The Game Audio Strategy Guide is a comprehensive text designed to turn both novices and experienced audio designers into technical game audio pros. Providing both a theoretical foundation and practical insights, The Game Audio Strategy Guide offers a thorough look at the tools and methods needed to create industry-quality music and sound design for games. The text is supported by an extensive companion website, featuring numerous practical tutorials and exercises, which allows the reader to gain hands-on experience creating and implementing audio assets for games. The Game Audio Strategy Guide is the essential manual for anyone interested in creating audio for games, inside or outside the classroom.

Game Audio Fundamentals takes the reader on a journey through game audio design: from analog and digital audio basics to the art and execution of sound effects, soundtracks, and voice production, as well as learning how to make sense of a truly effective soundscape. Presuming no pre-existing knowledge, this accessible guide is accompanied by online resources – including practical examples and incremental DAW exercises – and presents the theory and practice of game audio in detail, and in a format anyone can understand. This is essential reading for any aspiring game audio designer, as well as students and professionals from a range of backgrounds, including music, audio engineering, and game design.

A wide-ranging survey of video game music creation, practice, perception and analysis - clear, authoritative and up-to-date.

Video game music is a significant site of queerness where normative demands are questioned, suspended or loosened. Games resist hegemonic musical logics, challenge musical value systems and use music to complicate essentialist notions of identity. This Element proposes three areas of queerness, each representing different relationships between 'queer design' and 'queer engagement', ranging fromunintentionally resistive to explicit engagement with identity. First, this Element examines musical structures that provide queer temporal alternatives to normative linear development, and interactive systems that reframe the power relationship between musical material and listener. Second, it considers 'retro' or 'chiptune' timbres that queer notions of technological progress to be improvements, rejecting chrononormativity. Finally, the Element discusses music that queers the self/other binary of identity. Games present ways of listening to, engaging with and understanding music that provide opportunities to challenge inherited assumptions and reductive or monolithic values, practices and identities.

From the one-bit beeps of Pong to the 3D audio of PlayStation 5, this book examines historical trends in video game sound and music. A range of game systems sold in North America, Europe and Japan are evaluated by their audio capabilities and industry competition. Technical fine points are explored, including synthesized v. sampled sound, pre-recorded v. dynamic audio, backward compatibility, discrete and multifunctional soundchips, storage media, audio programming documentation, and analog v. digital outputs. A timeline chronicles significant developments in video game sound for PC, NES, Dreamcast, Xbox, Wii, Game Boy, PSP, iOS and Android devices and many others.

Design and implement video game sound from beginning to end with this hands-on course in game audio. Music and sound effects speak to players on a deep level, and this book will show you how to design and implement powerful, interactive sound that measurably improves gameplay. If you are a sound designer or composer and want to do more than just create audio elements and hand them over to someone else for insertion into the game, this book is for you. You'll understand the game development process and implement vital audio experiences-not just create music loops or one-off sound effects. The Game Audio Tutorial isn't just a book-you also get a powerful website (www.thegameaudiotutorial.com)

“This book is a must read for newcomers and experienced composers wanting to learn more about the art of video game composition.” —Chuck Doud, Director of Music, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios All You Need to Know to Create Great Video Game Music Written by the developer of Berklee School of Music’s pioneering game scoring program, this guide covers everything professional composers and music students need to know about composing interactive music for video games, and contains exclusive tools for interactive scoring—tools that were previously available only at Berklee. Drawing on twenty years of professional experience in the game industry, Michael Sweet helps you master the unique language of music storytelling in games. Next, he walks you through the entire music composition process, from initial conceptualization and creative direction through implementation. Inside, you’ll find dozens of examples that illustrate adaptive compositional techniques, from small downloadable games to multimillion dollar console titles. In addition, this guide covers the business side of video game composition, sharing crucial advice about contracts, pricing, sales, and marketing. Coverage includes Overcoming the unique challenges of writing for games Composing music that can adapt in real time to player actions Developing thematic ideas Using audio middleware to create advanced interactive scores Working effectively with game development teams Understanding the life of a video game composer Managing contracts, rights, estimating, and negotiation Finding work The companion website contains software tools to help you master interactive music concepts explored in this book, with additional resources and links to learn more about scoring for games. See Appendix A for details.

This book supports readers to transition to more advanced independent game projects by deepening their understanding of the concept development process. It covers how to make concepts sufficiently viable, ambitious, and innovative to warrant the creation of a polished prototype in preparation of a publisher pitch. The book is divided into six sections. After a brief tutorial (Preliminary Phase), readers embark on a journey along the book’s methodology. They travel through successive conceptual phases (Preparations, Procedures, Processes, and Propositions); advance through levels and action beats in each of these phases; master challenges (conceptual tasks) and overcome level bosses (design decisions) that become successively harder; collect items (fulfilled documentation tasks); and “win” the game by having progressed from a raw, initial idea to a full-fledged, polished game treatment. Additional resources for the book are available at ludotronics.net. This book is designed to support junior and senior year BA or MA students in game design programs, as well as novice indie developers and those in the early stages of their game design career.

Innovation in Music: Technology and Creativity is a groundbreaking collection bringing together contributions from instructors, researchers, and professionals. Split into two sections, covering composition and performance, and technology and innovation, this volume offers truly international perspectives on ever-evolving practices. Including chapters on audience interaction, dynamic music methods, AI, and live electronic performances, this is recommended reading for professionals, students, and researchers looking for global insights into the fields of music production, music business, and music technology.

Turn your musical passion into a profitable career with this essential guide to the business and technical skills you need to succeed in the multi-billion dollar games industry. Step-by-step instructions lead you through the entire music and sound effects process - from developing the essential skills and purchasing the right equipment to keeping your clients happy. Learn everything you need to: Find the jobs. Identify your niche, implement a business and marketing plan that includes a great demo reel, and plug into the established network to find clients. Make the deals. Make the bidding and contract process work for you by knowing the standard industry terminology, understanding how to set fees, and employing non-confrontational negotiating tactics to reach sound agreements that establish acceptable boundaries for change orders, reworks, payment options, and other essentials. Create music and sound effects for games. Master the exacting specifications for composing music and creating sound effects on the various gaming platforms and systems. The companion DVD features audio and cinematic examples, demos of useful sound editing and sequencing programs, and sample business contracts.