Project 2 – Introduction
The second project is a 2D game, starting with a brief gameplay description. The player has to move or rotate the objects on the map to make the gravity ball fall to the end.
The sounds that need to be created in this game are the ambient sounds of the map, the background music, and the sound effects. The sound effects include the usual UI sounds, ball-related sounds such as rolling and falling, and moving and rotating objects.
Immersion, as understood here, is the sense of being “in a game” where a person’s thoughts, attention, and goals are all focused in and around the game as opposed to attending to being concerned with anything else, such as what is going on in the room around them.
— T. Sanders & P. Cairns, 2010
This “in a game” is not used in the physical sense of being in a game, but in the sense that the player’s mind and senses are in the game. So when we build a virtual reality environment, we only need to create a sense that can make the player feel the world is real and complete. It also can call as “the sense of immersion”.
Linear leveled 2D-games do not have the ability to increase immersion by creating an entirely virtual world like open-world games, so the only way to immerse the player in the game is through clever leveling or robust interactivity. This time I want to create a form of game sound that was highly interactive.
I intend to use the syllables of different instruments for the sound effects of the balls and objects and will have these syllables appear randomly. Each player will have their rhythm and various combinations of syllables, and each player will create a melody of their own. So I’m thinking of not using the music. My reference is Monument Valley.
As the art style of our game is Chinese paper-cutting style, and the theme of the level is related to the 24 solar terms, I intend to use traditional Chinese musical instruments.
- Update 12.5 – Bibliography – Timothy Sanders & Paul Cairns. (2010). Time perception, immersion and music in video game
- Update 12.5 – Game work reference – Monument Valley – Ustwo Games, 2014
Update 12.6 – Immersion concept in the game
It’s worth noting that what makes it immersive is a world that is not the real world we live in but a fictional one, so realism is not the main element of game immersion. This conclusion is in line with the previously cited ideas of Timothy Sanders and Paul Cairns, who argue that immersion in games is ‘in a game, ‘where all attention is focused on the game.
Unlike offline exhibitions and installations, a tabletop game does not create immersion by setting up a surrounding technical space (e.g., multi-channel) or expanding the physical dimensions of the technology. The three sources of immersion in a game are, firstly, the player understands and accepts the setting of this virtual world; secondly, the player can influence this environment by their actions; and thirdly, a logically self-consistent virtual world. The first and third points are achieved through narratives, such as a game’s story and background world setting.
Next are other articles on the understanding of immersion in games.
The key to distinguishing between general rhetorical intent in video games and other forms of entertainment media is a game’s requirement for engaging interactivity: “Video games require certain modes of active engagement on the player’s part that are beyond what is required by film viewers” ——Hart, 2014
Immersion is often defined as how mentally involved the player is with the game world, and developers often emphasize immersion when designing for player engagement. ——Adam DeRoss, July 2020
One ofthe key elements ofeffective immersionis an environment that drives the player to want to actively One of the key elements of effective immersion is an environment that drives the player to want to actively engage. One of the most effective ways to persuade players to engage in the game world is sound because players have to put effort into interacting with the game world by engaging with its visual and audial aspects at the same time. ——Brown and Cairns, 2004
In these paragraphs, two words they mention about immersion is engagement and interactive. And about engagement, Alison has something to say about it in her article. And about interactive, Alison mentions it in this section on presence, which I will discuss in my next blog on interactivity.
As well as engaging with the game and interacting with it, Timothy Sanders and Paul Cairns mention another element that affects the game’s immersion, which is the music.
“People who play video games often report a sense of immersion in the game with a particular feature of immersion being a loss of the sense of time passing……. Additionally, music was able to influence immersion by both increasing it or decreasing it depending on the choice of music.” ——T. Sanders & P. Cairns, 2010
Then for my project, a 2D game, I decided to focus on engagement, interactivity, and music. Combining these three points led to my current sound design idea, where the player interacts with the elements within the game to create music and increase player engagement by this way.
In this game, I also needed to create the ambiance sound of spring, summer, autumn, and winter seasons, which would also add to the game’s immersion. Creating realistic enough natural environments involves non-linear sound, which I will discuss in more detail later in the non-linear sound section.
Immersion is related to the realism of the game world or to the atmospheric sounds. ——Emily Brown and Paul Cairns, 2004
The realism here doesn’t mean being like the world we live in but instead creating a realistic game world. The realism of the game world is based on the setting of this game. For example, we need to create a real forest environment. If our game setting is the world we live in, then the forest is the one with the birds chirping. But if we set the game in a fictional world like Pokémon, then the forest should have Pokémon chirping instead of birds chirping.
Both of my projects involved the concept of immersion. Project 1 sought the immersion of space, while project 2 sought the immersion of a game. These two definitions of immersion are different, so I will talk about immersion in the documentary, space, and installation in the project 1 section blog.
Bibliography
Alison McMahan. (2003). “Immersion, engagement and presence.” The video game theory reader 67.S 86.
Adam DeRoss. (July 2020). Sonic Rhetoric and Meaning Making in Video Game Sound Design.
Emily Brown&Paul Cairns. (2004). A grounded investigation of game immersion. Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 24-29.
Lain Hart (2014). Meaningful Play: Performativity, Interactivity and Semiotics in Video Game Music, Musicology Australia, 36:2, 273-290.
Timothy Sanders & Paul Cairns. (2010). Time perception, immersion and music in video game.