The audio in this scene from Bioshock Infinite establishes the setting through various sound effects. Water sounds, paddling, and creaking wood indicate the characters are in a rowboat. A gun cocking and thunder suggest the coming storm. Footsteps up ladders and on wood and the echo inside a building provide environmental context. The dialogue was likely recorded in a studio to remove background noise, while sounds like footsteps could have been field recordings or created by a Foley artist in a studio. The echo effect was added digitally to the audio track. The narrative has straightforward dialogue from the main character but strange, cryptic dialogue from the others in the boat.

1. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
Game Title BioshockInfinite
(Start0:35 – Stop2:57)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iZZg2qiBos
Provide detailed descriptions from chosen examples that establish… Clearly state what production technique(s) you think have
been used to create specific soundtrack elements
Setting At the verystart we can hear waterswishingandswirlingandhe alsohearpaddle
movinginand outof the water,woodcreakingwhichsuggestingthatthispersonis
on a row boatwithtwo othersdue to the dialogue.Nextwe hearagun being
cockedtellingusthatthe character nowhas a weapon.Afterthiswe here thunder
inthe backgroundtellingusthatthe weatherisgoingtoget quite terrible.Shortly
afterwe hear the character climbingupsome laddersmakingathudsoundevery
stepup he takesbefore we heara constantwalkingsoundwithwoodcreakingand
rain hittingwoodinthe background.The characterthenwalksup a setof stairsand
knockson a woodendoor,he pushesitopenwitha creakand finallywe hearan
echoof hisvoice suggestingthat the buildinghe hasjustenteredislarge andalmost
empty.
The water andthe paddle beingmovedcould
have beeneitherfieldrecordedorcouldjusthave
easilybeencreatedbyaprofessionalFoleyartist.
The woodcreakingI believewouldmore likely
createdby a Foleyartistandfieldrecordingthis
soundwouldn’tbe tooeasyandcouldtake up
time andresources.The gunbeingcocked,the
thunder,the manwalkingonthe woodand
knockingonthe door couldhave alsobeenfield
recordedor createdbya Foley artist.Ifeel that
the echo wascreatedby manipulatingthe original
audiotrack and thenjustmodifyingitandadding
it intothe rightplace.
Mood The mood of the character can onlybe discoveredthroughhisdialogue.Throughout
thisscene I can only assume thatthe character is curiousas he asks howlongitwill
be,if anyone will be there tomeethim.
The dialogue wouldhave beenrecordedina
studiosothat there wasno backgroundnoise or
interference.
Game genre From thisscene youcan’t reallytell whatthe game genre is.Fromthe echoyou
wouldassume thatitis a horror as that isthe typical thingyouwouldhear.Echo’sin
a large abandonedbuilding.Otherthanthisyouwouldn’tbe able toidentifythe
genre of thisgame.
I have alreadymentionedhowIbelieve the echo
to be recordedinthe previousparagraph.
Narrative The narrative fromthe maincharacter isstraightforwardand easyto understand
whereasthe dialogue fromthe othertwointhe boatwithhimis quite strange.Asif
theyare talkinginriddlesandtheyseemtoknowmore thantheyare tellingabout
theirpassenger,wherehe isgoingandwhy.
The dialogue inthisscene wouldhave beenstudio
recordedina certainenvironmentwiththe voice
actors that are inthisscene.