legal issues, eg copyright issues or any contracts (the team that made the game, or even Sony are the ones that kept the rights for the soundtrack). Game music: as i've talked about before, this song's purpose in the scene is to create a mood and to make the player adapt to it as well as the plot. Also, in the game, the song has an intro sequence, mid and end sequence in a loop, going through sequences as you advance in the scene (although the song i linked doesn't show it, it's in the game).

Halo 2 - main theme:

This is the Halo 2 main theme song. It's like a remix of the original main menu song for the game. It's a very different song compared to Home from The Last of Us, both in terms of genre and purpose, and other minor factors that i'm going to talk about. In my opinion, it's a good song, but doesn't fit the game style/genre - this is because of the guitar part. Now don't get me wrong, it's a good song, but it just does not feel appropriate for the game in my opinion. With that said, the purpose of the song is to mainly give us the feeling of action.

Sound theory and Psychology: This song is bigger in terms of wavelength and amplitude and has more waves in terms of wave frequency, making the song louder, faster paced, with more beats and melodies. This makes it very, very different from the previous song we've looked at, since it has pretty much all the opposite characteristics from it. About psychology: this song doesn't really create any major emotions - although, it creates the mood of epicness and action. The song is kind of loud too, which helps with the mood.

Audio Environment: The song doesn't really have anything to do with the environment, since it's a menu song. Its "audio environment purpose" would be to get the player more into the game i suppose. What the producer wants us to experience is: the mood - epicness and action. This is one of the main differences between both songs, since this one doesn't really apply to any environment, just the main menu, when the first song does apply to an environment.

Sources, game music and legal issues: Again, not much to talk about the sources. The song was originally developed by them - they most likely own the copyrights to the whole soundtrack too. The purpose of the song, as I've said before is to set the action mood in the intro sequence - main menu - so that the players kinda get a feel of what to expect from the game. The first song is a bit more complex in this subject, but they're both similar.

Task 2

Using the clips above discuss the methods which could have been used to record and produce the music and why.

Song 1:

- Sound design methodology: The song was fully, originally developed in a studio, with mainly real instruments (and minor tweeks with a computer).

-Sound Tile formats: Uncompressed, so that the quality is better (since it's a song). The file format would most likely be WAV, since it's one of the most used for music because of the quality of sound and because of also being an uncompressed file format. If it's compressed (which is unlikely but possible), the file format could be mp3.

-Audio limitations of game platforms: The game was made for multiple platforms, and it was also remastered onto newer, more advanced consoles. This makes file size, as well as sound quality, formatting and other settings vastly inaccurate to talk about.

-Audio recording systems: Digital. There were most likely more than one recording system used to record the song, as well as edit it.

-Audio sampling: This song has higher resolution, so therefore higher bit depth, which makes the song larger in size. The sample rate is also surround sound, which is top quality, affecting the size of the file.

Song 2:  

- Sound design methodology: The song was fully, originally developed in a studio, with both real instruments and tweeks with a computer.

-Sound Tile formats: Either compressed or uncompressed (didn't find info on this). If uncompressed, WAV for the same reasons above, if compressed mp3, again for the same reasons.

-Audio limitations of game platforms: Depends on the file format (which i don't know).

-Audio recording systems: Analogue. (Again, wasn't able to find enough information for this.)

-Audio sampling: This song however, doesn't have much of a high resolution, which means less bit depth. The sample rate is stereo sound.

Exercise 1

Research and explain when you would use the following sound formats and why:

Uncompressed: wav, aiff, au, smp, voc.

• WAV: this sound format can be played by nearly all Windows applications that support sound. WAV files also always have little-endian byte order. Large in size. Would be useful for music files, since it also has high quality.
• AIFF: Commonly used for storing and transmitting sampled sound. It has a high quality of sound. Very similar to WAV, so this file is good for music because of the large size format and the high quality.
• AU:  the standard audio file format used by Sun, Unix and Java. Can be either used for music or simple sound fx, due to its size.
• SMP and VOC can be used for sound effects. Most applications and devices don't support these sound formats.

Lossy compression: mp3, ra, vox.

• MP3: this sound format has good quality and small size, perfect for storing music files. Since it cuts out parts of the file that are inaudible, this sound format is not good for voice storage.
• ra: Often used as a streaming audio format, so it's perfect for internet videos, or radio stations.
• VOX: good for storing voice files or simple sound fx. It's an old sound format, so nowadays it's not really used at all.

How can resolution and bit-depth constrain file size?

The bigger the resolution and the more bit-depth, so the bigger the size and quality, the bigger the file size will be.

Sample rate: The number of samples of audio carried per second on an audio file.

Mono: When you hear sound as if it's coming from one position.

Stereo: When you hear sound as if it's coming from 2 positions, left and right.

Surround: When you hear sound coming as if it's coming from multiple positions.

Unit 73 - Understanding Sound design theory

a. Listen to at least 5 different pieces of gaming music/FX

#1 - SCP Containment Breach - SCP - 106 Theme Bump in the night ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixBBZdrMXAI )

This is a theme song for a horror video game, called SCP Containment Breach. Briefly explaining, this game is about escaping a building that keeps a lot of unknown and/or inhuman creatures who are dangerous to us in a "safe" place, away from us. Although, in the game there is an accident and most of the creatures break free. This ambiance song comes up when you get to a certain point in the building i believe. 
It's quite mysterious, creepy and intense. In my opinion it's almost perfect to the game, since the game is also quite mysterious because of the creepy, unknown creatures wondering around. It's perfect to set the mood and ambiance for the game and it really gets you into it - or out of it, because it might be too creepy for some people. I wouldn't choose any other ambiance songs, although this one could have more sound effects in it, to make it even more scary.


#2 - Slender Man soundtrack pages 1 through 8 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk6ycfBOwHs )

This is the background song for the game Slender the eight pages. This game involves you being alone in a unknown forest at night, wondering around whilst being chased by SlenderMan. In order to complete the game you have to collect eight pages spread around the map without dying. You interact with this song by collecting pages - the more pages you collect the more and more sound effects are added to the song and therefore it only gets creepier and very intense.
The idea for this song was pretty damn good. The adrenaline starts building up at a lightening fast pace as you pick up pages, which makes you really want to complete the game and obviously not die at the same time, plus the game gets harder and harder - this is just what you want in a horror themed video game.

#3 - Slender Man Dead Sound Effect ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiS9Db2XY6w )

This is the sound effect of when you die in Slender the eight pages. It sounds like some sort of flicker or static. It's a very iconic sound, everyone knows it and you hear it you know immediately where it's from. It's really good for the game in my opinion and it really gets you.

#4 - Burnout 3 Takedown soundtrack ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuNnWNa1gtA )

This is my favourite game of all time, and one of the reasons for that it's because of the soundtrack. It's perfect for this game. I'm not even a fan of the genre, but it suits the game so well that it doesn't even matter. This game is a racing game, that contains a lot of destruction and crashing. The gameplay is also perfect in my opinion which is also why the soundtrack works. There is a game mode in this game that it's called road rage, and you basically take other players down by bumping into them and making them crash. Favourite game mode of all time, not only because of the gameplay but again, the soundtrack makes it the perfect arcade game.

#5 - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive headshot dink sound.

I couldn't find this sound effect anywhere for some reason, but it's pretty much a dink sound when you shoot someone in the head in counter-strike. It fits the game perfectly because it sounds quite rewarding, and that's something you expect from this game.

Why is music and sound FX important in video games?

Without sound, everything would be boring...

Sound in video games is as important and sound in films for example. It's a huge factor that gets you into the game. From ambiance sounds or songs to simple sound fx of a moving character, sound is what makes the game speak to you, tell you what's going on and make you feel as if you're in the game. Without sound fx and music, games would feel dull and just simply would not be fun at all.

What is waveform, (wavelength, amplitude, frequency) ?

- Wavelength

The wavelength of a wave is the distance between a point on one wave and the same point on the next wave.

-Amplitude

The amplitude of a wave is its maximum disturbance from its undisturbed position.

- Frequency

How many waves are produced.

What is Foley?

Foley is the art of producing sound effects for films or video games for example, sounds that sound like something in particular, but aren't actually real and have been produced in a studio.

What is timbre?

Each sound has a different timbre. Timbre describes the quality and tone of a particular sound


P1 Understand the use of Sound and Music in Games.

List at least 3 games (or films) which use sound as information (speech, iconography, symbolism and or metaphors) to convey information.

#1 Counter-Strike

Sound in Counter-Strike is crucial. It's quite hard to play without sound, and you probably won't do well at all. There are a lot of sound FX in CS, from footsteps that let you know where the enemies are, to gunshots that let you know which gun the enemy is using to grenades that give you an idea of what the enemy team is planning on doing. Sound provides you with a lot of information that will be very important to win rounds. There's even decoy grenades that allow you to trick the enemy, making them think you are somewhere else. Not to mention communication in the game, which is also essential.

#2 Boogeyman

This game is recently becoming quite popular. It's a horror game based on sound. Similar to Fight Nights at Freddy's, you are a kid sitting in your bed, and you're trying to survive from the claws of the almighty Boogeyman. There is four ways that he can sneak into your room, and you have to listen to the sounds of the entrances in order to prevent him from entering... with your flashlight... which is the only thing that the Boogeyman fears, i mean, obviously. Each entrance (the four entrances are the window, door, closet and vent by the way) make a different sound that you have to react to, but there's a twist: there are a lot of other, irrelevant sound FX that try to distract you from hearing the important sounds, making the game harder. You also run out of batteries in your flashlight, and have to pick up more batteries from under your bed, making yourself vulnerable to the scary, Boogeyman.

#3 League of Legends

In League of Legends, sound can be a huge factor. There are many players that turn the sound effects all the way up and all the other sounds down, just in order to have a faster reaction time so they can out-play their opponents. For example, each character in the have abilities, and each ability produces a distinctive sound effect, so when you hear an enemy producing a certain sound, you know they are casting an ability and you know what to expect. There is also sound for communication in the game, for example to warn team-mates that they are in a bad position, or to say that you're going to make a certain play.

1. List a range of music/FX sources

Royalty Free, Asset store, Produce your own content, Buy the rights from author.

2. Explain the purpose of music in 3 games

#1 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - ambient music

The background music and nature sound FX play a big factor in this game, giving it a better feel for it and leading to an overall better experience in gameplay. The ambient music creates a sense of mystery within the exploration of the world in this game, making you think that there's always still so much to explore. It also creates a sense of adventure, conquer and realization. As you progress and complete certain stages in the game, the music changes, giving you a sense of plot advancement. Finally, the music is very different when you're exploring compared to when you're fighting a dragon for example. This defines the intro sequence, closing sequence and interactive adaptive background music.

#2 Burnout 3: Takedown - soundtrack

The soundtrack is one of the main reasons why this arcade game was so successful. It has perfect harmony with the gameplay. The genre is mainly early 2000's punk rock and the reason why it works with the gameplay it's because this game is all about speed and destruction. It sets a mood of adrenaline, speed and perfect rhythm. Because this is an arcade game, there's no sense of plot advancement or intro/closing sequence. Although, when you crash, the music stops, so that defines interactivity with music. 

#3 Outlast - background music

As we know, music and sound FX is one of the biggest factors in horror games. The background music in outlast is one of the main factors that makes the game stand out. There's different music for different situations, for example: if you're being chased, the music becomes very intense and starts building up, giving a sense of danger and fear; although, if you're exploring and you kinda lost sight of enemies, the music is different, and gives you a sense of mystery and suspense. Finally, the music in this game is also quite interactive with current situations as it was mentioned, as well as in plot advancement and sequences.

3. Legal considerations when obtaining music/FX

Copyright law
Trademarks
ASA
CAP
PRS