1. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
Game Title
StarCraft II Wings of Liberty cinematic – Arcturus Betrayal - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1XQTOW2tmA
Provide detailed descriptions from chosen examples that establish…
Setting
Clearly state what production technique(s) you think have
been used to create specific soundtrack elements
Throughout the clip, we get a very good idea of the setting overall and where we
are. The first clues we get as to the setting is at about 00:13 to 00:17 where we can
hear very faint gunshot noises suggesting they are far away, giving us the scale of
the background, then we hear very loud and distinct noise of someone walking on a
metal surface and hear some kind of device. All of this can suggest that we are
somewhere in a suburb area and that there is some kind of fighting going on, when
we venture forth into the clip. At 0:24 the female character says: ‘This is Kerrigan,
we neutralised the Protoss but there is a wave of Zerg advancing on this position,
we need immediate evac.’ This sentence introduced us to many new things that can
explain the setting to us. First off, we find out that the name of the female character
is Kerrigan, and that she is possibly a soldier which commands a squad/army which
just neutralised Protoss (perhaps another race) and now needs evacuation because
of some zergs advancing, this tells us that the war has been going on for a long time
now and it is about to come to a close. It also tells us who is fighting who etc. The
last thing it tells us is that the action is happening not only down on the planet (I am
assuming this because of all the ambient wind, echo effects we could hear) but it is
also happening somewhere above the planet possibly. Going further into the clip
can yield additional results. Starting from about 0:31 to 0:44 there is an important
thing happening, I.e. a male voice saying: ‘Belay that order, we’re moving out’ in the
background you can hear a very classical music playing, also, by his tone, we can tell
that he is a very important figure to the faction that he is representing, then,
another voice, but this time very frantic says: ‘What?! You’re not just gonna leave
them?!’ And therefore we can see that the ‘important’ character is somewhat
betraying the other 2. Finally, we get the confirmation on the Sci-Fi setting by the
male character saying: ‘All ships prepare to move from Tarsonis at my mark’ which
tells us that we are above orbit of a planet called Tarsonis. The clip then starts
playing the sound of bullets flying past, gunshots etc. to suggest that we’re back on
The basic sound of stepping on a metal plate
could be easily reproduced by stepping on a metal
flooring, or a bin etc. and then possibly edited out
in the studio to make it higher quality. Gunshots
sounds could have been taken from developers
sound bank or recorded directly on something like
a shooting gallery. The script could have been
easily voice acted and edited out. Other things
like the wild beast noises could have been
recorded using a sound from an animal that is a
hunter and then editing it to make it sound more
‘alien’ and scary.

2. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
Mood
Game genre
Narrative
the surface with the female character, Kerrigan, again. The setting therefore gets
very clearly explained, that it is dealing with Sci-Fi, War and Betrayal.
The mood is set by several different things. The cinematic keeps throwing us
between the very nervous and constantly ‘on the edge’ planet surface and the very
calm and ‘classy’ environment above the orbit. Additional mood is provided by other
things, such as at 0:20 the sudden electrifying music signifies Kerrigan suddenly
appearing, then at 01:06 the build-up of the very dramatic music signifies something
happening to Kerrigans surprising and her reacting to it – i.e. shooting it. As we can
hear the gunshots and then a click that could signify the gun to be out of ammo.
Then at 1:55 we are presented with a high pitch to signify tension, after that
immediately we get the music that is very dramatic sounding and then after that
one we get a very melodramatic music, perhaps signifying something like Kerrigan
being overwhelmed and therefore giving up. The mood therefore is very good and
keeps throwing the listener off balance and thus allowing for greater immersion.
The game genre is very possibly either a Sci Fi shooter or a Sci Fi Real Time Strategy.
There are a lot of evidence which suggests that which I have reviewed earlier in the
Setting section but to briefly sum it up, we get a lot of narrative that tells us about a
planet, ships, orbiting etc. and thus it leads us to Sci Fi, we also get strange races
called Protoss and Zerg which again, suggests Sci Fi, but the fact that we hear both a
lot of gunshots but also a lot of commands which could be associated with a Real
Time Strategy makes it unclear whether it is a Shooter or an RTS.
The narrative throughout the clip is exchanged between 3 main characters, 1
female, Kerrigan. And 2 males, one Arcturus and the other one Jim.The narrative is
very tense and deep as it makes the main plot for this cinematic and possibly
something important that will continue within the game later on. This therefore
shows us that the narrative within this particular cinematic is very important and
can have a massive impact on the story and how it goes.
The mood is mostly set by the music and
therefore it required a good team and program to
make the music.
The same methods would be used that I spoke
about in the Setting
Character would probably just read their scripts
out in a manner that was intended and then their
voice would be mixed and edited to make it
higher quality and to add additional effects.