Course Description

In this course, students will examine the role of music and sound design in interactive media (i.e. video games) by surveying the historical, technical, cultural and aesthetic concerns of game audio and music. Throughout the quarter, students will hear presentations from several industry composers, sound designers and programmers.

Course Information

Name	Lecture/Section	Lecture/Section Location	Office Hours	Office Location	Email
Andrew Allen	Tues/Thurs 12:30pm-1:50pm	CPMC136	Tues/Thurs 11:00am-12:00pm	Powell-Focht Bioengineering Hall, 2nd floor lobby
Paul Hembree	Wed 10:00am-10:50am (A03) Fri 11:00am-11:50pm (A06)	CPMC136 (Wed) CPMC145 (Fri)	Tues 2:00pm-3:00pm	WLH2148
Putu Hiranmayena	Mon 10:00am-10:50am (A01) Mon 11:00am-11:50am (A02)	CPMC136	Fri 12:30pm-1:30pm	CPMC245
Fernanda Navarro	Wed 12:00pm-12:50pm (A04) Wed 1:00pm-1:50pm (A05)	CPMC136	Thurs 11:30pm-12:30pm	CPMC243

Assignments

Student grades will be determined by an assessment of their critical listening skills and course mastery on two examinations as well as participation in discussions and concert reviews, and, (as extra credit), their scholarly/creative research into a topic of video game audio of their choice. The points-breakdown and grading rubric are as follows:

Grading Rubric

Lecture	Section	Midterm Exam	Final Exam	Project (extra credit)	Total
25	25	25	25	10	100

Lecture

Students will be expected to regularly attend lecture. Attendance will be checked periodically. Students are required to notify their TA prior to any absence for them to be excused. Failure to notify your TA before absence will result in an unexcused absence.

Section

Students are expected to attend their assigned section and to participate in the section's discussions and weekly reading and homework assignments. Students must be present and actively engage in discussions in order to receive full participation credit. Failure to participate in discussions will result in a deduction from your Section score, regardless of your attendance.

Midterm Exam

A midterm exam will cover the first half of class' lecture topics. Students can expect several multiple choice and short answer questions as well as an essay /response question.

Project (Extra Credit)

If a student would like to recover points lost either from their midterm exam score or from their lecture/section score, they may makeup up to 10 points by completing an extra credit project/paper. The project must demonstrate a proficiency with video game audio in some creative, technical and/or analytical way. Students may propose extra credit topics to their TA and instructor. The criteria of the project will be determined per request by their TA and the course instructor. Only projects that successfully meet and exceed all criteria will receive a full 10 points of extra credit.

Final Exam

The final exam will cover the second half of the class' lecture topics. Students can expect several multiple choice and short answer questions as well as an essay /response question. Failure to complete the final exam will result in an automatic failure for the course.

Letter Grade Ranges

F	D-	D	D+	C-	C	C+	B-	B	B+	A-	A	A+
0-59	60-62	63-66	67-69	70-72	73-76	77-79	80-82	83-86	87-89	90-92	93-96	97-100

Plagarism

Academic honesty is extremely important. Failure to acknowledge your sources for quotations, paraphrases, or ideas consistently and completely is plagiarism. You are expected to produce original work in this course. If you copy the words of another author (from a book, article, website, etc.) without quoting and citing the source, you are committing plagiarism--the appropriation or imitation of the language or ideas of another person and presenting them as your original work. If you buy or borrow a paper written by another person, you are cheating and plagiarizing. Neither will be tolerated under any circumstances. If you are uncertain about proper documentation of sources, you should consult with the TAs and me. Plagiarism/cheating will result in an F for this course and will be reported to the Academic Integrity Office.

Date	Topic
01/07	Introduction and Overview An overview of the expections and requirements for the course as well discuss what to expect in the weeks to come.
01/09	Video Game Prehistory The (pre-)history of video games, how they came to be and from what origins they arrived. Readings: Chapter 1
01/14	The 8-bit era: Digital Audio I A primer on digital audio and sampling theory and some sonic examples. Readings: Chapter 2
01/16	Special Guest: Ben Prunty Ben Prunty, composer for the Indie strategy game FTL will be giving a talk about his music and the indie game scene.
01/21	The 8-bit era: Digital Audio II A primer on digital signal processing (DSP) and synthesis, with sonic examples.
01/23	The 8-bit era: Sonic Analysis A survey of some of the creative approaches in generating music and sound effects in the 8-bit era.
01/28	The 16-bit era: Wavetables A discussion of second generation techniques and wavetable synthesis. Readings: Chapter 3
01/30	The 16-bit era: Sonic Analysis I A presentation of some of the highlights of musical and sonic vocabularies from the 16-bit era.
02/04	The 16-bit era: Sonic Analysis II A (continued) presentation of some of the highlights of musical and sonic vocabularies from the 16-bit era.
02/06	Midterm Exam An exam covering the first half of the course's topics.
02/11	Special Guest: Ken Jacobsen Ken Jacobsen, composer for the Amazing Spiderman game series, presents on his work and life experiences. Readings: Chapter 8
02/13	3rd Gen: CD-Quality Audio A presentation of the techniques and implications of CD-quality recordings and a discussion about spoken dialogue and vocal performance in video games. Readings: Chapter 4
02/18	3rd Gen: Sonic Analysis I Analysis of the music and sound effects in third generation titles.
02/20	3rd Gen: Sonic Analysis II Analysis of successful (and some not so successful) uses of spoken dialogue in games.
02/25	4th Gen+: Dynamic Audio I A discussion of modern techniques and architecture of dynamic audio engines. Readings: Chapter 7
02/27	4th Gen+: Dynamic Audio II A deeper look at the techniques at the cutting edge of dynamic audio technology.
03/04	4th Gen+: Sonic Analysis An analysis of modern titles that take full advantage of dynamic audio.
03/06	Chiptunes A look at the extramedial influences of video games in live concert music settings. Readings: Chapter 6
03/11	Special Guest: Jeff Ball Violinst for Mass Effect and indie composer Jeff Ball discussions his work as a composer and performer in the video game industry.
03/13	The State of the Art A thorough look at the typical production pipeline and techniques involved in state-of-the-art music and sound production. Readings: Chapter 5, 9
03/18	Final Exam An exam covering the second half of the course's topics.

Game Sound

An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design

Buy On Amazon

Title	Composer	Game	Comments
Babu Yetu	Christopher Tin	Civilization IV	performed by the Soweto Gospel Choir
Swanky Maximino	Peter McConnell	Grim Fandango	uses the iMUSE technology
Klaymen's Theme	Terry Scott Taylor	The Neverhood
The Place I'll Return to Someday	Nobuo Uematsu	Final Fantasy IX	medieval counterpoint
Prohibited Art	Koh Otani	Shadow of the Colossus
Nerevar Rising	Jeremy Soule	Morrowind	a multigame motif
Wood Carving Partita	Michiru Yamane	Castlevania: Symphony of the Night	neo-baroque
I don't want to set the world on fire	The Ink Spots	Fallout	doo-wop
Killed by Death	Akira Yamaoka	Silent Hill
Amaterasu Returns	Masami Ueda	Okami	traditional japanese influence
Prologue	Masami Ueda	Okami
In Awe of the Power	Koh Otani	Shadow of the Colossus
Dance of Pales	Michiru Yamane	Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Still Alive	GLaDOS/Jonathan Coulton	Portal

Final Exam Study Guide

• iMUSE
• MIDI
• CD-quality audio
• Surround Sound
• Room Acoustics
• Binaural Audio
• Stereo Panning
• In-Game Musical Instruments
• Rhythm Games
• Examples of Terror in Silent Hill's audio
• FF9 (motif, medevial connections, etc.)
• Music Licensing (and some examples)
• Symphony of the Night pluralism
• Silence in video games
• "Art Games"
• Dialog Trees
• Speech Synthesis techniques
• Portal's Dynamic Audio
• Braid's use of time
• "Innovation vs. Refinement"
• The Monomyth as applied to Journey's music
• Music Sequencing
• Chiptune characteristics
• Physics-based audio