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

by Karen Collins

An examination of the many complex aspects of game audio, from the perspectives of both sound design and music composition. A distinguishing feature of video games is their interactivity, and sound plays an important role in a player's actions can trigger dialogue, sound effects, ambient sound, and music. And yet game sound has been neglected in the growing literature on game studies. This book fills that gap, introducing readers to the many complex aspects of game audio, from its development in early games to theoretical discussions of immersion and realism. In Game Sound , Karen Collins draws on a range of sources—including composers, sound designers, voice-over actors and other industry professionals, Internet articles, fan sites, industry conferences, magazines, patent documents, and, of course, the games themselves—to offer a broad overview of the history, theory, and production practice of video game audio. Game Sound has two underlying how and why games are different from or similar to film or other linear audiovisual media; and technology and the constraints it has placed on the production of game audio. Collins focuses first on the historical development of game audio, from penny arcades through the rise of home games and the recent rapid developments in the industry. She then examines the production process for a contemporary game at a large game company, discussing the roles of composers, sound designers, voice talent, and audio programmers; considers the growing presence of licensed intellectual property (particularly popular music and films) in games; and explores the function of audio in games in theoretical terms. Finally, she discusses the difficulties posed by nonlinearity and interactivity for the composer of game music.

Genres: Music, Games, Video Games, Nonfiction, Game Design, Design

216 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2008

Reviews

[giuli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Usually, I don't review academic or college books, but I thought it was important to comment on this one, as it is a subject that many people can be interested in without even studying / working in the area, as it is a very small field of study. And nowadays, it's a very relevant topic (video game music).

Karen not only gives us an overview of the history of audio in video games, she also explains the technology behind it. Both sides are not so deeply explained that you learn everything in this book without any other references, but these days, many people understand the basics of computers (technology), so it becomes understandable. To add to Karen’s ideas and explanations, I suggest looking for the infinite YouTube videos of enthusiasts demonstrating the sounds and changes in videogames.

I like the book, it’s great, don’t get me wrong. I just think that Karen isn't as objective when it comes to separating her texts. The (very) long text format per chapter is a little difficult to understand, considering she’s a pioneer in her field of study and we have no other reference when reading her. So I suggest looking for other basic texts or even posts from videogame enthusiast blogs. The Red Bull Music Academy series “Diggin’ In The Carts” is recommended here as a supplement (available for free on YouTube).

Also, I find the order of the chapters very unhelpful to the rookie crowd. And considering that it is a very small area in terms of research, and Karen Collins is the number 1 reference in the world on ludomusicology, she could have paid more attention to this fluidity. She seems like a wonderful teacher who knows a lot, but whose class is a bit all over the place due to her clear enthusiasm, haha, so you need to have a little patience.

So regarding that there is no literature on ludomusicology in my country, I thought this book was great!

[David Dinaburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Please consider reading the full version of this review at my website and support independent internet

The opening half of Game Sound focuses on hardware breakdowns, similar in style to what I loved from I AM ERROR. It did everything I wanted it to: a detailed history of videogame generations–it even outscooped my living memory, as I confused the isometric proto-roguelite adventure game Toejam & Earl with its sequel, Panic on Funkotron, which the book correctly names a “music side-scrolling platform game”–and all the hardware is discussed chronologically in as discrete hardware cycles as can be made.

When things veered away from consoles to the PC, a truly wild world of massive hardware differentiation was revealed. Did your SoundBlaster card crash out every time you tried to run Quest for Glory 4? Did you have a MIDI player running old game music while you tried to apply a fan-translation patch to FF5? I sure did. MIDI meant almost nothing to me—I did not realize it was a file-type distinction until right now—it was just words, like WinAmp or REALplayer.

[E F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Broad with enough depth at certain points to understand the historical context, but the depth is inconsistent and seems like there’s too much specificity in some places and not enough in others. Also there’s a very long section about ‘randomly generated’ or sequential music that is entirely too in depth compared to the rest of the book - clearly the author is knowledgeable but more even coverage of all the topics would have been appreciated. Having only a few pages dedicated to some aspects of early game design techniques - but nearly half a chapter dedicated to the early sequential music generation techniques of 1700-1800’s composers - seems inappropriate and leaning more towards the scholarly interests of the author than the purpose of a text like this.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeah this is pretty much the first book you need to read if you want to understand game audio design. Found it very late in my education, but I think my University should have had this as required reading...

[Kevin Powe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid primer on the history of game sound and the design of dynamic audio.

[Rachel Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was a textbook but still good.

[Michael Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Game Sound by Karen Collins in a rush, so maybe my review is too harsh: I wanted to understand how sound is produced for (computer and video) games, how different game genres typical for indie game dev can use sound, what are the typical processes for outsourcing sound production, and what are the main free tools I could use in a start-up or student setting.

Overall, I found answers for roughly a quarter from all my questions, but also found an interesting section on procedural sound generation.

On the positive side, the book covers an interesting and necessary set of topics: Chapters 1-4 set the problem and cover the history of game sound (a bit shallow); Chapter 5 presents the main process for producing game sound (similar but not identical to film sound production); Chapter 6 discusses the inter-licensing of doing between games and the proper music industry (very, very dry); Chapter 7 (mistitled to seem broad, vs the actual content) discussed mainly immersion and why it is not easy to achieve with traditional methods; Chapter 8 (the best, in my opinion) discusses the need for compositional approaches, especially procedural, for game sound, and surveys many previous and current techniques in this area; and Chapter 9 concludes.

I also liked the references, although not so many that I found new (so, my fault). I found really useful material in the chapter about procedural sound generation, so this explains my overall positive rating (which goes contrary to the overall tone of my review).

On the negative side, besides the imbalanced writing style (the dry passages do not match the otherwise good technical writing), the coverage of the subject is imbalanced and often plain shallow. A few examples: a few games, all big-budget and corresponding to AAA titles, are used in most (if not all) explanations; although Chapter 7's title seems to indicate that "genre" will be covered extensively, there is little beyond MMORPG, action, and FPS games; etc. The consequence of this imbalance is that very popular game genres, from casual to action-RTS (MOBAs, including DotA2), are omitted; there is also, for my personal curiosity, the issue of not answering to my main questions.

Other issues, such as the shallow treatment of the material in tables, and the scarcity of quantified elements (sizes, counts outer prettiest, breakdowns of expected durations for various production steps, rates of completion or other metrics of success, etc.) make this text perhaps less suitable for learning about the actual production of sound. It may also prevent even drier text at points, so perhaps it is to much to ask.

To conclude: a good, no-frills, at points dry and at others shallow introductory course.

[Mark Poulsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book explores game audio mainly from a perspective of audio production. It looks at game audio within three overall themes: history (with a focus on technological possibilities), industry and functionality (in relation to game design and needs of a game). The last part definitely felt the most like an introduction, and I will be looking more expansive litterature on the subject. Nevertheless, this book is a very good starting point for understanding interactive audio in the context of video games and interactive media.

While relatively old, it still poses relevant questions that I am sure have been taken up in later works both by Collins but also by other scholars. I most enjoyed the first chapters detailing the historical developments of video game audio as it highlights very well that the style of analysis suitable for understanding game audio in the past is severely contingent on understanding the influence of the technological possibilities. It is only in the 2000s and onwards that game audio and music can be seen as a distinct art form on its own - where game audio finds its conventional art form approaches.

It is a field in continuous development, which of course inevitably renders this book outdated. But not yet, and perhaps never, given its excellent introductory account of the history.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is certainly unique and worth a read by people with enough background in music to understand the concepts presented, with its first 3 chapters standing out in particular with their in-depth exploration of the technical aspects of classic video games systems and the implications of that on the music produced during that era. Starting from Chapter 4, the tone shifts progressively towards the speculative territory and into the author's personal research, achieving mixed results. Online games also assume a disproportionate space in the narrative, which can be good or bad depending on the reader (bad for me). With the benefit of reading her writings from the future, we can see how some ideas just didn't materialize or were coming from the wrong place. Anyway, still a good resource and something with value even today.

[Peter Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Granted this is one of the earlier texts dealing with video game music, but I found the structure a bit disorganised, the coverage on topics inconsistent, and there are numerous notation and transcription errors in the sheet music examples. That said, this book still has something to offer anyone interested in the medium, but it's more of a series of interesting discussion pieces rather than anything definitive.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Works as a history of video games to 2008 and includes some meaty info on the how-tos and considerations involved in creating game sound.

[kayla reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a very nice primer on the basics of the theory, ideas, technology, and application of interactive and adaptive audio in games. I definitely enjoyed delving into this.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

The theory, practice, and history of computer game music. Includes many sheet music examples.
(I know I've liked a book when I spend time in the notes and bibliography sections. :-) )

[Arav Agarwal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Highly dated , though the approaches to dynamic music is worth a glance .