Public version of the slideshow I used during my presentation about adaptive music in video games and other interactive media at #UXMonday event, organized by http://asociaceux.cz in Prague, March 2, 2015.
Adaptive Music in Kingdom Come: DeliveranceAdam Sporka
My talk at the Game Developers Session 2015, Prague. Video game music often reacts to events of the game by altering its atmosphere by performing transitions between parts of the soundtrack. This is usually referred to as "adaptive music" or "dynamic music". For example, the music goes from peaceful to agitated when the player is attacked by an enemy, or from neutral to dark when the player enters a cave. The challenge is to be able to respond in a timely fashion (within a second) to the evolving gameplay and yet make the transitions between parts of our soundtrack as seamless as possible. A number of systems and techniques exist, including synchronized cross-fading or reorchestration. These techniques typically cater to electronica and ambient sound design. They often rely on constant tempo of music, non-existent or simple harmonic progressions, and absence of clear melodies. In our project we focus on symphonic music in which maintaining the correct voicing and harmonic progressions is crucial to the listener's experience and the tempo changes depending on the musical content. In the talk I presented several of our original techniques, already implemented in the upcoming game Kingdom Come: Deliverance, scheduled for release in 2016 by the Warhorse Studios, http://kingdomcomerpg.com
The slides for my seminar on adaptive music at the Charles University in Prague // Introduction to the topic of adaptive music // Music Design // Sequence Music Engine // On development of the Kingdom Come: Deliverance soundtrack.
A Presentation for the 2013 Summer Teaching with Technology Institute
By Prof. Christopher Hopkins, LIU Post Faculty
This presentation will explore the role and development of the video game sound and music designer. Advances in game design and technology have created a competitive, yet imaginative arena in which young composers must explore, experiment, and create ways to effectively implement compelling game audio into games as well as market their work through multimedia geared toward potential gaming companies.
Sous le feu des critiques: Trop moderne! Pas assez subversive aux yeux de certains! Pas créative! Un effet de mode passager pour les "djeunz"! Ou pire une musique de drogués!! Permettez moi au cours de cette session de vous éclairer sur cette culture et également sur les coulisses de la création des musiques assistées par ordinateur (MAO), et de voir ensemble les relations intéressantes que l'on peut tisser avec nos pratiques du développement logiciel (Software Craftsmanship).
On a pu lire quelques analogies entre pratique des musiques jazz, somme toute une musique très classique, et la pratique du développement logiciel tel que nous la concevons tous ici ("agile" diront certain). Pourtant il y a bien des façons de faire de la musique et en tant que spécialistes de la programmation j'ai été étonné de constater que peu d'entre nous s’intéressent à la musique dite "électronique". Pourtant, dans ces musiques aussi, nous nous servons d'outils logiciels au service de notre inspiration et notre créativité. On retrouve l'approche incrémentale, la technique imposée par les machines, des patterns évidemment, mais aussi de la pratique répétée, de l'amélioration continue et la coopération quand nous formons des groupes collaboratifs.
Au cours de cette session, après les généralités d'usage, je vous montrerai un DAW (digital audio workstation) logiciel, très couramment employé, et pas que pour la musique électronique, j'ai nommé "Live 9" d'Ableton avec sa surface de contrôle dédiée: Push (une sorte de clavier multi-fonctions pour la musique). Live est également extensible grâce à Max MSP, une API de programmation qui permet de scripter/patcher ce logiciel sous bien des formes.
J'espère vous montrer que création et programmation ne sont pas si éloignés que cela... et vous ferai partager mon expérience au sein de la Do It Yourself Music Academy
This is the slideshow that accompanied my paper at the 2015 North American Conference on Video Game Music held at Texas Christian University. It includes hyperlinks and audio examples to break down the compositional techniques discussed. Click on words and images on the slides to explore and deconstruct the chiptune style!
Immersion into Fantasy: Compositional Techniques of Video Game Music from the...Christopher Hopkins
This is the slideshow for the 2015 Spring Meeting of the American Musicological Society held at the Juilliard School of Music. It includes hyperlinks, audio, and video examples.
This presentation explores the extent to which video game music promotes fantasy-play through dynamic shifts in mood and tension caused by player actions.
The diversity of sonorities and musical patterns within the scope of primitive sound chips is a result of technical ingenuity through collaborations of composers and sound programmers.
This aids in the total immersion of the player in the game-generated world.
Adaptive Music in Kingdom Come: DeliveranceAdam Sporka
My talk at the Game Developers Session 2015, Prague. Video game music often reacts to events of the game by altering its atmosphere by performing transitions between parts of the soundtrack. This is usually referred to as "adaptive music" or "dynamic music". For example, the music goes from peaceful to agitated when the player is attacked by an enemy, or from neutral to dark when the player enters a cave. The challenge is to be able to respond in a timely fashion (within a second) to the evolving gameplay and yet make the transitions between parts of our soundtrack as seamless as possible. A number of systems and techniques exist, including synchronized cross-fading or reorchestration. These techniques typically cater to electronica and ambient sound design. They often rely on constant tempo of music, non-existent or simple harmonic progressions, and absence of clear melodies. In our project we focus on symphonic music in which maintaining the correct voicing and harmonic progressions is crucial to the listener's experience and the tempo changes depending on the musical content. In the talk I presented several of our original techniques, already implemented in the upcoming game Kingdom Come: Deliverance, scheduled for release in 2016 by the Warhorse Studios, http://kingdomcomerpg.com
The slides for my seminar on adaptive music at the Charles University in Prague // Introduction to the topic of adaptive music // Music Design // Sequence Music Engine // On development of the Kingdom Come: Deliverance soundtrack.
A Presentation for the 2013 Summer Teaching with Technology Institute
By Prof. Christopher Hopkins, LIU Post Faculty
This presentation will explore the role and development of the video game sound and music designer. Advances in game design and technology have created a competitive, yet imaginative arena in which young composers must explore, experiment, and create ways to effectively implement compelling game audio into games as well as market their work through multimedia geared toward potential gaming companies.
Sous le feu des critiques: Trop moderne! Pas assez subversive aux yeux de certains! Pas créative! Un effet de mode passager pour les "djeunz"! Ou pire une musique de drogués!! Permettez moi au cours de cette session de vous éclairer sur cette culture et également sur les coulisses de la création des musiques assistées par ordinateur (MAO), et de voir ensemble les relations intéressantes que l'on peut tisser avec nos pratiques du développement logiciel (Software Craftsmanship).
On a pu lire quelques analogies entre pratique des musiques jazz, somme toute une musique très classique, et la pratique du développement logiciel tel que nous la concevons tous ici ("agile" diront certain). Pourtant il y a bien des façons de faire de la musique et en tant que spécialistes de la programmation j'ai été étonné de constater que peu d'entre nous s’intéressent à la musique dite "électronique". Pourtant, dans ces musiques aussi, nous nous servons d'outils logiciels au service de notre inspiration et notre créativité. On retrouve l'approche incrémentale, la technique imposée par les machines, des patterns évidemment, mais aussi de la pratique répétée, de l'amélioration continue et la coopération quand nous formons des groupes collaboratifs.
Au cours de cette session, après les généralités d'usage, je vous montrerai un DAW (digital audio workstation) logiciel, très couramment employé, et pas que pour la musique électronique, j'ai nommé "Live 9" d'Ableton avec sa surface de contrôle dédiée: Push (une sorte de clavier multi-fonctions pour la musique). Live est également extensible grâce à Max MSP, une API de programmation qui permet de scripter/patcher ce logiciel sous bien des formes.
J'espère vous montrer que création et programmation ne sont pas si éloignés que cela... et vous ferai partager mon expérience au sein de la Do It Yourself Music Academy
This is the slideshow that accompanied my paper at the 2015 North American Conference on Video Game Music held at Texas Christian University. It includes hyperlinks and audio examples to break down the compositional techniques discussed. Click on words and images on the slides to explore and deconstruct the chiptune style!
Immersion into Fantasy: Compositional Techniques of Video Game Music from the...Christopher Hopkins
This is the slideshow for the 2015 Spring Meeting of the American Musicological Society held at the Juilliard School of Music. It includes hyperlinks, audio, and video examples.
This presentation explores the extent to which video game music promotes fantasy-play through dynamic shifts in mood and tension caused by player actions.
The diversity of sonorities and musical patterns within the scope of primitive sound chips is a result of technical ingenuity through collaborations of composers and sound programmers.
This aids in the total immersion of the player in the game-generated world.
20190625 Research at Taiwan AI Labs: Music and Speech AIYi-Hsuan Yang
A very brief introduction of what we have been working on at the AI Labs on "music AI" (specifically, automatic music composition/generation) and "speech AI" (specifically, Mandarin ASR).
Machine learning for creative AI applications in music (2018 nov)Yi-Hsuan Yang
An up-to-date overview of our recent research on music/audio and AI. It contains four parts:
* AI Listener: source separation (ICMLA'18a) and sound event detection (IJCAI'18)
* AI DJ: music thumbnailing (TISMIR'18) and music sequencing (AAAI'18a)
* AI Composer: melody generation (ISMIR'17), lead sheet generation (ICMLA'18b), multitrack pianoroll generation (AAAI'18b), and instrumentation generation (arxiv)
* AI Performer: CNN-based score-to-audio generation (AAAI'19)
Research on Automatic Music Composition at the Taiwan AI Labs, April 2020Yi-Hsuan Yang
Slides introducing our ongoing projects on automatic music composition at the Yating Music AI Team of the Taiwan AI Labs (https://ailabs.tw/). The following URLs link to some demo audio files we have put on SoundCloud: all of them were fully automatically generated without any manual post-processing or editing.
@ai_piano demo: https://soundcloud.com/yating_ai/sets/ai-piano-generation-demo-202004
@ai_piano+drum demo: https://soundcloud.com/yating_ai/sets/ai-pianodrum-generation-demo-202004
@ai_guitar demo: https://soundcloud.com/yating_ai/ai-guitar-tab-generation-202003/s-KHozfW0PTv5
Research in artificial intelligence (AI) is known to have impacted medical diagnosis, stock trading, robot control, and several other fields. Perhaps less popular is the contribution of AI in the field of music. Nevertheless, Artificial intelligence and music (AIM) has, for a long time, been a common subject in several conferences and workshops, including the International Computer Music Conference, the Computing Society Conference and the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
slides presented at a three-hour local AI music course in Taiwan in Oct 2021; part 1: a brief introduction to music information retrieval (+analysis, +generation)
a set of slides introducing the application of machine learning to music related applications; intended for audience not with computer science background;
Machine Learning for Creative AI Applications in Music (2018 May)Yi-Hsuan Yang
Machine Learning for Creative AI Applications in Music, slides presented at the Fifth Taiwanese Music and Audio Computing Workshop (http://mac.citi.sinica.edu.tw/tmac18/)
Yi-Hsuan Yang is an Associate Research Fellow with Academia Sinica. He received his Ph.D. degree in Communication Engineering from National Taiwan University in 2010, and became an Assistant Research Fellow in Academia Sinica in 2011. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor with the National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. His research interests include music information retrieval, machine learning and affective computing. Dr. Yang was a recipient of the 2011 IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) Young Author Best Paper Award, the 2012 ACM Multimedia Grand Challenge First Prize, and the 2014 Ta-You Wu Memorial Research Award of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan. He is an author of the book Music Emotion Recognition (CRC Press 2011) and a tutorial speaker on music affect recognition in the International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR 2012). In 2014, he served as a Technical Program Co-chair of ISMIR, and a Guest Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing and the ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology.
INSTRMNTS are new musical instruments developed for permanent or temporary exhibitions in museums, galleries, cultural centers, for educational purposes, live performances or composing. Created by Victor Gama, developed and engineered by PangeiArt.
20190625 Research at Taiwan AI Labs: Music and Speech AIYi-Hsuan Yang
A very brief introduction of what we have been working on at the AI Labs on "music AI" (specifically, automatic music composition/generation) and "speech AI" (specifically, Mandarin ASR).
Machine learning for creative AI applications in music (2018 nov)Yi-Hsuan Yang
An up-to-date overview of our recent research on music/audio and AI. It contains four parts:
* AI Listener: source separation (ICMLA'18a) and sound event detection (IJCAI'18)
* AI DJ: music thumbnailing (TISMIR'18) and music sequencing (AAAI'18a)
* AI Composer: melody generation (ISMIR'17), lead sheet generation (ICMLA'18b), multitrack pianoroll generation (AAAI'18b), and instrumentation generation (arxiv)
* AI Performer: CNN-based score-to-audio generation (AAAI'19)
Research on Automatic Music Composition at the Taiwan AI Labs, April 2020Yi-Hsuan Yang
Slides introducing our ongoing projects on automatic music composition at the Yating Music AI Team of the Taiwan AI Labs (https://ailabs.tw/). The following URLs link to some demo audio files we have put on SoundCloud: all of them were fully automatically generated without any manual post-processing or editing.
@ai_piano demo: https://soundcloud.com/yating_ai/sets/ai-piano-generation-demo-202004
@ai_piano+drum demo: https://soundcloud.com/yating_ai/sets/ai-pianodrum-generation-demo-202004
@ai_guitar demo: https://soundcloud.com/yating_ai/ai-guitar-tab-generation-202003/s-KHozfW0PTv5
Research in artificial intelligence (AI) is known to have impacted medical diagnosis, stock trading, robot control, and several other fields. Perhaps less popular is the contribution of AI in the field of music. Nevertheless, Artificial intelligence and music (AIM) has, for a long time, been a common subject in several conferences and workshops, including the International Computer Music Conference, the Computing Society Conference and the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
slides presented at a three-hour local AI music course in Taiwan in Oct 2021; part 1: a brief introduction to music information retrieval (+analysis, +generation)
a set of slides introducing the application of machine learning to music related applications; intended for audience not with computer science background;
Machine Learning for Creative AI Applications in Music (2018 May)Yi-Hsuan Yang
Machine Learning for Creative AI Applications in Music, slides presented at the Fifth Taiwanese Music and Audio Computing Workshop (http://mac.citi.sinica.edu.tw/tmac18/)
Yi-Hsuan Yang is an Associate Research Fellow with Academia Sinica. He received his Ph.D. degree in Communication Engineering from National Taiwan University in 2010, and became an Assistant Research Fellow in Academia Sinica in 2011. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor with the National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. His research interests include music information retrieval, machine learning and affective computing. Dr. Yang was a recipient of the 2011 IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) Young Author Best Paper Award, the 2012 ACM Multimedia Grand Challenge First Prize, and the 2014 Ta-You Wu Memorial Research Award of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan. He is an author of the book Music Emotion Recognition (CRC Press 2011) and a tutorial speaker on music affect recognition in the International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR 2012). In 2014, he served as a Technical Program Co-chair of ISMIR, and a Guest Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing and the ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology.
INSTRMNTS are new musical instruments developed for permanent or temporary exhibitions in museums, galleries, cultural centers, for educational purposes, live performances or composing. Created by Victor Gama, developed and engineered by PangeiArt.
Lê Trường An – Dịch giả – Tác giả – Marketer – chuyên thực hiện các dự án SEO, Social Media, Dịch thuật và xuất bản nội dung. Ngoài ra, Lê Trường An liên tục cập nhật nội dung blog với các chủ đề SEO, Marketing và nhiều hơn nữa…
---
Content Creator Lê Trường An
Chuyên viên Marketing – Tác giả - Dịch giả tại letruongan.com
Chuyên viên Marketing tại BrainCoach
Chuyên viên Content Marketing tại FoogleSEO
Dịch vụ Marketing – SEO – Content Marketing
Book Formatting: Quality Control Checks for DesignersConfidence Ago
This presentation was made to help designers who work in publishing houses or format books for printing ensure quality.
Quality control is vital to every industry. This is why every department in a company need create a method they use in ensuring quality. This, perhaps, will not only improve the quality of products and bring errors to the barest minimum, but take it to a near perfect finish.
It is beyond a moot point that a good book will somewhat be judged by its cover, but the content of the book remains king. No matter how beautiful the cover, if the quality of writing or presentation is off, that will be a reason for readers not to come back to the book or recommend it.
So, this presentation points designers to some important things that may be missed by an editor that they could eventually discover and call the attention of the editor.
Visual Style and Aesthetics: Basics of Visual Design
Visual Design for Enterprise Applications
Range of Visual Styles.
Mobile Interfaces:
Challenges and Opportunities of Mobile Design
Approach to Mobile Design
Patterns
White wonder, Work developed by Eva TschoppMansi Shah
White Wonder by Eva Tschopp
A tale about our culture around the use of fertilizers and pesticides visiting small farms around Ahmedabad in Matar and Shilaj.
Can AI do good? at 'offtheCanvas' India HCI preludeAlan Dix
Invited talk at 'offtheCanvas' IndiaHCI prelude, 29th June 2024.
https://www.alandix.com/academic/talks/offtheCanvas-IndiaHCI2024/
The world is being changed fundamentally by AI and we are constantly faced with newspaper headlines about its harmful effects. However, there is also the potential to both ameliorate theses harms and use the new abilities of AI to transform society for the good. Can you make the difference?
Maximize Your Content with Beautiful Assets : Content & Asset for Landing Page pmgdscunsri
Figma is a cloud-based design tool widely used by designers for prototyping, UI/UX design, and real-time collaboration. With features such as precision pen tools, grid system, and reusable components, Figma makes it easy for teams to work together on design projects. Its flexibility and accessibility make Figma a top choice in the digital age.
3. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 3
Purpose of Sound in UIs
• Interaction modality (input and output)
• Alerts
• Widget sounds
• Presentation of data
• Mood setters
• Sound branding
4. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 4
Describing Sound and Music
Signal
Sound
field
Tone
/ Stroke
Sequence
Concord
Composition
Environment
Reverberation
Vibration
Distribution
Spectrum
Volume
Periodicity
Pitch
Length
Volume Accord
Interval
Harmony
Rhythm
Tempo
Phrase
Loop
Soundtrack
Intention
Abstraction level
Playlist
Genre
science art
5. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 5
Fuzzy Terminology
• What it does:
– Adaptive music
– Responsive music
– Reactive music
– Interactive music
• How it is done:
– Procedural music
– Algorithmic music
6. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 6
Science: Data Sonification
• Synthesis of sound
controlled by
input data
• ICAD 2004 contest
– http://www.icad.org/websiteV
2.0/Conferences/ICAD2004/c
oncert.htm
8. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 8
Sonification of Rowing sounds
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxWNw9fIizk
• Audible comparison of trainee’s sound and
reference
• Audible feedback while people is rowing
9. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 9
Outline
• Purpose of music in games
• Static music soundtracks
– Music design
• Dynamic music soundtracks
– Design, production, …
• Music production technology
– How the actual music is made
11. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 11
Purpose of Music
• Tradition
– Present in most of the released titles
– Why not in yours?
• Affirmation of the genre
– “Yes, this is an 8bit retro.”
– “Indeed, cowboys in spaceships.”
– “Yay, manga.”
12. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 12
Purpose of Music
• Presentation of emotion
– Easygoing, happy-go-lucky, …
– Depressing, sad, …
• Setting the expectations
– Level difficulty
• Status monitoring
– Changes of music over time indicate changes in
game
13. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 13
Purpose of Music
• Essence of the gameplay
– Dance Dance Revolution (1998)
– Guitar Hero (2005)
– Pugs Luv Beats (2011)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0i18_--8Yc
– Not covered by this talk
14. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 14
Game Music Components
• Theme Music
– Often synchronized with visual events on the
screen
– Cinematic experience
• Underscore
– In-game music
– User interface background
15. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 15
Game Music Components
• Stingers
– Specific music triggered by an event
– Transition music
– Level Notification, “Game Over” Screen, “Game Won”
Screen
– Fallout New Vegas:
Pulling out / holstering Magnum
• http://youtu.be/sWLpSpZR6J4?t=41s
16. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 16
Soundtrack
• Diegetic sounds
– Sounds in story space
– On-screen or off-screen
– Voices of characters, sounds of objects, music coming
from objects
• Non-diegetic sounds
– Not implied to be present in the action
– Narrator, sounds for dramatic effect, underscore
17. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 17
Sound in Games
– Voices, diegetic sound effects
– Diegetic ambience
– Non-diegetic ambience
• “Sound design pads”
– Underscore
ABSTRACT
CONCRETE
18. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 18
Game Music Characteristics
• Theme music is feature
– Recognizable theme
– Elaborate
– Genre announcer
– Everyone will hear this
• Underscore is background
– Mood setter
– Does not distract
– Can be listened to throughout the gameplay
19. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 19
Game Music Characteristics
• Silence
– “Dosage” of music
• Used to emphasize music
– Keep the ambient sounds present
– Complete silence “something wrong”
• “Are my speakers on? Will I hear anything at all when
I’ll really have to?”
20. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 20
Game Music Interactivity
• Static soundtrack
– Predefined and unchanging
– Loops
– Assigned to specific screens / levels
• Dynamic (adaptive) soundtrack
– More complex control of the music playback
– Engine “aware” of the state of the game
22. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 22
Music Design
• Genre?
• Situations in game?
• Mechanics of music?
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 28
Music Design
• Multiple contexts –
typical for open-world RPGs
– Landscape exploration
– Combat
– Dialogs
– …
• Considerations of importance of music
scenes
• Is “combat” always more important than “location”?
31. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 31
Static Soundtrack
• Early and simpler games
• Level-based games
• Pengon (1984, Atari 800XL)
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDhLxRLvwvY
– One music loop
– Game over stinger
32. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 32
Static Soundtrack
• Supaplex (1991, Digital Integration, MS-DOS)
– Played throughout the game
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yknubWX2KYI
• Goonies (1985, Datasoft, Atari 800XL)
– Two loops, one used for title, then alternating with each
level
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKh5b8jcwLk
• Jazz Jackrabbit (1994)
– Separate tracks for levels
– http://youtu.be/b16upFloYak?t=29s
34. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 34
Case Study: Nimble Quest
• 2013; NimbleBit; iOS, Android
• Arcade / RPG
• Early 2000s pixel art graphics
35. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 35
Case Study: Nimble Quest
• Music by Whitaker Blackall
• Contents:
– Title / menu
– Loop per level
• Genre:
– Contemporary chiptune
– http://wtrebella.bandcamp.com/album/nimble-quest
36. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 36
Case Study: Nimble Quest
• Typical length of a loop: 2’
• Unobtrusive
• Reflects the increasing difficulty of the levels
– L1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mh7qJgnpJI
– L2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HaOTX-m0SU
– L4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKIDg8VkF0A
37. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 37
Case Study: Nimble Quest
• Sounds good on small speakers
– Chiptune sounds
– Lot of square waves / triangles
• Better estimation of pitch by the human
low- as well as high-pitched tones
• General remark:
• PC gamers often don’t spend money on a high-quality
speakers
38. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 38
Case Study: Quido (2013)
• Experimental arcade game
– Developed at DCGI/CTU
• Showcasing non-standard haptic modalities
– Presented on Designblok 2013
– http://ulab.cz/naviterier/quido/
• Genre:
– Contemporary chiptune
– https://quido.bandcamp.com/
39. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 39
Quido: Technology used
• Reaper
• VSTs
– SuperWave (leads / chords / bass)
– EXD-80 (beats)
– Some reverb, some volume compressor
40. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 40
Quido: Music
• Theme music
– Exposition of the main theme
– Happy, easygoing
– Not used in the end
• Explicit request from the exhibition organizer: Silence
between the games
41. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 41
Quido: Music
• Level 1: Theme Park
– A player will be likely to be receiving instructions
from a fellow player
– Expected playtime: 3—4 minutes
– Not “dense”
– Diverse in terms of the structure
– Performance of the main theme
42. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 42
Quido: Music
• Level 2: City
– Variation of the theme.
– Structure: [A B A Bbr Avoid]
– Expected playtime: 2 minutes
– Continuous music
43. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 43
Quido: Music
• Level 3: Sky (Heaven)
– Variation of the theme. Barroque.
– Continuous music
– Expected playtime: 2 minutes
44. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 44
Quido: Music
• Level completed
– Joyous jingle
• Advancing to the next level
– Expectation
48. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 48
Adaptive Music Styles
• Resequencing
– Selecting what to play next
• Reorchestration
– Selecting which instruments to play
• Modulation
– Modifying the timbres of notes
– Related to Data Sonification
49. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 49
The Space Game
• Game loops:
– Menu / Idle
– The enemy is approaching
– The enemy opens fire
• <demo>
– http://www.candystand.com/play/the-space-game
50. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 50
Reorchestration
• Multiple tracks
– Turned on/off
– Faded in and out
• Synchronous
<Demo: honza_test_02.sqc>
52. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 52
Reorchestration
• Fallout: New Vegas
– 2010, Obsidian Entertainment, Bethesda
Softworks
– Multiple renderings of the same track
• “low”, “mid”, “high”
– <demo; NewCaliforniaRepublic>
54. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 54
Resequencing
• Slices chosen according to game state
• Precise timing of transitions
• <Demo: chiptune.sqc>
55. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 55
Resequencing and Reorchestration
• Example: Monkey Island 2
– 1991, LucasArts
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsc5nTrCzm
w#t=322
– iMUSE system
• Parallel tracks for different locations
• Transition patterns to return back
56. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 56
Modulation
• Analog variables in the game
– Health
– Completion
– …
• Parameters of sound synthesis
– Volume
– Low-pass filter cut-off
– …
57. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 57
Modulation of Synthesis
• Mapping
game state sound synthesis
• <Demo: Angel choir gone wrong>
61. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 61
Music Composition
• Movies
– Music traditionally created aside from the entire
project
– Story is defined
– Timing is known
• “Horizontal” production
62. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 62
Music Composition
• Computer Games
– Games are not (very) predictable
– “Horizontal” production
• Advantages
– Music per se works well (classic composition techniques)
– No limitations on instrumentations etc.
• Problems
– Repetition
– Abrupt changes
– Failure to respond
63. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 63
Music Composition
• Computer Games
– “Vertical” production
• Advantages
– Good support of the moment
• Problems
– Difficult to express tensions, developments
– Music forms get disrupted
– Discontiuity
– Can be too descriptive
64. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 64
Music Production
• Input
– Artistic intent
– Gameplay description
• List of supported locations
• List of supported situations
– Available technology
• Platform, available storage, …
– Legal considerations
• Licensing of the game
65. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 65
Music Production
• Orchestration
– What instruments are used
• Structure
– Duration, planning
• Production
– Composing
• Mixdown / Mastering
– “Locking in” the music
– Optimizing the volumes, polishing
66. @adam_sporka Adaptive Music in Games UX Monday 66
Music Production
• Practical problems
– Multiple stakeholders
– Tons of files (as with any content development)
– Hiring composers
– Finding instrumentalists