Secondary research

Secondary research

We researched topics about audio games and found a few good ones to mention.

Circus Master’s Revenge

Circus Master’s Revenge is a horror-themed action audio game that was released in 2019. It’s available on IOS platform. The game uses 3D sounds and phone AR mode as a gyroscope to determine which direction the player is looking at. The games idea is to defend yourself from circus freaks that come from different directions by using guns and melee weapons. The game doesn’t have visuals so it is required to have surround sound headphones to hear precisely which direction the circus freaks are coming from.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/circus-masters-revenge/id1374289562

Papa Sangre II

- Papa Sangre II is a horror-themed developed game by Somethin' Else and was released in 2013.  

- it is available on IOS platform

- it uses 3D sound (binaural audio) that makes it possible for the player to hear in which direction the sound is coming from. If you wear headphones it will sound like the sounds can come from behind, in front, on your right or left side.  

- because it's a sound based game and the game is played with only sounds, headphones are very important to hear the 3D sounds.  

- there are 4 buttons to move your left and right hand and your left and right foot. You can also walk, jump, clap, smash, and grab things. If you press the walking buttons too fast your character will trip and that could lead to your demise.  

- the sounds around you makes you visualize the surroundings that you can't otherwise see.  

- audio games like this makes it easier for the visually impaired to also have fun and play video games.

- there are a total of 25 levels and the player must collect musical notes and reach the exit to proceed to the next level.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papa_Sangre

Also we looked into head-related transfer function, which has to do with how we know the direction that sounds are coming from

Head related transfer function or anatomical transfer function is a demonstration of how sound is analyzed by our brain subject to the position of the head and ear against the source of sound.

It depends on following aspects and circumstances:
- Shape of the ear
- Distance and direction of the source or sources
- Obstacles between the source and receiver, altering the level of sound as well as intensity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-related_transfer_function

Here are two articles we researched:

AUDIO GAMES: FUN FOR ALL? ALL FOR FUN?

The article studied the possibilities of non-speech audio games to be both entertaining and useful for learning new skills. The two games created for this test were Os and Xs (Tic Tac Toe) and Mastermind (guessing a correct color combination). The test users found Os and Xs easy to learn since the idea of the game is familiar to many people. The game was found to be somewhat entertaining even considering its simple idea. Mastermind had a steeper learning curve but once the users were familiar with the game it was more entertaining. Users felt that both games could be used for acquiring new skills. Designing the games had some challenges in terms of making the audio ques so that everyone would perceive them the same way. Especially blind people might not perceive x or o the same way as those who can see. The test group only consisted of people with normal vision so there is not any real data on what blind people think of the games.


https://smartech.gatech.edu/bitstream/handle/1853/50444/TargettFernstroem2003.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Audio implementation methods in Unity

In every game development team, one must first understand what audio implementation is and where it fits in the development cycle, especially in audio games. In a video game, sounds often need to be triggered by something in the game environment, background music swells in and out and dialogue might change because of actions that the player chooses to take. This is why audio implementation is a necessary process in game development, especially in audio games.

Audio assets go through many phases before they end up in the final product. Acquisition of raw audio => Editing and arrangement in the DAW => Audio implementation => Final product.

A middleware solution provides a slightly different flow as is shown in : Acquisition of raw audio => Editing and arrangement in the DAW => Middleware => Audio implementation => Final product Middleware is a bridge between the sound designers and the programmers which is using GUI and API.The GUI is where a sound designer can import audio, design events and often even test the audio in real-time and The API then allows a programmer to access the codebase without the need of delving into the main code.

Middleware offers a complete toolset for designing, organizing and optimizing adaptive audio.Often used features are, for example, volume automation, pitch shifting, audio panning and looping. It costs money for the license(depend on which software you use).

Importing audio into Unity asset folder is simple. It's just take some drag and drop to Unity asset folder. Unity support .aif, .wav, .mp3,.ogg file formats. All audio is handled by an Audio Manager object containning and Audio Manager script component.

Sound using in games development is mostly theme music and SFX ( sound effect).For theme music, the sound designer can prepare two versions of the audio clip: one that plays only once when the section that is meant to loop starts and one that loops as long as is needed. Each level has its own theme music and the music should be fit with the environment of the level. About SFX, It's almost played only once whenever they are triggered so no looping are required. The sound play with PlayOneShot method For some actions required more than one audio clip, we can using Random.Range(a,b) where “a” is the element number for the sound included in the randomisation range, and “b” is the first number excluded. So that you can play the audio sound randomly and not hearing the same clip over and over again.
http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201905149596