The Next Big Steps In Game Sound Design

Gamasutra: The Next Big Steps In Game Sound Design

In an attempt to summarize some of the cool things I've uncovered during my time reading between the lines in the game industry, I've pulled together a crop of current generation trends and standout examples of technical Sound Design. While this is a more generalized overview than my Implementation Greats series, the hope is that by raising the awareness of these techniques and the forward thinking interactive audio pioneers working to raise the bar, we can all learn from them and go on to push the boundaries of whats possible in games. Toward reality, toward abstraction, toward whatever suits the game.

Hope this finds you well,
-lcl

Masaya Matsuura: A Sense of Fun

"I think it's regrettable that we are flooded with games that promote (these) negative emergence's. It may be one of the most straightforward ways to design a game, but I don't think the future is bright for this industry if we continue to focus on games that motivate the player by using game play that employs physical attacks as a way of establishing levels of superiority and inequality.

I've said this many times before, but in the future--be it a hundred years or a thousand--children will study 21st century history and the video game boom will be part of that. But what if it's written like this:

'Back then, video games consisted mainly of people and monsters killing each other, similar to the gladiators of ancient Rom, and were a way to experience and enjoy violent behavior on the TV screen'
--Wikipedia, 2008 A.D.

This is not a history that I want to be associated with. I can understand that the energy of youth can evoke aggressive emotions. However, when I was an amateur musician back in the 80s, I played in a punk band where we wanted to scream our defiance to society, but I soon came to recognize the emptiness of this attitude. I only had to look at the wonderfully polished work of respected artists to realize this. For those of us in this industry for awhile, what can we do to stop our fresh young talent from being misled?"

A Sense of Fun

Good links:
PaRappa's Dad, Masaya Matsuura
Masaya Matsuura On Musika And Everything Else
Masaya Matsuura : What's fun about keeping an AIBO?
Matsuura Got Rhythm