Today we had our second meeting. I and Will came prepared with the sounds we had made the day before, ready to showcase and receive feedback on the audio we had made. Again at this point, we have been given very little towards what we should be doing in audio and left to our devices but we have taken it towards a synth-wave, vintage 1980s soundscape.
We showed our music and they enjoyed it thoroughly. Out of all pieces they enjoyed number four, number one and number seven the last one. They said perhaps the other songs were too loud and complex for a video game and had too much going on. But they loved the others and thought that they fitted perfectly for level one.
I and Will agreed, I felt the same but was happy to receive feedback. I have got the synth bench booked later this evening and plan to create a few ideas as well as teach myself synthesis on these machines as I am not comfortable entirely with the process.
Will also said he would create a few more things he had in mind at home, some piano sounds of him playing. We also agreed on some soundscapes to go along with the game. Even though it is a 2d minigame thing going on. It can have an ambience.
The MA games design team went on and explained what has happened since the last meeting. They showed us the updated interface and graphics sent from the MA animation and illustration degrees. We were happy to see the design fit in well with our music as well. They then showed a few mock-up ideas of the artwork and we further discussed a plan.
I attempted to ask about their schedule but they did insist they weren’t sure and had an idea to try to finish a few more levels and games. The leader of their group spoke on how they wanted to initially create five levels and now feel like they will only manage three for the hand in. I and Will felt it was important for us on our next step to know how many levels and the motifs and emotions or what is going on, on each level for sound design and music-making.
A loose idea was spoken as they hadn’t finalised any other level except the first one but as it stands it’s.
Level 1: Language, symbol language, a combination of the symbol. Feedback screen/ operation screen. Collect elements they think to unlock the brain feedback section.
Level 2: visual, the peak. Colours?
Level 3:
Level 4: high-speed bpm, tempo
Level 5: Listening, music & sound
This is the current rough ideas of each level and the sound behind it and how they wish to continue. I and Will found this valuable towards our music composition, as this is very similar to what we learnt the last term with our sound for screen module and these things overlap. We really wanted to use sound to convey motifs, themes and emotions rather than just have music playing. As our game isn’t very immersive, it’s not the first person or third person or VR it’s difficult to create that immersion as the others.
We decided that perhaps because of the nature of the game, the levels are about creating different parts of a robot’s brain and it’s slowly developing consciousness that perhaps the music should match what is happening throughout the game? The development of the brain and its emotions can reflect the soundtrack and sounds of each level. The music could start atonal and develops into more complex compositions as the character develops a more completed brain as the levels go on.
We thought this was a great idea and this has now become the premise of the sound design and score of the game. Jingya, unfortunately, couldn’t attend today as her train was cancelled but we will relay the information back to her. So we finished the meeting on a positive note, with more influences to create music and sounds. We were also given another reference for music with this film Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind which I will be watching to understand a little more. I also spoke on sound effects and when that would be the correct time to begin if we haven’t got a developed game yet that needs them? Will also spoke on Phonaesthetics which I hadn’t heard before but is the study of why sounds are satisfying and creating sound effects that give the listener a satisfying feeling when they click or move things around. I feel this will require further research as will making sounds and music for games. I will be reading a few books to inform myself further into this.
Before everyone left I asked the group to email us all the new artwork, new pdf they displayed and a screen recording of the demo of the game being played so we can attach music and see if our soundtracks are working for the game. And we planned to meet again next week same time.