Kill Screen archive
…pitches sounds issue
…pitches sounds issue
…forget the particulars of him, of course, and I can now hardly recall the sound of his voice or his specific mannerisms. But danger is forever entwined with him in my brain.
Which is why, of course, my own article about death ended up being about Matt as much as it was my father. I remember quite clearly being so hurt when another teenager told me that if Kurt Cobain committed suicide, he must have been a coward. What does that say about me, and my suicidal thoughts, then? What did that say about Matt, and his heroin? How…
…Virginia’s spatial storytelling techniques are being praised at a time when there is ever more writing taking on the spatial qualities of games’ expression, not just visually but through sound as well.
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…to sound, these two articles examine the role of sound as a core part of how games communicate with players.
“‘I think the closer you try
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…siders, colorblind options, and tutorials. I’d never thought of voice acting as an accessibility tool, rather than a directorial choice.”
A number of this week’s pieces also explored how technical storytelling elements add nuance to videogames:
…downturn can result in broader real estate shifts as tenants are displaced or foreclosed, leaving behind vestiges of their presence.
Though not a piece of critical writing, Kemenczy’s lecture at GDC on the Scenography of Kentucky Route Zero (video, autocaptions) is a candid, informed, and delicate presentation of the ways in which the developers reference theater and film.
Theme IV: The Sound
Sound is an important component to Kentucky Route Zero. So much so that composer Ben Babbitt is listed as a core member of Cardboard Computer’s development team, not merely a collaborator.
In an excellent…
…new topics in player experience and sound engineering; check ’em out!
“Pessimistically, it might seem like the rock-star developers of the time threw a sound into their splashy new game because they could
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…that you are playing that has no sound or something like that. And if the game does have sound, you’re not also as worried about people hearing what you are hearing in the game, and you can kind of have this direct, I guess, sound channel that’s just on the headphones. So, that was quite nice to be able to play games like that and so, I think that adds a bit more, I guess, benefits for people who are more neurodivergent or people who have just sensorial distractions from places, I certainly do. The other thing that we did…
…2 suggest an interesting correspondence between the design of the sound effects and the game mechanics. The mainstream music industry puts a lot of effort into making everything as loud and noticeable as possible and Gears of War seem to be taking a similar approach. The sound effects have likely been “compressed extremely harshly” so that they are as “clear and loud” as they can be, and this idea seems to have carried over into the entire aesthetic environment and gameplay of the series. Though it is paced to provide moments of calm in counter-point to the bombast of its…
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Another one from the Experimental Gameplay Projects minimalist competition, this one is like a browser based Flash version of futurist Paul Marinetti’s typographic experiments. If there was more interactive fiction that combined that sort of thing with an odd soundtrack that sounds like a Balinese gamelan band gone haywire, I’d be much less likely to flee in terror when I see that phrase come up.
A pair of prototypes from the ever interesting Singapore/MIT GAMBIT Game Lab designed to explain physics concepts to middle schoolers. One uses a narrative to get its points
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