Game Design Blog 3: Audio Analysis of Bioshock. (part 1)

For this blog I chose to focus on the audio of a certain video game called Bioshock. To me the audio in this video game really stood out. The setting of the game takes place in 1960, in the fictional underwater city of Rapture.

 Being a city underwater the sound of water is very abundant throughout the entirety of the video game. The sound of running water coming out of a big broken pipe and flowing on to the ground, into the room and down a flight of stairs has a very interesting dynamic sound. Because it starts with a very violent sound and then ends with a very calm sound. The water coming out of the broken pipe is flowing very rapidly, so the audio of the water is a very violent and rapid sound. As the water hits the floor and begins to more across the room to the stairs, it turns less violent and more reserved. The extremity that the sound of the water from the pipe is now almost silent. The water is moving across the floor with very little sound and the only thing that can be heard are little splashing sounds. As the water moves out of the room and down the flight of stairs the water starts to get louder and sounds like a gentle flowing stream.
Another sound of water that can be heard throughout the exploration of Rapture is the sound of the ocean from inside the city. You can hear the sound of the water flowing around the city constantly. If you choose to walk up to a window as close as possible, ( as if you're pressing your face up against it) you can hear the sound of the ocean even more. It's similar to the sound of putting your ear against a conch shell and it's an awesome feature that they decided to include in the game that can further the immersion of the player and make this fictional world feel even more real than it already does.

Writing Challenge Blog Comm 399B

Shepherdstown: Small town gem

Shepherdstown isn't the biggest and most excited town in West Virginia, but it is a great place to visit if you like a nice quaint little town unburdened by the stress of the big city. There are many activities to do in Shepherdstown if you know where to find them.

You could go to the main attraction of Shepherdstown, German Street, and visit all of the local and privately owned shops up and down the street. Or you could visit the Rumsey monument with a beautiful view of the mountains and the Potomac river. If none of those activities interest you, try and check out the Shepherd University campus.

Game Design Blog 2

While reading through different sound designer interviews I came across a sound designer that was comparing the difference between sound in movies and sound in video games. The key difference between the two is the player versus the watcher. A player grasps and gains satisfaction from the sound effects because the player is 'inside' the gaming world and experiencing sound effects based on the decision they make in the game. A watcher is simply along for the ride. While watching a movie the sound effects are the same no matter how many times you watch the movie. When you play a video game the order of sound effects will different every time.
The player can choose to do different things like pushing a button to fire a weapon, and then hears a reaction and sequences of sounds to correspond to that action. For example, the sound designer may implement a multitude of sound samples for one action, like an explosion. For explosions at a distance, a latency effect might be implemented, or an explosion behind a wall the sound might be blurred or dampened.

COMM 399B - Kayaking Picture

Kayaking Picture

You and your friends going kayaking in the ocean? That's one of the most manly activities on the face of the earth! You should pump up that manliness and scuba dive with man-eating sharks while eating bacon and doing hammer curls! If you want to turn up that manly notch even higher ditch your kayak and go Sharkaking! It's a sport you invented because you are too manly for the sport of simply riding a kayak, you need to pumped TO THE NEXT LEVEL! 

Blog 1: Editing the digital signal

     The size of a sound wave determines the loudness of the track. This correlates to the use of compression. Compression appeared in my project with every midi sound track that was used in it and I think that it was a very useful tool and ultimately made my project sound a lot better. From my experience, I  believe that compression is an essential tool that must be used in every sound project and it's definitely something that digital signals should not be without.
     Interactive-sound design can greatly enhance the sound experience for the user. The midi track that I picked for this project was taken from an old video game called, "Doom." It's a midi track that sounds dark and heavy and has a striking resemblance to a metal band of the metalcore genre of music. It has heavy guitar riffs and a drop tuned guitar sound. This sound track relates to the game well because Doom is a very dark game and the metal sound really compliments it.
     When evaluating the final product, every aspect of it should be balanced. I made sure that I balanced all of the tones and ranges as well a the quality of the track one I was finished. I believe that this is the most important part of a project because there is no point in working on a sound track just to find out that what you edited sounds different and not as good as the release medium. You really have to make sure everything is balanced right. This might require you to balance the track after you have exported it, and export it again until you get the right balance for the release medium.

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