Hey people, I discovered this site whilst I was doing some online research for my dissertation, which is basically looking at the relevance of audio in games and also comparing how it's used to the world of TV/Film. I've bought or borrowed the few books on the subject (e.g. The Fat Man on Game Audio), got several on stuff like the psychology of sound and scoring for films and I've got quite a bit of research online as well, but at the moment what I'm really looking for is my 'primary research'. This is, as you probably know where I have to politely spam a lot of people who work in the field so I can get an interview or two and get some answers to questions relevant to my piece. My question therefore is, would any of you be interested in replying (either via email or a messenger service or something) to some questions?? I intend to come up with the actual questions within the next couple of days. It'd be killer if I could get even just a couple of people to help out, and it wouldn't take very long to do :) I'm actually doing BA Animation (final year) but since we were encouraged not to do anything boring like 2D vs. 3D and I've got a healthy interest in music and guitars I thought this would be something fairly interesting to do. Hopefully in future I can post on here under the title of animator for games or something haha, employment would be cool. Anyway, thanks for your time! -Paul

I'd be happy to answer your questions - I've sent you my e-mail via PM.

You might find some of the links on my site useful and you can contact me with any questions.

While it may be important to see how game soundtracks are much like movie soundtracks in terms of their overall purpose, I think a more interesting approach would be to see how both evolved from different beginnings into a very similar sound. For example, with movies you have the decline of the Golden Age orchestral scores to more ambient and electronic approaches, while in the game world you had a very electronic, yet melodic medium during the 80s-90s that is quickly diminishing into a more “background noise” style. Whatever the result, it reflects the current trends and tastes in music, which is the determining factor in what directors are calling a successful soundtrack these days.

I’ve thought lots about this, but I am by no means an authority on the subject.

Cool, thanks. We've been scripting our 3rd year films so I had a little break from my written piece. I'll be looking at things like interactivity, commisioning etc as well as the obvious stuff. I have a central theme but I'm going to explore lots of other things. I'll start saving those emails and stuff and try and get my questions sent off in the next couple of days.

Thanks Kenbar!
Some excellent links Simon, it's all very relevant :D
Sil, I'd be welcome to listen to any more of your opinions. I'm a sponge for knowledge at the moment on this sort of stuff.

As this is a research piece, not a rant by me, everything is useful and cool and something to put down in my references/bibliography etc.

Thanks!

[Edited by - Paulybobs on November 3, 2005 2:27:06 PM]