Ubiquitous Ambient Gaming - Brainstorming on some of the sounds

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May 26, 2010

Contents

Context

This brainstorming was done with the same 3 persons who played the game and participated to the first brainstorming on the visual interface. I discussed with them about some of the sounds used in the game:

  • the sound of the state of the game
  • the sound of the shelters

Results

State of the game

How to inform the player with sounds of the state of the game. The state of the game varies in 3 different ways :

  • the player brings animals to their shelter
  • a tiger eats the animals the player is carrying
  • the player reaches a new level

All these information are present visually thanks to the progress bar that gives all the information. How, what and when do we want to inform aurally the player?

progressBar-26-05.png

Bring animals to their shelter and reach a new level

Three information can be given in the sound :

  • the number of animals dropped
  • the total experience gained (ie the total number of animals dropped so far)
  • did the user reach a new level? This can only happen when a user drops an animal.


For the 2 first points, 2 solutions were proposed:

  • for each animal dropped, a short sound is emitted
    • if several animals are dropped at the same time, several short sounds will follow
    • the volume of each sound will increase according to the total number of animals the player has dropped in the game
  • when a user drops animals at a cage, a continuous sound is emitted
    • the sound is increasing gradually and last according to the number of animals that were dropped at this moment
    • there is no reminder of the total animals dropped (ie, of the experience gained of the player)
    • the participants preferred this option, and referred to progress bars in video games for the sounds I should use, such as :
      • Metal Gear Solid 1, when the player kills a boss and gain life
      • Halo when a weapon is recharging


For the third point (did the user reach a new level) :

  • the sound would come after those of the 2 first points
  • what does the player hear?
    • a short sound of one animal of the new type, then he can hear all the animals of this type (but it might be confusing, the player could mistake this short sound with an animal to catch)
    • a short sound of several animals of this type
    • a cage sound along with several animals of this type (this can also be done visually to ensure continuity in the game)
Animals eaten

The idea is to keep the same logic for the animals left at a shelter and the animals eaten, but with the opposite sound effects :

  • if the animals dropped are heard as short sounds, it will be the same for animals eaten, only the volume will decrease
  • if the player hears a continuous sound, the sound will decrease too

Sound of the shelters

We didn’t have much time on this part, it might be interesting to do another meeting to discuss about this issue. The participants were not sure it was interesting to differentiate the shelters according to types.

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