Självständigt Arbete På Grundnivå Independent Degree Project − First Cycle

Självständigt arbete på grundnivå Independent degree project − first cycle

Ljudproduktion 15 hp

Sound Production 15 Credits

Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse

En utforskande analys av ljuddesigners arbetsmetoder och ren resulterande ljudbildens effekter på spelupplevelse

Olof Pettersson

Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse

Olof Pettersson 2018-01-22

MID SWEDEN UNIVERSITY Department of Electronics Design

Examiner: Jan Thim, [email protected] Supervisor: Clara Jalmar, [email protected] Author: Olof Pettersson, [email protected] Degree programme: Music and Sound Design, 120 credits Main field of study: Sound Production Semester, year: Fall, 2017

1 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Sammanfattning

Olof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Sammanfattning Denna studies syfte var att undersöka sambandet mellan spelljuddesigners arbetsmetoder, målsättningar och tankegångar under produktionstiden och hur ljudbilden i det slutgiltiga spelet upplevs av såväl publik som speljournalister. En enkät med frågor om ljudet i utvalda spel skickades ut och tog emot över hundra svarande och recensioner samlades i och sammanställdes för att få en bild över vad allmänheten ansåg om spelens ljud. Endast en av de sju eftersökta designerna till de utvalda spelen svarade och ställde upp på intervju.

Informationen samlad från den intervjun tyder på att ljudbildens omdöme beror i del på hur klart målet för ljudbilden var redan innan produktionsprocessen började. Studien tyder på att om en designer har en tydlig idé för hur världen som ska designas bör låta så speglas detta också i journalisters omdömen och allmänhetens uppfattning om vad de hör. Fler studier krävs dock för att med säkerhet säga att så är fallet och en del alternativa förklaringar är ännu inte uteslutna.

Abstract The goal of this study was to research the connection between the methods, goals and thought processes of a sound designer throughout the production of a game and how the soundscape of the final product was received by the public as well as games journalists. A survey with questions about the sound of select games was sent out and received over a hundred answers and reviews of the same games was collected and assessed to get a picture of what the public thought about theses game’s sound. Only one of the seven sound designers that was approached responded and agreed to an interview.

The information gathered in that interview indicated that the publics opinion of the soundscape of a game is in part determined by the clarity of the goal for the soundscape before production began. The study indicates that if a sound designer has a firm idea of how the world that is being sonically portrayed is supposed to sound then that reflects well in the judgment of journalists and the opinion of the audience. Even so, more studies of the same sort are required to solidify this result and to rule out alternative methods of explanation.

2 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Innehåll

Olof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Innehåll

Sammanfattning ...... ii

Abstract ...... 2

Inledning ...... 5

Syfte ...... 5 Problemformulering ...... 5 Teori...... 6

Tidigare forskning ...... 6 Litteratur ...... 6 Metod ...... 8

Upplevelseundersökning ...... 8 Recensenter ...... 8

Enkätundersökning ...... 8

Uttalanden från ljuddesigners ...... 8

Metod ...... 8 Urval av speltitlar ...... 9 Begränsningar ...... 9

Genomförande ...... 11

Enkät ...... 11 Uppbyggnad ...... 11

Utskick ...... 11

Sammanställning ...... 12

Intervjuer ...... 12 Bastion ...... 13

Transistor ...... 13

Intervjuguide ...... 13

Darren Korb ...... 14

Recensenters omdömen ...... 14 Urval av recensioner ...... 14

Destructoid ...... 14

GameSpot ...... 15

IGN ...... 15

3 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Innehåll

Olof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Rock Paper Shotgun ...... 15

PC Gamer ...... 16

Metacritic ...... 16

Resultat ...... 17

Enkät ...... 17 Recensioner ...... 19 Intervju ...... 21 Slutsats ...... 26

Diskussion ...... 27

Kritik ...... 27 Referenser ...... 28

Bilaga 1: Intervju med Darren Korb ...... 31

Bilaga 2: Data från enkät ...... 47

4 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Inledning

Olof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Inledning Den explosionsartade utvecklingen av den globala spelindustrin har gjort att industrin öppnat upp för mer avancerade och komplexa ljudbilder i takt med att tekniken har tillåtit ensamma ljuddesigners att skapa mer och mer interaktiva ljudmiljöer utan speciellt mycket åtanke till budget. Åtskilliga tekniska utvecklingar inom demokratiseringen av spelutveckling i form av kommersiellt tillgängliga spelmotorer för individer och grupper utan större behov av finansiella medel eller spetskompetenser har gjort det möjligt för en liknande marknad av programvara att uppstå för hantering av ljud i spel.

För min egen del har de ljudande aspekterna av spel alltid varit viktiga för den upplevelse jag har haft med dem under mina år som barn och tonår. Spelmusik specifikt har länge varit en av de viktigaste faktorerna när det har kommit till det slutgiltiga omdömet jag har gett de spel jag åtnjutit. Dock så har mina studier inom ljuddesign gjort att jag mer och mer lyssnat på allting förutom just musiken i spel och trots mina egna ambitioner att skriva musik åt spel så har jag personligen saknat ordentliga vetenskapliga studier i ljuddesignens påverkan på spelupplevelse.

För trots att detta görs det få studier på hur ljud påverkar upplevelsen av ett spel, till skillnad från film där denna typ av undersökning med åren har fått en naturlig plats i läroböcker inom filmproduktion. Ändå så återstår det faktum att den globala omsättningen för spel 2016 uppsteg till över 90 miljarder USD (Takahashi, 2016), mer än dubbla det av den globala filmindustrin som under 2016 landade på 38 miljarder USD (Lang, 2017). Syfte Denna studie har som mål att kartlägga olika metoder att arbeta inom ämnet spelljud samt effekterna dessa arbetssätt har på personers upplevelser av de färdiga spelen. Utöver detta ämnar studien förstå sambandet mellan olika typer av produktioner för spelljud och om de korrelerar med olika trender inom självrapporterade upplevelser och åsikter bland spelarbasen.

Syftet är också att lägga grunden för fler och djupare studier inom de konkreta effekterna av produktionsmål för ljud så som de relaterar till spelarupplevelse. Detta för att fortsätta bygga forskningskroppen som kan leda till generellt accepterade principer och riktlinjer inom produktion av ljuddesign för spel vid givna mål för ljudbilden. Problemformulering Att undersöka om ljudbilden hos spel har mätbara effekter på spelares upplevelse av specifika spel och ifall sådana effekter går att härleda till tankar och arbetsmetoder av ljuddesigners under spelets produktionstid.

5 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Teori

Olof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Teori Ett av problemen med forskning inom ämnet interaktiva medier är det att i den utsträckning vi kan säga att multimediala verk som verkligen kan klassas som interaktiva fanns för 30 år sedan har väldigt lite gemensamt med vad ett modernt spel innebär. De tekniska begränsningarna gjorde att vad som fanns på den kommersiella marknaden då inte har särskilt många likheter med en modern produktion vad gäller använd programvara, resultatmål eller storlek på de förmedlade historierna.

På grund av att ljud i spel först har uppnått den komplexitet och djup som krävs för att kunna studerade det närmre likt filmljud görs i vissa filmstudier så finns det en stor brist med relevant forskning om ämnet. Jag har varken kunnat hitta generellt accepterade regler för hur en sådan produktion går till eller teorier om specifika metoders eller vanliga stilistiska greps påverkan på slutresultatet. På det stora hela har jag inte kunnat hitta några vetenskapligt belagda teorier för hur en producerar ljud för spel eller vilka metoder en ska använda om en vill uppnå specifika resultat. Tidigare forskning Vad jag har kunnat hitta är en del examensarbeten från de relativt nystartade kandidatutbildningarna inom specifikt ljud för spel från Högskolan i Skövde och Blekinge Tekniska Högskola.

Under våren 2016 undersökte Victor Engström effekterna av stokastiskt rekombinerad spelmusik och fann att de undersökta individerna föredrog den rekombinerade musiken framför en klassiskt linjärt skriven musik i spel, även om de undersökta individerna inte ansåg att den ena var mer repetitiv jämfört med den andra. (Engström)

Samma år skrev Samuel Bengtsson ett kandidatarbete om konstruktionen av ett ljudlandskap i öppna spelmiljöer och fann att just den processen i utvecklingen av ett spel handlar om att fokusera på de små detaljerna som då bildar ”stämning” mellan ljudlandskapet och den grafiska miljön. (Bengtsson)

En tredje, kanske mer intressant studie som också gjordes 2016 skrevs av Kristoffer Eriksson, även han från Högskolan i Skövde. Han undersökte hur en förändring i mixning av ett spels ljudbild påverkade spelares prestationsförmåga och i de fall en förändring sker, om den har något med individernas spelartyper att göra. Hans resultat är tveksamma i den bästa av världar men det han fann var att trots att han inte kunde svara på studiens fråga så fanns det en korrelation mellan en mix där starka transienter framhävdes och spelarnas fokus, inlevelse och i vissa fall prestation. (Eriksson) Litteratur Vad gäller böcker så finns det lite mer intressanta saker att läsa in sig på. Först en bok av Karen Collins vid namn Game Sound: An introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design (Collins, 2008). Boken är utgiven 2008 och det är den principiella boken på spelmusik och spelljud. Dess problem är att även om den tar upp både ljudets funktioner för spelet och interaktivitet så är den dels utgiven 2008 och industrin har förändrats en hel del på 10 år och den handlar främst om ljud och musiks funktioner mer som deras informationsbärande roller i ett verk snarare än vilka effekter olika stilar eller kreativa val kan ha på spelaren.

En annan bok som kan nämnas är Creating Music and Sound for Games av G. W Childs 2007 (Childs, 2007), som också lider av vissa relevansproblem på grund av den snabbt föränderliga industrin men också på grund av dess låga halt av vetenskapligt belagt material.

6 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Teori

Olof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Den sista boken som tas upp här är A Composer’s Guide to Game Music av Winifred Phillips (Phillips, 2014). Som namnet avslöjar så lider den för den här studiens avseende av det faktum att det är en bok som strikt handlar om musik till spel snarare än ljuddesign och en sonisk helhet.

7 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Metod

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Metod Då målet med studien har varit att undersöka om vissa arbetssätt för ljuddesign ger skilda resultat i olika delar av en spelares upplevelse så har två olika saker behövts undersökas. För det första så krävs data på hur spelare graderar sin upplevelse i relation till olika speltitlar och för det andra så måste det undersökas hur olika ljuddesigners har arbetat i koppling till samma titlar. Upplevelseundersökning I kategorin spelare kan två olika grupper definieras. Dels de anonyma personer som alla har sina egna upplevelser angående de omfattade spelen som ska undersökas och dels de professionella eller semi- professionella journalister och recensenter som skrivit om sina erfarenheter med spelupplevelsen och delar med sig av sina åsikter om speldesign, visuell stil och vad vi här är intresserade av, ljud. Recensenter Denna sistnämnda grupp är inte en homogen samling likasinnade utan är personer med egna smaker och preferenser, så det finns inga garantier på att det kan extraheras renare och mer koherent data ur denna grupp än den första. Däremot kan deras analys anses vara av en annan grad än den knappt genomtänkte vardaglige spelarens, då det ändå är deras yrke att till viss del objektivt se på ett spelverk och gradera det på olika skalor samt jämföra det med tidigare och samtida verk av samma karaktär. Det finns dock tyvärr en tendens hos dessa recensenter att skriva om musiken snarare än ljuddesignen om de ens väljer att nämna ljud i sina artiklar.

Recensenternas verk i form av artiklar i tidskrifter finns tillgängligt online och i olika arkiv, så dessa måste hittas, tas in, analyseras och jämföras sinsemellan för att skapa en bild av gruppens generella åsikt. Enkätundersökning Vad gäller de anonyma spelarna så är deras erfarenheter och åsikter mer svåråtkomliga. Det bästa sättet att hämta denna information bör vara en enkätundersökning online som sprids via spelar- forum på sociala medier. Detta projekt har redan den nackdel att det inte har tillgång till stora mängder svarande för en enkät av detta slag, så det är av högsta vikt att de som faktiskt påbörjar enkätundersökningen har så stor chans som möjligt att fullfölja och lämna in ett komplett svarsformulär. Därför utformas enkäten till att vara så kort och koncis som möjligt. Uttalanden från ljuddesigners Designernas egna uttalanden om sina tillvägagångssätt är på ett sätt mycket svårare och på ett annat mycket enklare. Undersökningsmetoden här blir intervju-form, då det är väldigt svårt att förutsäga vad som kan vara användbart i en kvalitativ undersökning och formen därav bör hållas öppen för intressanta sidospår och oförutsedda diskussioner. Det som är svårt är att få tag på designerns att intervjua samt att konstruera en intervjuguide vars frågor är relevanta och ger svar som går att koppla till resultaten från enkäten samt recensionernas omdömen. Metod På grund av att en intervju i jämförelse med andra delar av undersökningen inte tar speciellt lång tid att genomföra samt att enkäten nödvändigtvis behöver ligga ute under en längre tid för att få in tillräckliga mängder svarande så är genomförandeplanen följande:

Först bör vilka titlar som ska undersökas i studien väljas ut och slås fast, mer om det nedan. Sedan bör en enkät med enkla frågor om svarandes upplevelser om de specifika titlarna konstrueras och

8 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Metod

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22 skickas ut online. Därefter bör recensenters omdömen och skrifter om titlarna samlas in och analyseras. Efter att en i förväg utsatt tid har gått så stängs enkäten och analyseras för att tillsammans med resultatet från recensenternas del ge underlag till konstruktionen av intervjuguiden. Detta är för att låta resultaten leda till att relevanta frågor ställs till designers men utan att resultatet från tidigare undersökningar färgar intervjuerna. Urval av speltitlar Ett av problemen i denna typ av undersökning är den rena mängden titlar som potentiellt sätt går att undersöka. Enligt analytikern Daniel Ahmad så har det under 2017 släppts fler än 6000 spel bara på den digitala distributionsplattformen Steam™ (Batchelor, 2017), något som gör en genomgående undersökning av ämnet något som endast kan genomföras i helhet av större forskningsorganisationer med högre budget och långt många fler dedikerade timmar än detta projekt. Av detta skäl så måste antalet titlar som ingår i undersökningen begränsas till ett hanterbart antal. Begränsningar Den första begränsningen som görs i urvalet av titlar är att endast titta på de spel som redan kvalificerat sig genom att uppvisa genomtänkta och utarbetade ljudlandskap. Detta görs bäst genom att lita på de etablerade institutioner och organisationer som varje år utser vinnare av olika priser inom ljud för spel. Olika organisationer har olika namn på priset eller priserna inom just ljud och organisationerna är även de många och av skiftande betydelse inom industrin. För att nämna några som av de mer betydelsefulla inom industrin så bör GDC Awards 1, BAFTA Games Awards 2 samt AIAS Awards 3 och The Game Awards 4, tidigare Spike. Utöver detta finns det en hel del mindre relevanta festivaler och prisutdelningar så som IGF Awards 5 och The Golden Joystick, en röstningstävling för allmänheten. Av speciellt intresse för denna studie är G.A.N.G Awards, spelljudsfackets egna prisutdelning, vars kategorier alla har med olika typer av ljud att göra. Till exempel har de sex olika priser bara för olika typer av användning, implementering och skapande av musik, samt ett pris för bästa mix, vilket väldigt få andra har.

Det är bland nomineringarna och vinnarna till dessa priser som urvalet kan ske, för de titlar som är nominerade till ljudkategorierna i dessa tävlingar har redan bevisat att de är av en kvalité hög nog att vara värda att studera.

Utöver detta så begränsas antalet titlar med att undersöka de spel där ansvariga för ljudet har varit tre personer eller färre. Då studien ämnar undersöka hur designers har jobbat i med helheter av ljud snarare än specifika framtagningsprocesser så är det opraktiskt att försöka med en liten studie försöka undersöka flertalet större designteam i hopp om att först kunna förstå hur de som grupp har arbetat och därefter undersöka hur denna gruppdynamik speglas i den färdiga produkten i form av

1 http://www.gamechoiceawards.com/

2 http://www.bafta.org/games

3 http://www.interactive.org/

4 http://thegameawards.com/

5 http://www.igf.com/

9 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Metod

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22 upplevelser personer har då de interagerar med verket. Alltså måste urvalet begränsas allra helst till ensamma ljuddesigners alternativt ledare av mindre grupper.

Den sista begränsningen som görs på urvalet är vilken plattform spelen har lanserats på. Det finns idag en uppsjö av olika distributionskanaler och sätt att åtnjuta moderna interaktiva verk. Ett exempel skulle kunna vara att kravet på att spela ett spel för iOS så krävs det att spelaren har en iPhone eller en iPad. Inte nödvändigtvis på grund av att det bara går att spela spelet på iOS, utan i många fall på grund av att Apple, som tillverkar både iPhone och iPad också kontrollerar Apple Store, distributionskanalen vilken genom all programvara för maskinerna måste gå igenom.

Fallet är ofta så att tillåtelsen att sälja sitt spel genom olika digitala distributionskanaler kommer med kravet att det endast säljs genom den kanalen, vilket begränsar publiken som verket potentiellt sett kan nå. Skälet till detta agerande från distributörers håll är många och alldeles för många att gå in på grundligt här, men den korta förklaringen är att det går ut på att sälja plattformar då åtråvärda spel bara finns tillgängliga på specifika konsoler eller apparater.

Den största av alla digitala distributörer är Steam, ägt av Valve som från början var en spelutvecklarstudio. Steam lider inte av samma exklusivitetsproblem på grund av att de själva inte producerar spelplattformar (i alla fall ännu inte i tillräckligt stor utsträckning för att vara relevant). De levererar spel från spelstudior till PC-spelare, som inte har någon enskild skapare av plattformar och därför blir en väldigt bred bas.

Genom att endast undersöka de spel som sålts genom Steam så kommer enkäten inte ha problemet att den ställer frågor om spel som svarande inte någonsin har kommit i kontakt med. Steam är för närvarande också den största spelarbasen i världen vilket ökar den potentiella mängden svaranden. Utöver detta så spelar jag personligen spel som jag köpt nästan bara genom Steam och har genom den kopplingen har jag tillgång till onlineforum och bekanta till vilka jag kan skicka enkäten.

10 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Genomförande

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Genomförande Detta avsnitt handlar om insamlingen av data som finns sedan analyseras i nedanstående resultat- del. Genomförandet har inte alltid gått enligt schemat som sattas innan projektet började och en hel under tiden som insamlandet av data har skett så har målet med studien förändrats markant. Detta har varit nödvändigt för att spegla den begränsning av datakällor som har kunnat undersökas. Då endast en av de personer som varit med och arbetat på ljudet av spelen som var med i studien ställde upp på intervju så var det den största begränsningen av problemformuleringen som gjordes efter det att projektets genomförande började. Enkät Enkäten var den individuellt bredaste insamlingen av data som gjordes i undersökningen. Målet var att få en bild av målgruppens respons på påståenden om olika spel som har märkt ut sig som exempel på bra användning av ljud till interaktiva medium. För att öka antalet svarande så gjorden enkäten helt webbaserad, inte bara för att öka räckvidden för antalet svar men också för att sänka arbetsbördan för att kodifiera och bygga statistik över svarsalternativen. De datorbaserade statistiksystemen har dessutom en lägre felmarginal och bortser från den mänskliga faktorn. Uppbyggnad Enkäten byggdes med hjälp av webtjänsten Google Forms, ett enkelt verktyg för mindre enkätundersökningar som har en simpel form. Att bygga den typ av fråga som enkäten primärt skulle bestå av tog lite tid och det var från början inte uppenbart hur detta gjordes i Google Forms. Efter att formatet på frågan hade undersökts närmre så visade det sig vara ganska enkelt och eftersom att alla tre frågor för varje spel hade samma format och hade samma form av svarsalternativ så kunde en formatmall byggas.

Utefter denna mall kunde kopior göras där påståendet som svarande gör ställningstagande till kunde formuleras om till en generisk fråga om ett ospecificerat spel. Detta gjordes för alla tre frågor så att en sektion av enkäten motsvarande ett ospecificerat spel kunde kopieras upp nio gånger, motsvarande alla spelen som var med i enkäten. De olika sektionerna döptes sedan om för att motsvara speltitlarna, både för sektionsrubriken och de hittills ospecificerade titlarna i de olika påståendena som svarande skulle ta ställning till.

Efter detta granskades sektionerna igen och omslagsbilderna till spelet lades till under varje sektion för att göra det tydligare vilket spel varje sektion handlar om. Utöver de frågorna som fanns under varje sektion så tillades också en liten ruta för övriga kommentarer i fritext, detta för att möjliggöra kommentarer och åsikter från allmänhet som kanske inte snappas upp av de alternativ som fanns med i de mer strikt strukturerade frågorna. Sist skrevs en kort text om varje titel, vilka som utvecklat det, vilka som jobbat på det samt vilket eller vilka pris det hade vunnit eller blivit nominerat till. Utskick När uppbyggnaden av enkäten var färdig så skickades den till handledare för granskning. Godkännandet av enkäten kom efter det att enkätens funktion som grov grund för frågorna till senare intervjuer gjordes tydligare och att enkäten i sig inte var menad för att kunna erhålla klara och tydliga empiriska slutsatser, detta har aldrig varit målet med projektet. Istället ämnar studien åt att undersöka samband mellan ganska lösa spelarupplevelser och potentiella rötter i ljuddesigners arbetsmetoder och att försöka lägga grund för ytterligare studier inom spelljud att stödja sig på.

11 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Genomförande

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Enkäten gjordes offentlig på internet den 20/11 2017 och lades ut på åtskilliga internetforum, främst olika subforum av hemsidan reddit.com. Reddit är en enorm källa för att upptäcka nytt konsumentmaterial online och till skillnad från till exempel Facebook så är det inte nödvändigt att ha enorma följarskaror för att kunna få räckvidd om materialet en delar är bra, vilket lämpar sig väl till enkätundersökningar. Enkäten lades upp på forumen r/pcgaming och r/pcmasterrace som båda två är självselekterande inom min målgrupp av pc-spelare, men också mindre direkt relevanta forum så som r/surveys. Sammanställning Det första svaret kom in samma dag som enkäten gick upp och det sista svaret kom in den 29/11, två hela dagar innan enkäten stängdes den 1/12. Det slutgiltiga antalet svarande blev 116 vilket med tanke på budgeten och tidsramarna i vilken studien behövde hålla sig inom är ett gott resultat om än något lägre än önskvärt. Av de svarande så var 24,1% kvinnor och 71,6% män med resterande delade mellan kategorin ”övriga” samt de som valde att inte markera sitt kön. Majoriteten av svarande var mellan 25 och 36 år gamla som utgjorde 61,1% av svarande och den näst största gruppen på 31% var mellan åldrarna 19 och 24.

Efter det att enkäten stängdes sammanställdes den data som samlats in i ett ark och analyserades. Då svarsalternativ 7 för varje påstående var att svarande inte hade spelat spelet i fråga så var det enkelt att sålla bland de tomma mängderna och statistik över de relevanta svaren kunde istället konstrueras.

De slutgiltiga mängderna för spelen blev som följande:

• Amnesia: 57 • Bastion: 61 • Bioshock: 74 • Dead Space: 59 • Hyper Light Drifter: 23 • INSIDE: 28 • LIMBO: 59 • Ori and the Blind Forrest: 40 • Transistor: 43

Som tydligt framgår av denna enkla uppställning så framgår också en annan statistik av den insamlade enkäten, nämligen spelens relativa popularitet bland målgruppen. Detta är knappast relevant för den avsedda frågeställningen men det vore intressant att kontrollera om det finns någon korrelation mellan spelens popularitet och omdömena spelen har fått, både den generella åsikten svarande har om spelen och svarandes åsikt om ljuddesignen. Detta är dock ett större problemområde än vad som här tas upp. Intervjuer Den för min egen del mest intressanta avsnitt av mina egna efterforskningar har varit att leta rätt på information om hur de som skapade alla dessa ljud har arbetat. Tyvärr så har bara en av de designers som jag kontaktade för att försöka intervjua svarat på mina mail och ställde upp på intervju. Då problemformuleringen var att korrelera användarupplevelser med tillvägagångsätt så valde jag att fortsätta med samma slags undersökning med förändringen att studien kretsar kring runt två av de spelen som från början var med i min enkät.

12 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Genomförande

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Dessa spel är Bastion och Transistor, båda producerade av Supergiant Games och båda två med Darren Korb som Audio Director, ljuddesigner samt kompositör. Supergiant Games har gjort sig kända för en slående visuell och sonisk stil samt en koherens över dessa disciplinära gränser som många slår fast som en av deras absolut främsta styrkor. Bastion Supergiant Games första släpp kom i form av Bastion, ett action-rpg satt i en värld som har gått under och en onämnd huvudkaraktärs försök att aktivera sin nations sista försvar mot en potentiell undergång. Genom spelet slåss du mot monster och genom det låser du upp nya förmågor och vapen. Du följs på din upptäcktsresa genom denna vackert färgglada värld av en röst som berättar för dig allt vad du gör. Rösten tillhör en av de första karaktärerna du stöter på men historien utspelar sig alltid i dåtid, som om att karaktären du möter i spelet är en yngre version av den som berättar saker för dig, spelaren.

Denna twist på det vanliga narrativa verktyget av en berättarröst visade sig vara väldigt effektiv och var en av de saker som gjorde att Bastion blev så prisat när det kom år 2011 samt vann ljuddesigner och kompositör Darren Korb titeln ’Rookie of the Year’ från G.A.N.G (Game Audio Network Guild, 2012). Transistor Supergiants andra spel Transistor är en historia om jazzsångerskan Red som lever i en futuristisk cyberstad och vars röst på något sätt blivit stulen av en terroristgrupp vid namn ”The Camerata”. Gruppen har släppt lös någon form av supervirus som håller på att förvandla stadens vackra arkitektur och konst till något lika blankt och kantigt som viruset själv. Red är ute efter hämnd, både för stölden av hennes röst samt den genom spelet pågående förstörelsen av hennes älskade stad.

Till hennes hjälp har hon ett slags magiskt cybersvärd under namnet ”The Transistor”, som hela spelet egentligen handlar om. Svärdet har förmågan att kontrollera viruset och egentligen behandla allt i världen som kod att knäcka. Fast i svärdet är vad som förmodligen var Reds döde kompanjon och kanske älskare (spelet är otydligt på den här punkten) som hela tiden ger ett löpande kommentatorsspår från insidan av sin nya värld. Kontrasten här är alltså att Red har en kropp men ingen röst längre och hennes partner har en röst men inte längre någon egen kropp. Den onämnde partnern kommenterar i realtid på samma information som du som spelare får tillgång till och vet varken mer eller mindre än du själv vilket sätter honom i ett mycket annorlunda tidsperspektiv än Bastions allvetande berättarröst som talar om allt som hände en gång för länge sen. Intervjuguide Av informationen som samlades in via enkäten och artiklar från speljournalister så konstruerades en guide med frågor som kunde leda intervjuer med Darren. Guiden skickades först till handledare och reviderades efter dennes rekommendation innan den användes för intervjun. Den slutgiltiga versionen av guiden innehöll dessa frågor:

• Hur lång tid var förproduktionstiden för spelet? • Hur lång var produktionstid för spelet? • Vad var målet med ljudbilden för produktionen? • Fanns det några tekniska och ekonomiska begränsningar som hindrade dig från att uppnå målet du hade på det sätt du planerat? • Vilka var dessa begränsningar? • Vad var konsekvenserna i den färdiga produkten av begräsningarna?

13 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Genomförande

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

• Vad lärde du dig under produktionstiden? • Uppnådde du målen som du hade satt ut under förproduktion? • Hur upplevde du skillnaderna mellan processerna för att skapa ljud åt Bastion och Transistor? • Varför? • Vad hade konststilen för innebörd för sättet som berättarrösterna producerades i de två spelen? • Tror du att detta har en påverkan på deras (rösternas) respektive mottaganden? • Tror du att Tempus-skillnaderna i de respektive berättarnas har en påverkan på hur de upplevs?

Med dessa frågor för att leda frågeställningen så kunde intervjun genomföras. Darren Korb Jag genomförde min intervju med Darren Korb onsdagen den 13:e December över Skype. Den fullständiga inspelningen från vårat samtal finns kvar och är vad jag använt för att transkribera hela intervjun. Den rena texten hittar läsaren som bilaga 1 till den här rapporten.

Min inspelning med intervjun med Darren blev 71 minuter lång och transkriptionen landande på nästan 10 000 ord, något som jag inte riktigt hade förväntat mig. Trots att jag försökte hålla mig till intervjuguiden jag hade fått godkänd av min handledare så började vi prata en hel del om stickspår som i och för sig var intressanta och givande för studien men som drog ut intervjutiden markant.

I slutändan fick nog alla frågor i intervjuguiden svar och lite mer än det. Då det tog närmre 7 timmar att transkribera intervjun till text så skulle det kunna ses som en bra sak att bara en av de ljuddesigners som fanns på listan svarade, då att genomföra och transkribera allas intervjuer förmodligen skulle ha tagit hälften av den allokerade tiden för projektet. Detta förutsatt att alla intervjuer skulle vara lika långa som den med Darren, men detta är inget jag är skeptisk till. Recensenters omdömen Då denna studie förändrats till att primärt handla om Supergiant Games och Darren Korbs arbete med ljudbilden av spelen Bastion och Transistor så tas här bara upp artiklar som berör dessa två spel. Skälet till varför studien berör just dessa två tas upp i senare delar av rapporten. Målet med denna sektion av datainsamlingen är att understöda eller kontrastera den bild som enkäten har gett oss av mottagandet av spelen som undersöks. Detta görs genom att i första hand titta på rena sifferbetyg som recensenterna har avlämnat och i andra hand se över vad de poängterar ut i texterna som utgör deras recensioner av spelet. Urval av recensioner Kraven på vilka artiklar som valdes ut var att de har gjort recensioner på båda spelen och att de riktar sig mot en konsumentbas snarare än mot utvecklare och industriinsatta. Målet är att ta reda på vilken inverkan arbetssätten har påverkat spelarna, inte om de har påverkat sättet som andra arbetar och i så fall hur det har påverkat, även om detta vore en intressant fråga för framtida studier.

Alla de utvalda nyhetskällorna är från större hemsidor och tidskrifter som är kända inom världen av spel och äger ett visst mått av inflytande. De artiklar som i slutändan har gått in i undersökningen är som följer: Destructoid Destructoid har två recensioner av Bastion uppe på sin hemsida, den första skriven av Jim Sterling under 2011 (Sterling, 2011) när Bastion först kom ut och den andra skriven av Caitlin Cooke under

14 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Genomförande

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

2016 då spelet släpptes igen till Xbox One (Cooke, 2016). Bastion har under åren portats till många olika plattformar men Xbox One-släppet var speciellt på grund av att det 2011 kom ut på föregångaren 360 och att sedan släppas igen på nästa upplaga av Xbox efter fem år är något märkvärdigt.

Destructoids recension på Transistor är skriven av Alasdair Duncan 2014 (Duncan, 2014). Hans kommentarer går i mycket ut på att jämföra Transistor med Bastion och funderingar på om ett ”andra-album” fenomen kan tänkas existera inom spelindustrin så väl som i musikbranschen. (Lynskey, 2003) GameSpot Bastion för Xbox 360 är för GameSpots räkning recenserad av Maxwell McGee som mot slutet av artikeln lägger in några ord om berättarrösten som befinner sig i framkant under nästan alla av Supergiants spel (McGee, 2011). Dock spenderar han den stora majoriteten av sin tid med att gå igenom de mer klassiska spelelementen, så som spelmekanik, spelarmotiveringar och spelkänsla. Inte väldigt intressant för ändamålet här. McGee skriver också deras recension för Bastion till PC, bara några månader senare och har ungefär samma kommentarer (McGee, 2011).

Recensionen på Bastion till PlayStation 4 är däremot skriven av Leif Johnson (Johnson, 2015). Hans text lägger fokuset på att spelet har åldrats bra och att 4 år efter dess första släpps år 2011. Mycket av det Johnson skriver om handlar om Bastions rötter i romanerna av Cormac McCarthy som har karaktärer som delar namn med Bastions huvudkaraktär och samma post-apokalyptiska omgivning.

Deras artikel på Transistor är skriven av Carolyn Petit under (Petit, 2014). Hon går mycket mer in på de ljudande och de visuella delarna av spelupplevelsen än vad McGee gör och pratar en del om hur vissa aspekter av Transistor som lyser med en avsaknad av spelarinteraktivitet var de delarna som berörde henne mest. Här ska också nämnas att GameSpot i målet av att vara transparenta går ut med att Petit ofta läste hemsidan när Supergiants Creative director Greg Kasavin skrev för dem och att de mer än en gång har haft samtal. Hennes objektivitet är alltså inte helt bibehållen. IGN Greg Miller skrev IGN:s recension på Bastion (Miller, 2011). I hans artikel finns en hel del kommentarer på ljudet, inte bara på berättarrösten utan även på musiken och till och med ljudeffekterna, vilket är relativt ovanligt med tanke på hur korta artiklarna i regel är.

Recensionen på Transistor är skriven av Marty Silvia (Sliva, 2014). Trots att han inte kommenterar speciellt mycket på ljuddesignen så tar han upp den generella känslan av spelets hela utvändiga design som något att uppmärksamma och han skriver också om Supergiants sätt att binda musiken till spelets handling som något uppfriskande och intressant. Rock Paper Shotgun Författare till RPS:s recension på Bastion är John Walker som skrev om att de som spelar spelet för den rena mekanikens skulle kanske ha kul, men kommer förmodligen inte förstå varför spelet hyllas så universellt (Walker, 2011). Hans poäng är att spelet bör uppskattas mer för dess atmosfär och dess sätt att genom ljud och bild bygga en värld som får en att vilja stanna upp och bara lyssna än att försöka avsluta upplevelsen så fort som möjligt.

RPS: recension på Transistor är skriven av Nathan Grayson och är nästan dubbelt så lång som resten av recensionerna som är med i undersökningen (Grayson, 2014). Mycket av hans artikel är för våra syften oviktiga men han nämner också sina tankar om spelets visuella stil och soniska värld. Extra

15 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Genomförande

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22 fokus lägger han på Transistors ”nynna”-knapp, som gör att spelets huvudkaraktär nynnar melodin av musiken som spelas just då, vilket på något sätt tyder på att musiken är diegetisk. PC Gamer Den sista nyhetssidan är PC Gamer och deras recension på Bastion är skriven av Jonathan H. Cooper (Cooper, 2011). Det Cooper skriver om som vi är intresserade av är briljansen i berättarröstens interaktivitet, världens djup och spelets rika atmosfär.

PC Gamers recension på Transistor är skriven av Wes Fenlon (Fenlon, 2014) och hans text handlar mycket om hans känsla av entusiastisk utforskande under spelets gång och sin eventuella besvikelse att den väldigt vackert presenterade världen inte innehöll mer stoff och saker djupare sido-historier. Metacritic En ytterligare betygsskala att titta på är Metacritics betyg. Metacritic är en organisation som samlar olika recensenters sifferbetyg och sammanställer dem i ett medelvärde som de själva visar upp. De visar tydligt upp vem som har lagt vilket betyg och visar betyg både från journalisterna och från användare på hemsidan. För Bastion så visar hemsidan individuella betyg för olika plattformar. Betygen för Bastion ser ut på detta sätt:

• iOS: 94/100 för journalister och 8,1/10 för användare (Metacritic, 2012) • Xbox One: 83/100 för journalister och 8,0/10 för användare (Metacritic, 2016) • Xbox 360: 86/100 för journalister och 8,5/10 för användare (Metacritic, 2011) • PlayStation 4: 89/100 för journalister och 7,9/10 för användare (Metacritic, 2015) • PC: 86/100 för journalister och 8,6/10 för användare (Metacritic, 2011) • Snittbetyg: 87,6/100 för journalister och 8,22/10 för användare Samma hemsida har denna information om Transistor:

• PlayStation 4: 83/100 för journalister och 8,2/10 för användare (Metacritic, 2014) • PC: 83/100 för journalister och 8,3/10 för användare (Metacritic, 2014) • iOS: 93/100 för journalister och 8,4/10 för användare (Metacritic, 2015) • Snittbetyg: 86,3/100 för journalister och 8,3/10 för användare

16 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Resultat

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Resultat Denna del av rapporten avser de resultat som insamlandet av data har gett. Här presenteras Omdömme av Bastions Ljuddesign data utan att dra komplexa slutsatser och utan 50 att svara på några av de frågeställningar studien handlar om. Allt som skrivs här är 45 enklare tolkningar av den informationen som 40 graferna representerar vilka läsaren kan se själv. Intervjun och artiklarnas tolkningar är 35 svårare att enkelt tolka och presentera och 30 kommer därför istället att endast sammanställas och kommenteras lätt på för att 25 lämna mer komplexa slutsatser till nästa 20 sektion av rapporten. 15 Enkät 10 Av enkätens 116 totala svarande så rapporterade 61 att de hade spelat Bastion och 5 43 att de hade spelat Transistor. Bastions 0 grafer är väldigt tydliga i sitt budskap och visar Mycket Dålig Neutral Bra Mycket Vet ej en väldigt hög uppskattning för spelets dålig Bra ljuddesign, spelet i sig samt tyder på en att en stor del av den svarande gruppen anser att Figur 1 Enkätsvaren angående kvaliten av Bastions ljuddesign ljuddesignen i stor del var en bidragande faktor till spelets kvalité.

Ljuddesignens påverkan för Bastion 40

0 Inte alls Inte mycket En del En god del Mycket Vet Ej

Figur 2 Enkätsvaren för ljuddesignens påverkan av spelupplevelsen i helhet för Bastion

17 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Resultat

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Transistors siffror visar en annorlunda Transistors Ljuddesign historia. Medan spelets ljuddesign får ett 30 betyg som i mycket liknar det Bastion, om än inte lika extremt, så får det ett helt annat betyg vad gäller ljuddesignens inverkan på 25 spelupplevelsen och spelets betyg är mycket mindre konsekvent än Bastions. 20 Enkätsvaren är mycket mer spretiga och går ifrån varandra mycket mer för Transistor än 15 vad de gör för Bastion. En speciellt intressant detalj är just det att även om 10 Transistor fått ett omdöme som liknar Bastions när svarande har ombetts bedöma 5 ljuddesignen som en separat del av spelet så har svaren på fråga tre, om designens påverkan på spelupplevelse, inte följt 0 Mycket Dålig Neutral Bra Mycket Vet ej samma trend. Detta tyder på att bra dålig Bra ljuddesign inte i sig ger en god inverkan på spelarens upplevelse utan att något mer, Figur 3 Enkätsvaren angående kvaliten av Transistors ljuddesign annat eller ytterligare behövs för att ge goda svar på fråga 3.

Ljuddesignens påverkan för Transistor 25

0 Inte alls Inte mycket En del En god del Mycket Vet ej

Figur 4 Enkätsvaren för ljuddesignens påverkan av spelupplevelsen i helhet för Transistor

Transistor som Spel Bastion som spel 20

15 30

10 20

5 10

0 0 Mycket Dålig Neutral Bra Mycket Vet ej Mycket Dålig Neutral Bra Mycket Vet ej dålig Bra dålig Bra Figur 4 Enkätens svar angående helheten av Transistor som Spel Figur 6 Enkätens svar angående helheten av Bastion som spel

18 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Resultat

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22 Recensioner Sammanställningen av de insamlade recensionerna är något mer svårtolkat. Fyra av de fem nyhetskällorna som undersökts använder sig av sifferbetyg i sina recensioner och för Bastion så landar hamnar dessa siffor på följande:

• Gamespot Xbox 360 skriven av McGee: 8,5/10 • Gamespot PC skriven av McGee: 8,5/10 • Gamespot PS4 skriven av Johnson: 8/10 • IGN skriven av Miller: 9/10 • Destructoid skriven av Sterling: 6,5/10 • Destructoid skriven av Cooke: 9/10 • PC Gamer skriven av Cooper: 92/100

Medelvärdet av dessa betyg blir 8,39/10 rundat uppåt, under förutsättning att PC Gamers betyg tolkas som en 9,2 på en 10-siffrig skala. Samma uppställning och uträkning för Transistor blir:

• Gamespot skriven av Petit: 8/10 • IGN skriven av Sliva: 9/10 • Destructoid skriven av Duncan: 8,5/10 • PC Gamer skriven av Fenlon: 80/100

Sammanställt blir detta 8,375/10. Jämfört med Bastions medelvärde blir det 0,0107 i skillnad. En knapp procents högre betyg kanske inte är mycket att gå på och kan i det här fallet anses vara inom gränsen för felmarginal med tanke på det låga antalet samlade betyg. Dock ska här också påpekas att det värde i tabellerna som är mest av ett extremvärde är Sterlings betyg som är 23% avvikande medelvärdet för gruppen. Detta kanske inte är tillräckligt extremt för att uteslutas ur mängden men utan Sterlings sifferomdöme blir resultatet 8,7/10, vilket placerar Sterlings betyg mer än 25% utanför medelvärdet. I vilket fall så har Bastion ett högre sifferbetyg, men effekten av ett extremvärde i en liten mängd blir här påtaglig.

Recensionernas sifferbetyg är alltså i linje med vad som kan ses i enkäten, dock täcker dessa betyg snarare vad personerna tycker om spelet i sig och inte specifikt ljuddesignen. För detta måste själva texten analyseras mer grundligt.

De som saknades i uppställningen ovan är Rock Paper Shotgun som inte använder sig av sifferbetyg utan skriver längre texter istället. Citat från sista stycket i deras recension på Bastion är detta:

“At one point early in the game there’s a song. A song so beautiful I didn’t finish the area in which it was heard, and instead task-switched from the game’s window and let it loop for an age while I got on with some other work. Later, a good while later, when I was still humming the tune as I played, the narrator started humming it too. Moments like that – those are what make Bastion so different”

“If you play for mechanics there’s a lot on offer here, but you’ll be confused why the game is being celebrated so loudly. But for atmosphere, grace, wit and heart, it’s a remarkable achievement” (Walker, 2011)

Samma nyhetskälla har detta att säga om Transistor:

19 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Resultat

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

“As if it even needed to be said, it’s also utterly gorgeous both visually and sonically. Your eyes and ears are in for the grandest of treats, though I will say that I don’t think there were any musical moments quite as memorable as That One Part of Bastion. There is, however, an entire button dedicated to humming, and it’s delightful”

“So many elements of Transistor have the potential to be incredible, but they never quite get there. The story, while largely very nicely told, quickly careens into a powerful but somewhat unconvincing conclusion”

“I do not believe Transistor is everything it could’ve been, but it’s still close enough that I won’t hesitate to recommend it to basically anybody. I critique because I love, and that second part is especially true in this case” (Grayson, 2014)

Gamespot har detta att säga om Bastion:

“The narrator also connects you to the plot. Everything--from the places you visit to the tonics you equip--has a story to tell. Instead of being taken out of the action and asked to watch a cinematic or pore over numerous journal entries, the narrator does all that for you. You can absorb his wisdom if you wish or simply mute him in the options menu” (McGee, 2011)

Och detta i recensionen på Transistor:

”Transistor is always a good-looking game, but in these instances, it demonstrates a rare knack for combining its visuals and music to powerfully convey both narrative information and tone, driving the story forward with Red's own unwavering resolve. So, in the end, yes, Transistor is a fun action role-playing game with a neat combat system, but beautiful moments like these make it more than that. They make it a game with a soul” (Petit, 2014)

IGN nämner specifikt ljuddesignen av Bastion i sin summering:

“The sound effects, the score, and the narrator are all excellent” (Miller, 2011)

Deras kommentar om Transistors koppling mellan spel och musik är intressant men har mindre med ljuddesign att göra:

“Music is also intrinsic in Transistor’s DNA. From Red’s former profession, to the various concert halls you visit along your adventure, to the incredible music that uses both a score as well as songs that exist inside the game world itself, Transistor is infused with the spirit of jazz. Even small actions, like being able to stop and have Red hum along to whatever song is currently playing is a creative, and evocative way of tying music to the core gameplay” (Sliva, 2014)

Destructoid nämner inte ljuddesignen av Bastion direkt men skriver om musik och berättarröst:

“I now know why people fell in love with Bastion. It’s a perfectly proportioned, well packaged, beautiful escape into a foreign world with compelling music, art, and narration” (Cooke, 2016)

För Transistors räkning skriver de detta:

20 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Resultat

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

“Supergiant Games hasn't delivered a wholly new experience with Transistor but it's still an enjoyable game that's well made and has wonderful art and sound” (Duncan, 2014)

IGN:s recensent anser att Bastions användande av en dynamisk berättarröst är nyskapande:

“Voiceover might be an overplayed gimmick in the motion picture industry, but in a game, having an omniscient narrator describe what my character does is different... he's actually talking about me” (Cooper, 2011)

I Transistor anser de däremot att Supergiant kanske inte har nått upp till samma nivå av berättande som i sitt tidigare verk:

“The story Transistor does tell is dished out in tantalizing morsels, and I had to spend some time reflecting on the ending to decide what happened. Perhaps because of that vagueness, Transistor's emotional climax didn't hit me like Bastion's did. Supergiant's games are, in that sense, mirror images—the first with shallower combat but a powerfully told story, the second with deep, tactical battles but a story that doesn't fulfill the promise of its world” (Fenlon, 2014)

Överlag är detta väldigt goda uttalanden från professionella spelkritiker och det är svårt att hålla måttet när ribban så högt efter sitt första verk. Men vad som är intressant här är att det verkar som att journalisterna i stort håller med varandra om att det är något med Transistor som gör att stilen inte riktigt når fram för att berätta den historia spelet handlar om. Intervju Intervjun med Darren Korb genomfördes den 13e december 2017. Korb ringde mig via Skype medan han var på väg in till studion och pratade öppet om sin upplevelse med att bli intagen till Supergiant under produktionen av Bastion och för första gången försöka göra spelljud. Sättet som detta gick till på var att Korb är barndomsvän med Amir Rao, en av Supergiants Games grundare (Supergiant Games, 2018), och ombads därför hjälpa till med ljudet till deras första projekt när studion grundades 2009. Från en början så frilansade Darren åt Supergiant men efter ett 3–5 månader började han arbeta åt dem på heltid, dock med en relativt minimal lön.

Innan det att han började arbeta på ljudet av Bastion hade Darren inga tidigare erfarenheter med produktion av ljud åt spel och hela projektet var för honom väldigt mycket av en experimentell tid och inlärningsperiod. Han berättade att för Bastion så arbetade Supergiant med Microsoft XNA, Microsofts egna gratis programvara för spelutveckling som kom med XACT (Microsoft, 2018). XACT är ett av många program som integrerar ljud i spel och just XACT beskrivs av Korb såhär:

” It was a pile of garbage and it did not do basic stuff well or anything. It was like really weird, counter-intuitive, especially for someone who had no experience using middleware. It was basically like, hey I want to put some reverb on this stuff like, what the fuck, like how do you and it was basically that like our main programmer had to go and like research how to make a reverb and put it on. It was like really bad. ” (Korb, p. 9)

Det gjorde livet relativt svårt för honom. Till exempel så berättar han att implementeringen var frustrerande på grund av att XACT inte kunde loopa ljudfiler rent vilket ställer till enorma problem med timing och att det mest avancerade han kunde göra i perspektivet av interaktivitet med programmet var att styra ett globalt låg-passfilter över hela mixen. Så till exempel när en pausar

21 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Resultat

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22 spelet så kan musiken och atmosfärsljud fortfarande höras men dovare och dämpat. Darren beskriver det på detta sätt:

“I love that it doesn’t stop the music it just sort of, it just like muffles, you know, which is nice. So that’s cool. I like what it did for the thing, it’s like the world still exists and you’re just taking a break for a minute, kind of thing” (Korb, p. 11)

Ville han genomföra mer än denna väldigt enkla nivå av spelarinteraktion med ljudbilden så krävdes det att han monopoliserade en av studions dåvarande två programmerare, något som han inte kunde få tillåtelse att göra då de som förväntat hade andra saker att sysselsätta sig med. Men om implementation och programmering av projektet gick trögt så verkar det som att framställandet av ljud och musik samt vart riktningen av ljudlandskapet låg var enklare. Hela Bastions visuella och soniska stil går mot en rustik känsla, med inspirationer från landsbygden och nybyggar-perioden i senare delen av 1800-talets Nordamerika. Korb säger såhär:

“We start with on each project is just sort of tonal goals, and what should it feel like, what is the vibe of this. Like if you say, it should be like what if Cormac McCarthy made a fantasy video game? You know? That’s like pretty specific” (Korb, p. 5)

Ljudbilden är fylld med sten, trä och metall i vad Darren säger är ett försök att förankra hela handlingen i fysiska ting. Historien handlar om en nation av statsbyggare, gruvarbetare, jägare och träarbetare. Caelondia, som nationen heter, bebos av ett folk som är vana vid att utrycka sig genom hårt arbete och sång. För att citera berättarrösten Rucks från det första spåret på sountracket:

“There's three things I'll always miss though. One, not havin' to watch my step all the time. Two... Ah... forget about two. And three... I miss the songs. Folks from Caelondia knew how to carry a tune. Sure, we've got some songs on the old gramophone. But tryin' to imagine what they sounded like. Playin' to a room full of fine people. Unwindin' at the Sole Regret right after a hard day's work. Those were the days” (Korb, 2011)

Denna riktning och denna ljudande representation av folket som huvudkaraktären The Kid ska tillhöra gör att alla motiveringar och alla sätt som vi får inblick i deras kultur smälter ihop till en koherent helhet. Det bildar också kontrast med spelets andra primära folkslag ”The Ura”, som bor under jord och har ett helt annat kulturellt språk än de från Caelondia. Rasismen mellan de två folken som spelet handlar om hörs i den kontrasterande ljuddesignen så väl som i den partiska berättarröstens sagor om vad som skett. Det är inte helt uppenbart men skillnaderna finns där.

För Transistor så utökades Supergiants team med en tredje programmerare som hade erfarenhet med att jobba i den så kallad middleware programvaran FMOD Studio. Den nya programmeraren tyckte att de skulle gå över till att jobba med FMOD som ett alternativt middleware till XACT. Middleware är det samlade namnet för alla typer av programvaror som tillåter icke programmeringsutbildade ljuddesigners att integrera ljud i ett spel. Detta görs genom att ljuddesignern bestämmer i programvaran vad som ska göras med vissa filer, när de ska spelas och hur allt hänger ihop utifrån ett perspektiv och språk som liknar det som finns inom DAWs. Programvaran tolkar sedan detta i kod och bygger alla ljudbanker, script och funktioner utan att en programmerare behöver hård-koda in allt. FMOD Studio och Wwise är de två största konkurrenterna på marknaden idag men det finns många mindre programvaror som också går att använda. Dessutom har de flesta spelmotorer egna rudimentära system för ljudintegrering.

22 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Resultat

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

FMOD och Wwise är lite olika uppbyggda, med den senare en mer abstract men i vissa avseenden mer användarvänlig för större grupper ljuddesigners och den förre väldigt liknande tidslinjen på en DAW. Korb beskriver det såhär:

“The thing I love about FMOD, you know Wwise is certainly the industry standard but like the thing I like about FMOD is that it’s timeline-based.”

“And I just, as an audio/music guy that’s just like, that is home, that’s just like using a DAW. You know, so it’s like, I get this because I know how to use a DAW, so I know how to do this. And like, having to learn something that I don’t know how to do already is just like way worse than leveraging my knowledge you know” (Korb, p. 9)

Vad han menar med det här är att efter att ha jobbat med XACT så var han villig att testa FMOD, och på grund av hur mycket det liknar en normal DAW så som Logic eller Pro Tools så kände han sig som hemma i FMOD och kunde lära sig det fort. Citatet kommer från en del av intervjun där jag frågar honom om valet av FMOD framför Wwise och resonemanget är logiskt för en musiker med Darrens bakgrund. Som tidigare nämnt så hade Darren inga erfarenheter med spelljud innan han började arbeta på Bastion, men utöver detta så hade han inte heller någon erfarenhet med varken ljuddesign eller Foley. När jag frågar honom om han är klassisk skolad inom komposition och musikteori svarade han:

“No. No, I have a rock background”

“I don’t, write, music. Really. Like I don’t ever write my scores down. They’re never written down. So that would create extra steps and just it would require me to get somebody else to help me do that because I don’t. I can like, I can read music if I sit there and stare at it, you know. I read music at like a first-grade level basically, you know what I mean. But, so you know I could do it, I guess, eventually, or have Logic spit out a bunch of whatever based on the MIDI. Spit out some stuff but nobody would want to play that you know?” (Korb, p. 9)

Så genom hela Bastion så lär han sig göra allt det i väg av Foley och ljuddesign som är med i projektet men han säger såhär om att gå in helt blint:

“Even though I hadn’t done sound design for a game before I grew up loving games and playing forever so I wasn’t going into it totally blind, I had some opinions on it already.”

“Just thinking about it over the years. And once I started making it I was like ‘well, it makes sense to theme all this stuff, because otherwise it will all just be random’. And you know it’s got to be themed to make it effectively and that goes for the music too. I made a genre for myself, just for me to make the stuff not really for any other reason. I mean it was to try to ty it together, but mostly it was to help me make stuff that would all fit together, if that makes sense”

“[it] was to unify the pallet and the different sections of the game have different pallets depending on what seems appropriate for the place but they’re all sort of tied together by this genre of music. And they all have components, they all have some core components that are similar in terms of instrumentation“ (Korb, p. 4)

23 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Resultat

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

För Transistor så säger Darren det här om palett och vilken sonisk vision spelet hade:

“The sound effects pallet for that was a little trickier to find and once I found it I was really pleased. You know because the game is more abstract generally, it’s like a sci-fi-thing basically but with a twist and it has some sort of, not a magical component but there is some sort of supernatural something, going on. And so, it’s an interesting. You know the thing that I ended up with that made me satisfied was it ended up being sort of like very synth heavy, lots of digital distortion and digital sounds and it was like computer synth stuff with a hint of magic was what I ended up going for in the pallet”

“And I think that comes across, it’s a little more abstract again, so what everybody will get out of it is different but for the pallet specifically that was my take. I think the tone of that one was, you know, it’s sort of like, the setting is like a futuristic Venice. It was sort of the idea and part of the approach was we wanted it to feel like vintage futurism, does that make sense?”

“Imagine like futuristic Venice or like a 1920’s vision of the future-thing. So, a vision of the future rooted in some other time or some other timeline” (Korb, p. 5)

Paletten för ljudet till Transistor var alltså svårare att hitta och även när Darren hade förstått vad för typ av ljud som spelet skulle innehålla så återstår det faktum att det i helhet är mycket mer abstrakt än vad paletten för Bastion var. Detta kan ha haft en ganska stor inverkan på ljudets slutgiltiga inverkan på spelupplevelse, men detta tar rapporten upp i nästa kapitel.

Transistors ljud har inte samma tydliga koppling till världen som ljudet befinner sig och ska representera och Darrens svårhet att hitta en palett, både för musiken och för ljuddesignen är ett tecken på detta. Detta är inte att säga att det inte är konstfullt skapat men när både de visuella och de soniska aspekterna av något vi ska titta på och luras att det är en koherent helhet så kan nivån till vilken synchresis (Dykhoff, 2012) uppnås och dess trovärdighet bli lidande. Jag frågade Darren om Bastions ljud hade mer av en rot i verkligheten än vad Transistor hade och han svarade såhär:

“Yeah, exactly. And that was the first time I really had to do that I felt, was on Transistor. Like Bastion all kind of, I mean I could have a root somewhere and sort of, I wasn’t stumbling around in the dark you know. For Transistor I was for a while until I figured it out”

“You know, everything was just less straight-forward about it, in a lot of ways. Like the setting was really cool but certainly like it’s very obvious for Bastion that the sound theming should be building stuff because that’s what the game is about. For Transistor it’s like, the game is about a magic cyber-sword? Like what do you, what does that sound like? You know? So, answering that question was just a lot harder on Transistor because things were just less straight forward, settings wise” (Korb, p. 13)

En annan aspekt av skillnaderna mellan Bastion och Transistor är det av berättarrösten som är kännetecken av spel från Supergiant games. I Bastion har vi som bekant en allvetande berättare som kommenterar på allt du som spelare gör med en distans av tid. Han vet redan allting som har hänt och kommer att hända och talar alltid från en position av kunskap om världen och dina handlingar. I Transistor så är berättaren din kompanjon i att utforska världen och lösa mysteriet om vad det är

24 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Resultat

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22 som pågår i staden ni genom spelet ser gå under. Rösten vet en del saker som du som spelare inte gör men detta har mest med generell information om världen att göra. Själva handlingen av spelet är lika dolt för er båda och reaktionerna när ni uppdagar något nytt blir helt annorlunda jämfört med hur det är i Bastion. Darren säger såhär om Supergiants tankar om berättarrösterna:

“It started for Bastion as a solution to a problem. And the problem was, how do you convey information and story to a player in context, in an action RPG, without having them stop to read a wall of text. Like what’s another option there?”

”It was just something that we decided to try as a possible solution to this problem and as soon as we tried it we thought, oh this is pretty cool, let’s see if we can push on that and now that we’re doing this ‘Oh I guess we can have him kind of react to stuff that you’re doing’. You know, and it was just sort of a discovery of, once we tried it, it was ‘oh okay here are some more options that open up’”

“We wanted to avoid a situation where you weren’t playing to take in story. We wanted the story to be part of the gameplay”

“In Bastion he’s an omniscient narrator, he’s telling a story. And in Transistor it is a character present in real time with you, the player, you know. So, he doesn’t know everything. So, it’s much harder to, and it’s just one-way dialogue, like he’s having a dialogue with another character who doesn’t speak, you know? So, it certainly, we found a lot more narrative challenges trying to convey everything that way and we did have some sort of terminals and some stuff that you could read and get more information in that game” (Korb, 2017)

Så trots de ytliga likheterna mellan studions båda spel så finns det stora skillnader i arbetet med ljudpaletten och i hur tankarna kring berättarröstens funktion i spelen gick till under produktion. Inte bara försökte de berätta något annat med samma narrativa verktyg som de hade använde gången innan, främst relaterat till berättarröst men också till sättet som huvudkaraktärerna strider representeras i ljud, de utmanade sig själva i Transistor med att bygga en värld som inte passar in några tidigare hårt definierade genrer. Det är inte strikt science-fiction eller fantasy och vad Darren än talar om ett futuristiskt Venedig så hjälper det inte heller med vilken ljudbild spelet ska ha. Detta gör att projektet har få direkta referenser och tidigare verk i samma stil att dra inspiration från.

Det som också är värt att uppmärksamma här är att i produktionen för Transistor så har Darren inte bara fått erfarenheten av att ha jobbat på Bastion och därmed lärt sig en hel del om hur han ska jobba med ljud, han har också skaffat sig ytterligare teknisk kunskap och verktyg som hjälper honom att genomföra de saker han vill göra med ljudet. Men större möjlighet att göra de saker som kommer att bygga ljudbilden så att den interagerar med spelaren och utvecklas genom spelet kommer inte lösa problemet av vad ljudbilden ska bestå av då detta i grunden inte är ett tekniskt problem utan att kreativt och konceptuellt berättande problem som ljuddesigners måste tackla.

25 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Slutsats

MetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Slutsats Svaren på enkäten och dess tydliga tendens är att inte bara ge bättre omdöme till ljuddesignen av Bastion framför det av Transistor utan också säga att Bastions ljud gav mer av en inverkan på deras generella spelupplevelse, som då också generellt anses vara bättre bedömt av såväl journalister som enkäten. Hur mycket bättre journalisterna anser att Bastion är över Transistor är lite svårt att säga med tanke på den relativt låga skillnaden i deras snittbetyg av spelen men de tenderar i vilket fall att sätta den ena före den andra i en relativ bedömning. För att relatera detta tillbaka till syftet med studien och den ursprungliga problemställningen så svarar detta på studiens första fråga, om det över huvud taget är möjligt att meningsfullt undersöka skillnaderna i spels ljudbilder och deras förmåga att påverka den totala upplevelsen av ett interaktivt verk.

Den andra problemställningen var att visa samband mellan att ett interaktivt verks ljudbild har en viss inverkan på dess mottagande och processer, tankar och arbetsmetoder som kreatören av denna ljudbild har haft och tillämpat under produktionstiden. Sättet som Darren Korb berättade för mig om svårigheterna med att ta fram en klar bild av vad verket ska låta som tyder på att detta är det kritiska steget i ljudbildens slutgiltiga kvalité och effektivitet kopplat med visuella och interaktiva element. Trots det faktum att Darren från det första projektet (Bastion) till det andra (Transistor) hade större förståelse för misstag inom produktionen, besatte mer kunskap om ljuddesign och arbetssätt för ljud inom interaktiva verk samt hade större tekniska möjligheter i form av att byta programvara till något som kändes mycket bekvämare för honom själv och som han har fortsatta arbeta med sen dess så vinner Bastion över Transistor i en objektiv mätning av deras respektive ljudbilder.

En naturlig slutsats kan då vara att det är framställningen av konceptet för den ljudande helheten som är nyckeln till ett både ett gott slutresultat i ögonen på både journalister och konsumenter men också hur mycket ljudet påverkar helhetsintrycket av verket när det upplevs i sin fulländande interaktiva form. Ju klarare målet för ljudbilden är i början av produktionen och ju tydligare det kopplar och hör hemma i världen som ska upplevas i slutet desto större vikt har ljudet för spelarens intryck av spelet.

26 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Diskussion

SlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Diskussion Den slutsats som är presenterad i kapitlet ovan är en av många möjliga förklaringar till varför olika ljudbilder får olika relevans för spelarens upplevelse. Risken finns att det är något helt annat som har gjort att Bastion och Transistor graderas annorlunda, så som att den generella stilen i Bastion har ett högre värde av uppskattning bland målgruppen eller att Transistor släpptes vid en tidpunkt då marknaden hade ett högt antal konkurrerande titlar i samma genre och spelstil och att det därför subjektivt inte fick samma innebörd för de som spelade det.

Andra förklaringar än förarbetet som jag lägger fram som slutsats i kapitlet ovan skulle kunna vara att Darren under sin intervju berättar för mig att han under slutet av produktionen för Transistor fick ett barn och därmed var hemma på pappaledighet. Denna frånvaro från projektets sista delar, då de anlitade en extern ljuddesigner för att skapa de resterande ljudeffekterna kan vara vad vi ser i enkätsvaren och från journalisternas betyg. Ett tredje alternativ skulle kunna vara det faktum att även om journalisterna är överens om att Transistors game play är djupare än Bastions så känns världen i Transistor tom i jämförelse. Det kan helt enkelt vara så att det inte är ljudbilden som det är fel på utan skrivandet av världen och sättet som spelet utspelar sig som gör att oavsett vilket håll en ljuddesigner går åt så finns det en maximal gräns för vad en kan göra inom ramarna för världen.

Det finns alltså en uppsjö av potentiella alternativa svar på frågan om vad det är som gör att en ljuddesign av ett interaktivt verk blir relevant. Här stöter vi på problemet med bevisbörda, då det är svårt att bevisa någon av de andra slutsatserna från den data som samlats in i denna studie och andra slutsatser måste stödjas av bevis innan de kan läggas fram som alternativa förklaringsmodeller.

Utöver det kan vi inte utan fler studier liknande denna och mer helomfattande undersökningar i ämnet av spelarreaktioner på olika element av spel göra ett uttalande om vad det är som gör en design viktig eller ej för slutresultatet. Vi behöver kunna separera visuella, spelmekaniska och soniska kreativa val från varandra på ett sätt som är mätbart och dokumenterbart och vi behöver kunna gradera dessa på en objektiv skala för att kunna avgöra vilka av våra kreativa val i en produktionsprocess som kommer att påverka resultatet och på vilket sätt det kommer att påverka. Utan större övergripande studier i samma ådra som denna så kommer vi ha svårt att ha vetenskapliga belägg för de val som görs under produktion och vilka de förväntade utkomsterna blir av de riktningar produktioner tar under framställandet av ett interaktivt verk. Kritik Självfallet finns det gott om kritik som kan och bör riktas mot denna studie, främst i form av dess utsträckning och förmåga att korrelera resultat mellan genrer och olika produktionsgrupper. Resultaten som jag uppvisar kan vara helt bundna till Darren Korb som person eller Supergiant Games som grupp och samma arbetssätt för en annan studio kan potentiellt sett visa motstridiga resultat och det är inte något denna studie kan motbevisa. Utöver det är enkätens omfattning vad gäller svarande under all kritik då det är mycket möjligt att trenderna som syns i statistiken inte alls är representativ för de allmänna åsikterna och att en större mängd svarande skulle ge vitt skilda resultat.

Dessutom har här egentligen bara undersökts ett väldigt smalt spektrum av spel för att inte lyfta det faktum att båda spelen som undersökts faller under samma genre vad gäller spelmekanik och spelarperspektiv och det kan med stor sannolikhet vara så att olika genrer av interaktiva verk innebär olika betydelser för såväl ljudbild som visuella element. Med andra ord, mer forskning på detta ämne krävs för att kunna förstå hur ett interaktivt verk faktiskt tas emot av dess åskådare och deltagare.

27 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Referenser

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Referenser Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, 2017. Interactive. [Online] Available at: http://www.interactive.org/ [Accessed 29 12 2017].

Batchelor, J., 2017. Gamesindustry.biz. [Online] Available at: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-11-10-more-than-6-000-games-released- on-steam-in-2017-so-far [Accessed 28 12 2017].

Bengtsson, S., 2016. Ljudlandskapet i Öppna Spelmiljöer, Karlshamn: Blekinge Tekniska Högskola.

Childs, G. W., 2007. Creating Music and Sound for Games. Boston: Course technology.

Collins, K., 2008. Gams Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Cooke, C., 2016. Destructoid. [Online] Available at: https://www.destructoid.com/review-bastion-xbox-one--405976.phtml [Accessed 16 Januari 2018].

Cooper, J. H., 2011. PC Gamer. [Online] Available at: http://www.pcgamer.com/bastion-review/ [Accessed 16 Januari 2018].

Duncan, A., 2014. Destructoid. [Online] Available at: https://www.destructoid.com/review-transistor-274855.phtml [Accessed 16 Januari 2018].

Dykhoff, k., 2012. Filmljudteknikerns Yrkesroll: tekniker eller konstnär?. In: G. Ternhag & J. Wingstedt, eds. På Tal om Ljudproduktion: Elva bidrag till ett nytt kunskapsområde. falun: Bo Ejeby Förlag, pp. 140-159.

Engström, V., 2016. Funktionen av Stokastisk Musik i Datorspel, Skövde: Högskolan i Skövde.

Eriksson, K., 2016. Spelartyper och Ljudperception, Skövde: Högskolan i Skövde.

Fenlon, W., 2014. PC Gamer. [Online] Available at: http://www.pcgamer.com/transistor-review/ [Accessed 16 Januari 2018].

Game Audio Network Guild, 2012. Audiogang. [Online] Available at: http://www.audiogang.org/awards/2012-awards/ [Accessed 17 Januari 2018].

Grayson, N., 2014. Rock Paper Shotgun. [Online] Available at: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/05/20/transistor-pc-review/ [Accessed 16 Januari 2018].

Johnson, L., 2015. Gamespot. [Online] Available at: https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/bastion-review/1900-6416093/ [Accessed 16 Januari 2018].

28 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Referenser

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Korb, D., 2011. Get Used to It. [Sound Recording] (Supergiant Games).

Korb, D., 2017. Intervju med Darren Korb om Bastions och Transistors Ljuddesign [Interview] (13 December 2017).

Lang, B., 2017. Veriety. [Online] Available at: http://variety.com/2017/film/news/box-office-record-china-1202013961/ [Accessed 21 Januari 2018].

Lynskey, D., 2003. The Guardian. [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/sep/19/3 [Accessed 16 Januari 2018].

McGee, M., 2011. Gamespot. [Online] Available at: https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/bastion-review/1900-6332259/ [Accessed 16 Januari 2018].

McGee, M., 2011. GameSpot. [Online] Available at: https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/bastion-review/1900-6323664/ [Accessed 16 Januari 2018].

Metacritic, 2011. Metacritic. [Online] Available at: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/bastion [Accessed 18 Januari 2018].

Metacritic, 2011. Metacritic. [Online] Available at: http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/bastion [Accessed 18 Januari 2018].

Metacritic, 2012. Metacritic. [Online] Available at: http://www.metacritic.com/game/ios/bastion [Accessed 18 Januari 2018].

Metacritic, 2014. Metacritic. [Online] Available at: http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/transistor [Accessed 18 Januari 2018].

Metacritic, 2014. Metacritic. [Online] Available at: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/transistor [Accessed 18 Januari 2018].

Metacritic, 2015. Metacritic. [Online] Available at: http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/bastion [Accessed 18 Januari 2018].

Metacritic, 2015. Metacritic. [Online] Available at: http://www.metacritic.com/game/ios/transistor [Accessed 18 Januari 2018].

Metacritic, 2016. Metacritic. [Online] Available at: http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-one/bastion [Accessed 18 Januari 2018].

29 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Referenser

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Microsoft, 2018. Microsoft Development Network. [Online] Available at: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb195055.aspx [Accessed 18 Januari 2018].

Miller, G., 2011. IGN. [Online] Available at: http://www.ign.com/articles/2011/08/22/bastion-review [Accessed 16 Januari 2018].

Petit, C., 2014. Gamespot. [Online] Available at: https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/transistor-review/1900-6415763/ [Accessed 16 Januari 2018].

Phillips, W., 2014. A Composer's guide to Game Music. London, England: The MIT Press.

Sliva, M., 2014. IGN. [Online] Available at: http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/05/20/transistor-review [Accessed 16 Januari 2018].

Sterling, J., 2011. Review: Bastion. [Online] Available at: https://www.destructoid.com/review-bastion-206398.phtml [Accessed 16 Januari 2018].

Supergiant Games, 2018. Supergiant Games. [Online] Available at: https://www.supergiantgames.com/team/ [Accessed 19 Januari 2018].

Takahashi, D., 2016. VentureBeat. [Online] Available at: https://venturebeat.com/2016/12/21/worldwide-game-industry-hits-91-billion-in- revenues-in-2016-with-mobile-the-clear-leader/ [Accessed 21 Januari 2018].

Urban Dictionary, 2005. Urbandictionary.com. [Online] Available at: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shovelware [Accessed 28 12 2017].

Walker, J., 2011. Rock Paper Shotgun. [Online] Available at: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/17/wot-i-think-bastion/ [Accessed 16 Januari 2018].

30 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Bilaga 1: Intervju med Darren Korb

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Bilaga 1: Intervju med Darren Korb Transskript – Darren Korb intervju

Olof: And yeah, so you are Darren Korb, one of my all-time recent heroes, I think, so this is pretty cool

Darren: Awesome, that’s cool to hear, thank you so much

Olof: Apparently, I got an email from my supervisor on the project and she was like, “oh yeah, I really like supergiant as well and I think Darren is really cool so tell me how that goes!”

Darren: Awesome!

Olof: So, she is also really into the project. So, I’m doing a study into sound design and how it affects player experience in games and it’s been kind of interesting. I didn’t have a lot of answers on the survey I sent out, I don’t have the reach, but what I can gather from my survey and reviews and sales numbers and all of that, there is a clear distinction on the perceived experience of the sound of bastion and transistor because they are in many many ways very similar in what they’re trying to do, at least that’s my take on it.

Darren: Yeah, I think that’s fair to say, sure!

Olof: So, I’m just going to try to knock out some questions that I kind of need answers to. I was wondering about production times, and a bit of like, technical data and planning and stuff. I recently realized that I kind of messed up, because I haven’t seen your GDC talk yet. I didn’t realize that you’d done one. And also, I started watching your talk on “Guerilla Audio”.

Darren: Yeah, the Stanford talk.

Olof: I haven’t seen either and I kind of realized that you were in the same position as I was with Bastion and had to do everything yourself. So how long was the production time for Bastion? Do you have any idea of how, like, many hours we’re talking about here?

Darren: Yes, so I started right at the beginning of the project, and the dev cycle is about 20 months. So, I worked on it the entire time.

You know, on bastion, especially early in the project there were portions of that time where I wasn’t working on it. At that point I was contracting for them a little bit, for supergiant. I was involved but not a full-on team-member yet, right at the beginning. So, I would get a batch of sounds that I would need to deliver and some ideas for music pieces and stuff, so I was experimenting. But there would be a week, here and there, where I wouldn’t do stuff.

That changed, like a third of a quarter of the production of that game. Probably less even, yeah. So pretty quickly I was, after maybe like a couple of months, I was doing stuff all the time. So yeah, whether I was working on a piece of music or doing a batch of sound effects and then recording voice over, of course. Once we started doing that, and we knew that was going to be a part of the game, then there was definitely no point after that where I wasn’t busy.

Olof: Yeah, yeah, I bet. Like I played Bastion I think on the summer of 2013 or 2014, and I hadn’t really dedicated myself to starting out with game audio and getting into this whole thing, but the voice over for that game is basically what made it for me, so I think you did a really good job.

31 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Bilaga 1: Intervju med Darren Korb

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Darren: Thank you so much.

Olof: But 20 months, and you say that for the majority of that time you worked on it full time?

Darren: Yeah

Olof: That’s really cool, but do you have any ballparks on the split between pre-production and production?

Darren: Um, yeah. For that particular game, we started production proper. Well, it depends on what you define that as, because our approach to that game and also to Transistor was to get a vertical slice “Demo” that was shippable, before we even showed it to anyone and even before we, in our mind, entered production.

So we showed that for the first time in, I guess, September in 2010. At PAX 2010. And basically, I think it was after, right after that that we entered full production. It was about a year, actually, in pre-production and about 8 months in production, or less.

Olof: Okay so. But the vertical slice is like, I don’t know how to phrase this.

Darren: It’s sort of like the first 20 minutes of game play, up to shippable level. Some of that is production, technically. But by our mind it is still sort of, not really. Like, it is proving out all of the systems, still.

Olof: Yeah and designing all the things and doing all the concept that you want to work around and then when you enter production it is just expanding that.

Darren: Exactly, it’s just go. Go and make the rest of the game.

Olof: But the narrator, was that incorporated into the design at that point?

D: Yes

O: That’s really cool.

D: Yeah, the thing we showed, at the end of September in 2010 is basically the shipped first 20 minutes of the game that ended up shipping. Like, there’s some tweaks and some UI changes and whatever, menu stuff. But it’s basically the shipped thing.

O: Up to like 95% of the polish as well.

D: Yeah.

O: Okay that’s interesting to me, that’s really cool. Is the breakdown similar for Transistor?

D: For Transistor, we had a much longer cycle, dev cycle. That was like 2,5 years. We started in, let me think about this, Bastion shipped in July in 2011.

O: Yeah, summer of arcade.

D: Summer of Arcade, and then, so we started working and batting around ideas for transistor pretty soon after that, maybe within a couple of months. We did the PC-version in August, wrapped us up for a bit, we did a little pre-DLC thing.

32 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Bilaga 1: Intervju med Darren Korb

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

But then, we were working on Transistor. But our work on Transistor was sort of divided because we were also working on an iPad-version of Bastion and some other stuff. So, we sort of began slowly working on Transistor fairly soon, within a few months after Bastion shipped but were sort of divided by other projects because we’re such a small studio that when there is anything else going on it’s pretty disruptive. If one of the engineers are working on something else that’s like half of the engineers.

O: yeah and then everything just grinds to a halt.

D: Yeah, so for example, or the artist or whatever, the designers. So yeah, everything grinds to a halt.

So, we slowly started working on prototyping Transistor pretty quickly. It came out in May of 2014, so yeah, I’d say it’s about 2,5 years. And then it was a similar thing where we did pre-production up until we showed it for the first time, which was at PAX East, I want to say 2013. So basically from, for like a year and a half we were. Because yeah, I guess if we started in earnest in September something or October in 2011, Yeah, it’s about a year and a half.

O: For these two games did you use any outsourced sound effects, or not sound effects but people other than yourself working on the sound?

D: For Transistor I did a little bit, right at the end. I had a kid right at during that game, and because I am the only audio dude, I had to contract some help to pick up a little bit of the slack on some of the sound design stuff, so I had a chunk of the enemy sounds in particular, for the most part are the ones that I contracted out.

O: Okay so like the main parts had already been…

D: Yeah like all the texture of the game had been defined, I did all the menu, sort of UI stuff all myself which is I think the stuff that expresses that almost the most thoroughly of all the sounds in that game, so yeah you know.

They did a great job, I think, but it certainly was like, not as much of a times savings as one might think because the management overhead that goes along with that is like really, really.

O: Yeah, I had the same thing with the guys or the studio I’m working with, they asked me if I wanted to bring someone in because I was so swamped with school and stuff and I was like, that’s not going to save me any time, basically.

D: Yeah, it’s like if you have something specific in mind, and you could do It yourself, it is going to be really hard to get someone else to do it in a way that is satisfactory. It was sort of my experience is that.

It was just pretty, I mean if we did it again, maybe we would be able to get at what we want more specifically in a way that would help them, but you know, based on you know the experience that we’ve already had, we could sort of.

O: Yeah, I mean every time you do something again, you can do it better because you just know all the pitfalls.

D: Yeah exactly and prepare for it more thoroughly.

O: Okay but, pre-production. You had like, the thing I’m getting from you here is that you had specific goals for not only music but soundscape.

33 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Bilaga 1: Intervju med Darren Korb

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

D: Yeah, yeah absolutely.

O: You came into Bastion without like any knowledge of game audio.

D: Correct yeah.

O: I just watched the first 10 minutes of your Stanford-talk. But what were the goals, the soundscape goals for the production of Bastion, as well as Transistor?

D: Yeah well, my sort are sort of always, from the get-go were to reinforce the tone of the game and enhance the player experience in that specific way. And that’s the main one. So yeah for me the goal is always to enhance the tone of the game, deepen player immersion, reinforce tone, provide feedback when necessary. Meet or exceeded player expectation. You know when you expect there to be a sound on something there always should be and if that expectation isn’t being met you’re failing in some way.

When you need some sort of feedback, when you do something, it’s related to that. The feedback is both sort of, when you press a button you want to know that it worked and that the button was pressed and the action that it input was supposed to happen. If it did not work, you want to know that, and you want to have an indication of why. So some of it is boring and just providing the player with information that they need. But mostly the theming of all of the sound effects and the approach to them that for me is all to deepen the immersion and increase the sense that this is a world and things all sort of fit together in this place and all that. So that was my approach from the beginning.

Even though I hadn’t done sound design for a game before I grew up loving games and playing forever so I wasn’t going into it totally blind, I had some opinions on it already.

O: Yeah like, pure osmosis.

D: Yeah just thinking about it over the years. And once I started making it I was like “well, it makes sense to theme all this stuff, because otherwise it will all just be random. And you know it’s got to be themed to make it effectively and that goes for the music too. I made a genre for myself, just for me to make the stuff not really for any other reason. I mean it was to try to ty it together, but mostly it was to help me make stuff that would all fit together, if that makes sense.

O: Yeah, I think it does. I have kind of scoured the Wikipedia pages for information on this stuff and supergiant games, a lot of the times you have big sections on music and your works in particular. I don’t know if you go and read that. But one of the things I find so fascinating is that I have no connection with frontier times kind of music and stuff like that, but it seems to fit so crazily well with the art-direction and the entire creative direction just seems to fit like a glove. It was a long time since I played Bastion and I was supposed to take a look at it today just to listen for some of the things but what I can remember is that it sounds so naturally there. Was that like a conscious choice like you design this pallet of sounds that you had. If you make a big band composition for instance you have some instruments that you want and need to be there, did you use some of that same compositional sound design techniques to limit yourself?

D: Yeah, I mean, that’s part of what the idea of setting up a genre for the game was for me, was to unify the pallet and the different sections of the game have different pallets depending on what seems appropriate for the place but they’re all sort of tied together by this genre of music. And they all have components, they all have some core components that are similar in terms of instrumentation.

34 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Bilaga 1: Intervju med Darren Korb

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

I certainly appreciate the comment that the art and the music feel tied together because that was definitely something that we aimed for, but I think some of that has to do with the way we work. It’s very iterative, it’s all simultaneous, so I’ll make a piece of music, Jen will hear it, she’ll do something, I will see her art and I’ll be like, “oh cool I’m gonna go” and then, you know, it will influence each other like that. And Greg will write a story thing, there’ll be some narration and I’ll be like, “oh cool I need to” and we’ll all be able to respond to each other that way.

So hopefully that produces something that feels unified and another thing is that one of the things we start with on each project is just sort of tonal goals, and what should it feel like, what is the vibe of this. Like if you say, it should be like what if Cormac McCarthy made a fantasy video game? You know? That’s like pretty specific.

O: Yeah.

D: Like tonally, you know what I mean? So, if you have an artist and a musician and a writer all just doing their own things just based on that one thing, there’ll be some feel of cohesion. And that’s sort of the idea is that you know you have this sort of tone that you, at least in the beginning, set out to make and everybody striving for that, I think helps to create some cohesion as well. Just having the high-level ideas well understood by everybody.

O: Yeah that makes sense to me but that might be like my experience with working in a team that has been very scattered last couple of months because it’s been like crazy. But okay so like specific goals, for Bastion I think you worked a lot with like kind of a rustic kind of Foley feel. Metal and brimstone and some of that natural stuff.

D: Yeah like building materials and stuff like that. Hammers and stuff like that.

O: Stone and metal and you know, but for Transistor, because this is what is fascinating for me because I like the setting for Transistor, a lot. But that is such an abstract thing to come up with, especially as you say, tonally. How would you go about trying to figure out what the pallet should be?

D: Yeah, the sound effects pallet for that was a little trickier to find and once I found it I was really pleased. You know because the game is more abstract generally, it’s like a sci-fi-thing basically but with a twist and it has some sort of, not a magical component but there is some sort of supernatural something, going on. And so, it’s an interesting. You know the thing that I ended up with that made me satisfied was it ended up being sort of like very synth heavy, lots of digital distortion and digital sounds and it was like computer synth stuff with a hint of magic was what I ended up going for in the pallet.

And I think that comes across, it’s a little more abstract again, so what everybody will get out of it is different but for the pallet specifically that was my take. I think the tone of that one was, you know, it’s sort of like, the setting is like a futuristic Venice. It was sort of the idea and part of the approach was we wanted it to feel like vintage futurism, does that make sense? Have you ever seen the movie Brazil?

O: No, but I’m thinking about Her.

D: Her is interesting, Her feels to me just sort of like modern futurism. It’s just like current world, but in, you know what I mean. But specifically, like, imagine like futuristic Venice or like a 1920’s vision of the future-thing. So, a vision of the future rooted in some other time or some other timeline.

35 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Bilaga 1: Intervju med Darren Korb

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

O: My take is that the technical aspects are very hyper futuristic, but the culture is like high 20’s/30s American. Red as a character is fascinating just because of that fact that she’s like this jazz singer basically which is cool. Was that character design, you must have had a finger with in that design.

D: Well it was sort of like a group thing. We thought “well jeez, let’s see if we can make a game that allows us to do more songs.” Because that was really fun, and people responded so well to that in Bastion, let’s do that more. That was one of the things we were considering early on when we were making a lot of those decisions. Was just find and excuse to make a bunch more songs, you know? So that was part of it, for sure.

O: What about like, in the Stanford talk you say that Bastion was created with a shoe-string budget. How much did you have to work with when it comes to technical and economic limitations?

D: Well basically I just couldn’t pay for anything or hire anyone. You know, I was making, I agreed to take a very small, I just believed in the project really hard and I was like getting paid very very little, along with everybody else who worked on it. Which allowed us to work on it for so long. Which is a pretty long time to full time work on something. With a shoe-string budget. So, my approach to the audio was like basically the only person that I hired for anything was Ashley and then I had my friend do a little bit of voice-over for me, my friend Christine. But that’s as far as all the off-team stuff that we did.

So, my approach to the music was I need to do it in a way that I can totally do it by myself, and the sound design as well. I just need to, whatever it is, I’ll do whatever I have to do so that I can do it all by myself.

O: Yeah, okay so if it takes me 4 hours to get this professionally mixed in a studio and 20 to get it mixed, by myself with what I got.

D: Yeah you just have to pick the second one because we just can’t afford the other thing. And I would argue that usually the result is better, in the second way. It’s like, if you can dedicate enough time to something, you don’t need a bunch of gear, fancy gear, you don’t need. You just need like, a good ear and some experience and like basic, good decent recording software. These days that’s really all you need, like a pretty powerful computer helps but you don’t even need that. You can get around that too.

O: Well what kind of, if we’re talking about bedroom and home producing and all of that stuff and even for sound design like I myself have some assignments in school doing like pure Foley in my bedroom which is like very hard to get around. Like I need to tidy this place up after this is done. But did you have any space to work in? Like acoustics is very important and what about mics and production suites and DAW’s and stuff?

D: So, for, I did very little Foley, I did some and I did that in my kitchen mostly because I was like chopping shit, chopping shit up, you know. But everything else was recorded I had a closet that had like doors that opened sideways and so were kind of on either side of you if you were sitting and looking into the closet. And so, I’d hang sound blankets over those doors, like moving blankets basically. I put a rug down and I put the mic like in the closet facing out and it was a little like a reasonably high-celling room and pretty good, there was like a bed, it was my bedroom. And I recorded everything for both Transistor and Bastion, just like that.

36 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Bilaga 1: Intervju med Darren Korb

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

For Bastion I recorded just about everything with a Shure KSM32 condenser mic. It’s a wide diaphragm condenser it’s like not that expensive. It’s like 400 bucks, maybe? 300-400 bucks, something like that? And that was it, I used that for almost everything on that game.

On Transistor I used a different mic for most of the things. Which sounded really nice but was very finnicky because it was a tube-mic. So, I had a lot of noise problems and stuff with like noisy electricity and stuff that made it really hard to work with. So, I had to, you know, work around that sometimes. But that was a Telefunken AK47 mk II, which is, it’s definitely nicer. That’s you know, an upgrade, and I got a pre-amp for that game for that game as well that I used and that I still use, and I used for all of Pyre, as well. I got a like a little Neve, a one-channel Neve Portico 517. Which is just like a single-channel compressor, like a pre-amp with like a little built in compressor that is just like always at a 2:1 ratio and it’s just really nice on just about everything, so.

O: But did the, like did you get a lot of new toys for Transistor because I mean like, Bastion was kind of a smashing hit.

D: It was eventually. But we didn’t know that was the case when we started working on Transistor. Like it wasn’t a hit yet, when we started working on Transistor. It had a long tail and we ported it to a bunch of platforms and like on Xbox Play then we released it on PC and it did pretty good at first, you know and at that time the sort of conventional wisdom was, you’ll do half of the sales of the entire life of your game, in the first month. That’s what people thought at that time which is no longer true. And it certainly wasn’t true for Bastion. So, what we were basing our assessment off how we did on was our first month. And you know, based on our first month we’d be able to make another game but, you know, it was not a hit.

So, but it did well, for sure, at the beginning and we planned according to that, but we didn’t want to go nuts I mean we didn’t want to all of a sudden. We didn’t want to change to much of our process because it was working for us, you know. And we were able to make things in that was so we just kind of tried to proceed with the next project.

O: Yeah you like didn’t invest like 50-60 thousand dollars into a recording studio or something.

D: No, oh my god I wish, that’d be amazing.

(Both laugh)

D: That’s the dream, well so finally after Transistor I mean right now I am in a recording, I mean a little sound-booth that we got. So, I moved, I did Bastion and Transistor in my apartment in New York and the company was based in San Francisco. Or San Hose first and then it moved to San Francisco for Transistor and then.

O: So, you were on different time-zones?

D: Mhm, yeah. It’s only three hours difference, I mean it’s not too bad but still it makes a difference and Logan lives in New York as well, he was there the whole time and Ashley was there at that time as well. At some point during Transistor Ashley moved to California and then after Transistor finished I ended up moving to California and I work from the studio now and so we moved to a new studio after Transistor and got a vocal booth in the office so that’s where I do all my recording now, it’s great.

37 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Bilaga 1: Intervju med Darren Korb

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

It doesn’t you know, it’s not perfect but it’s totally better than what I was doing before, you know. It’s not like a great sounding big room but it’s pretty dead and it’s pretty quiet. And that’s all you can hope for basically. Without a big fancy studio.

O: Yeah and like without, thousands of dollars of recording budget. But do you use, I guess you use pretty much all instruments in the box or at least the things you can’t play?

D: Yeah just the things I can’t play or don’t have access to basically. But yeah like anything that’s shaped like a guitar or a base pretty much I’ll play. Or, you know, keyboards or midi generally. I’ve used some little old analogue keyboards. But keyboards or midi generally and then the… but yeah everything else is, beside from the guitars, bases and some keys, pretty much everything else is software instruments or loops or something.

O: That’s really cool. That’s like, I guess that’s the definition of a small production budget, like you do everything, and you do it with what you’ve got, and you don’t like, as I do, spend days dreaming of new production suites and new stuff.

D: Yeah, I mean the production suites in, you know I bought so little. I buy plugins once in a while, but I really don’t use too much in terms of like, I use Logic and Logic is, out-of-the-box, spectacular, in terms of what kind of out of the box software instruments it has. And preset and loops and all sorts of, I mean it’s just. It is, I don’t have a ton of experience with like, current, Pro Tools, I used to use it back in the day, but I just can’t like imagine it is anywhere close in terms of stuff it comes with that is like really, really helpful right away.

Like, back in the day you had to like, connect it to reason to get it to have like any decent music, you know MIDI-stuff. And whatever it was terrible for MIDI, it was only good for big, multi-tracking stuff as far as I could tell. And I learned it because that was the standard and that’s what I knew about and that’s what the industry used and all that. But sometime right around, I switched over to Logic right around Logic 7, and I really liked it and then Logic 8 came out and it was like game changing. That’s the piece of software that I made Bastion on and Transistor was on, I think it was probably on Logic 9. And then Pyre was on Logic 10.

O: Okay. So, you didn’t use like, I’m looking over sales of Komplete Ultimate 11 and stuff like that and I just really want it because I use Pro Tools, that’s all I got so I don’t have all these like symphony orchestra sounds that I’d really, really want and stuff. But you don’t use that?

D: No. I avoid that stuff because I know that I don’t. I can’t like, you need to do so much work to make that stuff sound good, in the can, that it’s just like I don’t know how to do that. If I do use string-samples, I’ll try to fuck them up as much as possible so that, like make them sound a different way on purpose. Like I’ll try to put them through a guitar amp or something because it’s just like. You have to, if you, I just don’t want to put a bad string patch as it is. It just doesn’t sound good. You know? So, for me it’s like, I can’t try to convince people there are real strings. Like that just doesn’t make any sense, for what I do, necessarily. So, it’s like if you can’t do that then you have to make a creative choice, you know, to make it sound like something specific instead of something that isn’t very good.

O: So, you don’t feel like you have the, like even if you invest in some of the big brand like plugins and samplers and stuff.

38 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Bilaga 1: Intervju med Darren Korb

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

D: I mean I just don’t think I would ever use that. Like as a tool that’s just not what I’m interested in, creatively. Like I just don’t want to use fake strings. You know? I’d rather, like my use of strings has been so sparing in the past that if I did have some string parts or something at this point it would be probably just as cheap or not much more expensive, to just like, do that thing where you send the scores to the Czech Republic and you buy like one minute of recording time or you know what I mean? You can have them record just one minute of music for you and it’s like 500 bucks. Or it’s like less than that, you know? It’s crazy. And you have a full orchestra.

O: Yeah, I remember following the production vlogs for Warhammer Online back in the day and the guy says like, yeah this is the first time I’m going to work with a real orchestra. They fly out and they record the entire score in two days and it’s like, yeah this is done now. And it’s just like, how did this happen?

D: Those people are professionals, that’s all they do, you know what I mean? They just like read a score like twice and then they just play it perfectly and then it’s done.

O: Yeah, it’s crazy I mean they must have done so many different things.

D: I’m sure yeah, I mean like, I don’t, write, music. Really. Like I don’t ever write my scores down. They’re never written down. So that would create extra steps and just it would require me to get somebody else to help me do that because I don’t. I can like, I can read music if I sit there and stare at it, you know. I read music at like a first-grade level basically, you know what I mean. But, so you know I could do it, I guess, eventually, or have Logic spit out a bunch of whatever based on the MIDI. Spit out some stuff but nobody would want to play that you know?

O: Yeah, I get that, so you’re not classically trained or anything?

D: No. No, I have a rock background.

O: That’s cool, that’s really cool to know, actually. But like, do you think that the outcome or anything or like the final product of both Bastion or Transistor would have changed if you would have had a larger budget or more technical equipment or something?

D: I don’t know. I mean probably not it’s really hard to know, it’s like, if I had more tools maybe I would have tried to use them but it’s all about what can you execute well. And it doesn’t it’s sort of the cost of that isn’t really relevant unless the only thing that you can execute well is expensive. You know? But for me like, part of the goal for me was to try to really make the most of like, wring every ounce of production value out of what I had. And try to find and interesting way to do that. And I think at the time it was stranger, then it is now. It’s like people do that a lot now. People have like great sounding stuff that they make in their bedroom all the time, you know. That’s just the thing now. Maybe it was a little newer at that point but, but it’s not like, people do that it’s not like, you know, super crazy, you know?

O: Yeah, I get like Facebook-commercials for a book called, what is it, 6-figure bedroom producer or bedroom studio or something and I’m like yeah business books for music I’m not sure I really want to.

D: Yeah, I don’t know man a lot of that stuff is crazy.

O: Did you feel like, you came in with a clean slate with like no sound design, no game audio programing. First of all, did you use any middleware for.

39 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Bilaga 1: Intervju med Darren Korb

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

D: Yes, for Bastion we used Exact, which was free and because we were working with the XNA framework and that’s the middleware that came with that. It was a pile of garbage and it did not do basic stuff well or anything. It was like really weird, counter-intuitive, especially for someone who had no experience using middleware. It was basically like, hey I want to put some reverb on this stuff like, what the fuck, like how do you and it was basically that like our main programmer had to go and like research how to make a reverb and put it on. It was like really bad.

O: So, he had to like build plugins.

D: Stuff couldn’t loop cleanly, it was like, I was like, it was crazy. So yeah, I did the best I could, with that. And I think it turned out well but it’s really crazy now to think back on like how did we live with that, you know. Because with Transistor we switched to FMOD-studio and it’s just like, anything you can think of, you can do it, basically. It’s super powerful and really good. We’ve had some technical difficulties with it on Pyre just because we like, we did some really crazy stuff with like 8 stereo-stems playing at the same time and all those dynamic music stuff and just like craziness. So, whatever we do next, I’ll probably try to reel it back a little bit just to avoid any nightmare headaches right at the end of the project like we had on Pyre.

O: I don’t know like, I’m not here to shill for anyone but I’ve been working with Wwise and they, from what I gather, I haven’t read the 201-course which directly concerns music but from what I can understand they have really gone all out trying to get music to be a major part and adaptive music to be a major part in how it works.

D: Yeah, so that’s cool I mean it’s certainly easy to do that stuff in FMOD I just went a little to nuts I think. Yeah FMOD, the thing I love about FMOD, you know Wwise is certainly the industry standard but like the thing I like about FMOD is that it’s timeline-based.

O: Yeah.

D: And I just, as an audio/music guy that’s just like, that is home, that’s just like using a DAW. You know, so it’s like, I get this because I know how to use a DAW, so I know how to do this. And like, having to learn something that I don’t know how to do already is just like way worse than leveraging my knowledge you know. It’s like me trying to learn how to write out scores for a string orchestra when I can just, you know, when I know how to do something instead of that.

O: Yeah and just like make the creative decision to not have to learn that. Like the cost-benefit is not good.

D: Yepp, yeah exactly.

O: So, what did you learn like, except for the pile of garbage exact. What did you learn like from Bastion taking it into Transistor and from Transistor taking it into Pyre when it comes to sound design specifically.

D: Yeah, I mean, a bunch of stuff. I mean we certainly like, because we had a more powerful middleware we were able to try crazier stuff in Transistor than what we were able to do in Bastion. I had some ideas in Bastion that I just simply, I had no fucking idea how to execute, especially with this bad software and my, it being the first time I ever worked on anything like that. Because if I wanted to try and do anything it would monopolize our two programmers, one of our two programmers time for some amount of time. You know? And so, it’s just like, there’s only so much they can do for me because they have a bunch of stuff that they’re doing. You know for the game and so.

40 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Bilaga 1: Intervju med Darren Korb

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

O: Yeah, they’re fixing bugs I mean.

D: Yeah, on Transistor we had a third programmer too, who was able to help me do all that stuff with FMOD.

O: Okay so they knew some FMOD stuff?

D: Yes, they brought their FMOD knowledge to the team and were like Hey we should switch to FMOD.

O: Oh yeah okay.

D: Yeah and so that was great.

O: Had you heard of FMOD or Wwise before?

D: No, I didn’t know anything about any middleware at all.

O: Yeah and like even if you learned 10 months into the Bastion production it was like yeah, it’s too late. It’s too late to switch now.

D: Oh of course, like he came on during Transistor, he wasn’t there for Bastion. So, yeah, we hired him right after Bastion came out basically. So, I think that was a big thing that was like a big source of my learning about Game Audio and how it’s implemented really happened on Transistor. On Bastion I was like, well I’m going to do some, you know I’ll do a little playlist of sounds and have them randomized. Like you know when you swing the hammer I’ll have like five sounds that can play and I’ll have them pitch-shifted whenever they play and that’s basically the extent of anything you could do and like, the fanciest thing we were able to do was like a low-pass filter when you get gased by one of the stinkweed or whatever, you know.

That’s basically the fanciest thing we were able to do was like a global low-pass filter. And then when you paused it, when you paused the game a global low-pass filter comes on.

O: Yeah, I used that as well, I mean it works, it’s very effective.

D: No, I love it. And I love that it doesn’t stop the music it just sort of, it just like muffles, you know, which is nice. So that’s cool. I like what it did for the thing, it’s like the world still exists and you’re just taking a break for a minute, kind of thing. But uh, I derailed myself.

Yeah so, and then on Transistor I learned a ton and in Pyre I tried to do some crazy stuff with that new knowledge and basically did, and I learned a bunch from Pyre as well. So yeah, with each project I learned a ton about sort of how to implement things and what’s a smart way to do it and what are some problems that can happen and just based on having done the whole process a few times now, I’ve sort of, I have a bag of tricks now that I know how to do and then I have the means to figure out how to do things I don’t currently know how to do. Based on my current understanding of the software and all that stuff.

O: Yeah like, you’re building the pyramid or the revers pyramid, like this tiny nugget becomes so much more.

D: Yeah yeah yeah.

41 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Bilaga 1: Intervju med Darren Korb

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

O: For sound design, I mean you have a background in music and even though no one is ever really fully fledged but for sound design, what kind of things did you figure out, like in the process of creating Bastion and creating Transistor? For the design process?

D: I think just, the thing that I learned pretty quickly is that there isn’t any right way to do it, necessarily. There isn’t one right way. You don’t just need to do Foley or samples or synthesize things or whatever there’s whatever you can do. Whatever means you have to use to achieve the sound, just do that.

So, combining a bunch of samples or processing them or, I mean I did that for most of the sounds of Bastion and Transistor was sound-library sounds that I processed or combined with other sounds. And you know I try generally not to leave anything exactly as it is out of the sound-library. You know I will tweak it or put a little special sauce on it so that it doesn’t just. You know that feels cheap, to me. But I’m totally willing to use library sounds, you know, it doesn’t bother me at all because that’s what they’re for.

O: Yeah, whatever works.

D: And as long as it doesn’t sound like it is, if it sounds exactly like it sounds in the sound-library you can maybe have the bad experience of like, hey I have heard this sound in this other game. You know? Whereas if it is modified even at all you won’t have that feeling, I don’t think. You know? As much.

So that was a consideration but yeah, my thing is I saw a talk by John Ottman who is a composer and editor for movies. He does, he did like all the Xmen-movies and stuff he works with Bryan Singer a lot. Like he was giving a talk, I think it was Comic-con in 2010 or something or maybe it was before that, but he was talking about how the sound of the Xmen jet, landing in Xmen.

O: Yeah?

D: Is him, going [BHHRRrrrrrr], into a microphone, you know?

And I was like, oh man well okay I mean, alright. I can go do that then, I guess? Because that’s a thing you can do. You can just make stupid mouth noises into a microphone and process them and mix them with other stuff and it sounds really cool a lot of the times. It’s easier to just like, kind of mimic what you think it would sound like with your mouth and then tweak that than to just dig for something, you know? Especially if it’s a sound that is not just some realistic thing, you know? If it is some sort of thing that is esoteric, and you are imagining, it’s generally a good starting point as an ingredient at least, to build a sound around, so I do that a lot.

Like a lot of the, like all of the, when you score in pyre by plunging into the opposing teams’ pyre, the sound that plays there is that. It’s just me, it’s like mixed with some other stuff but it’s but it’s me going like [BHhuuueeeeee] or whatever.

O: Yeah okay yeah, the mouth is like the most versatile tool that we basically have, it’s very weird when you think about it.

D: Yeah absolutely it’s very strange, it’s got a built-in frequency filter and all sorts of stuff so yeah.

O: And we have like an instinctive control over it.

D: Yepp.

42 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Bilaga 1: Intervju med Darren Korb

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

O: It’s weird, I listened to Akash Thakkar’s GDC-talks a bit and he talks about this as well like he bought a cheap dynamic microphone and a stethoscope of eBay and he put them together and he stethoscope and recorded his fridge and that became the atmosphere.

D: That’s cool.

O: Yeah and it’s like, anything you can actually think of, you can actually do. And if the sound fits, it fits.

D: Yeah, exactly.

O: And if it doesn’t then you have to try something else. For Transistor was the process different? Like had you figured out something about the process of trying to get sounds for the sound design and was it easier for Transistor than it was for Bastion?

D: Transistor I think in a lot of ways was harder than Bastion, just because it was our second thing. And we were trying to do something different enough so that it was just not a Bastion 2. But similar enough that people would recognize it, as a game that was made by us.

So, I think a lot of the choices we were kind of trying to do a tight-rope walk with a lot of the choices we made for that game. And I was trying to find a unique space for everything to live and so creatively it was a lot more challenging, I think. At least for the first half of development. So yes and no, I mean I think Transistor was like probably the hardest actually for me in terms of trying to find sound that felt unique and right. Once I found them, then it got easy, but it took me a really long time to find.

O: Finding the way to make the things that would fit.

D: Yeah exactly and finding like what was the thing that was going to fit, what was the conceit what was even the, you know I had ingredients but I just, it took me a while and the same for the music for Transistor, it took me a while to really figure out what the vibe was of that game. And then once I did I was really happy with where it was.

O: Did that have anything to do, like the difficulty of finding sound effects or the sound design process for Transistor did that have anything to do with like the Art Direction. Like this weird mix of stuff.

D: No, no I don’t think so I mean I think it was less straight forward for sure. Like, you know, everything was just less straight-forward about it, in a lot of ways. Like the setting was really cool but certainly like it’s very obvious for Bastion that the sound theming should be building stuff because that’s what the game is about. For Transistor it’s like, the game is about a magic cyber-sword? Like what do you, what does that sound like? You know? So, answering that question was just a lot harder on Transistor because things were just less straight forward, settings wise.

O: Bastion has more of a root in reality and Transistor is more creating something out of nothing.

D: Yeah, exactly. And that was the first time I really had to do that I felt, was on Transistor. Like Bastion all kind of, I mean I could have a root somewhere and sort of, I wasn’t stumbling around in the dark you know. For Transistor I was for a while until I figured it out.

O: Okay, yeah that’s cool. Let’s talk about narrators, like I only have a few questions left and we’ve been going for a while but maybe you’re happy to talk about this stuff. But do you think that the

43 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Bilaga 1: Intervju med Darren Korb

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

Narrator as a choice, which you use very extensively in both. Like I really like that you have only one talking character in those games. In Transistor you have a few different, towards the end. But do you think the effectiveness was influenced, like how it conveys information to the player, do you think it was affected by the art style or by the creative style that you went for?

D: I mean I think, I mean it started for Bastion as a solution to a problem. And the problem was, how do you convey information and story to a player in context, in an action RPG, without having them stop to read a wall of text. Like what’s another option there? And it came up as another option and because I happened to be roommates with Logan at the time, you know he’s a friend from way back of mine and Amir who is our, one of our studio co-founders. It was just something that we decided to try as a possible solution to this problem and as soon as we tried it we thought, oh this is pretty cool, let’s see if we can push on that and now that we’re doing this Oh I guess we can have him kind of react to stuff that you’re doing. You know, and it was just sort of a discovery of, once we tried it, it was oh okay here are some more options that open up.

O: Okay so it’s like a replacement for the standard JRPG text-scrolling stuff that you have to wait through.

D: Yeah. Yeah, I mean like in Diablo 2 when you have story conveyed to you, I mean even though they’re saying all the text it’s like you stop to talk to Deckard Cain and there’s like a five paragraph whatever about Diablo and nonsense and you kind of have to sit there and not play the game while the story is conveyed to you.

And we wanted to avoid a situation where you weren’t playing to take in story. We wanted the story to be part of the gameplay and that was something that I think was really. That was the thing that we were trying to solve basically.

O: Right, yeah that makes sense and you just rehash the same kind of thing, for Transistor, I guess? It’s the same problem.

D: We we’re trying to solve it in a different way tough because in Bastion he’s an omniscient narrator, he’s telling a story. And in Transistor it is a character present in real time with you, the player, you know. So, he doesn’t know everything. So, it’s much harder to, and it’s just one-way dialogue, like he’s having a dialogue with another character who doesn’t speak, you know?

So, it certainly, we found a lot more narrative challenges trying to convey everything that way and we did have some sort of terminals and some stuff that you could read and get more information in that game.

O: But he still comments on it. Like he still comments on the text in the terminals.

D: Yeah exactly.

O: And I personally think that is a good way to make text more interesting, because you have this person, this third person, in like the gameplay who is…

D: Also reading it with you, yeah.

O: That’s actually a really cool way to do that. Do you think that, mixing-wise, I think about the voice of, I guess the Transistor because he doesn’t really have a name? Do you think that the mixing choices in comparison to Bastion changes the way it influences or how influential it becomes to the player experience?

44 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Bilaga 1: Intervju med Darren Korb

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

D: Definitely it is very important. I mean, the main, so for both of those games, the voice-over was the most important thing you’re hearing, at any given time, in my mind. So, it was mixed front and center, when the voice talks it ducks everything else a little bit. Just to make room for the voice to make sure that you can hear what it’s saying because it’s the means of story conveyance, so it is critical.

And so, but the main difference, mix-wise, was that one of them is a narrator speaking right into your ears and the other one is a character in the world. So, it has ambience on it, it’s coming out of a sword so it sound kind of like it’s got some sort of a filter on it. It’s coming out of a weird little speaker, you know. So that was the main sort of mix difference, I would say, in terms of my approach to all the relative levels of everything.

O: Do you think that changes the way it is perceived, like the sword is completely diegetic, like it is in the world, right now. Do you think that, because the experience that I had is that the mixing of the narrator for Bastion makes it feel more like a closely associated story-telling from this old uncle and that has a lot of, I don’t know how to describe it, but it has a certain charisma to it.

Do you think that the way it is presented changes the way the narrator sounds for the player?

D: Absolutely, of course yeah, I think that it changes the understanding of it, but I think the main thing it does is support the actual thing that is happening, which is different. So hopefully it does change the player perspective because the thing that it is conveying is a different scenario. So yeah of course, but I do, to answer your question more specifically, I do think it changes, just the way that you hear it is going to change your perception of it in addition to, you know, just reinforcing your understanding of what is going on. It’s you know, it’ll be more intimate, to have someone speaking directly into your ear, than it will be to have someone speaking to you from like way over there.

O: More of a companion to your character.

D: Yeah exactly, so it’s certainly more like, yeah, the way you treat the voice and present it and place it in the mix and how you treat it in terms of ambience and all that stuff is absolutely, it has a lot to do with that.

O: I have only one more question and you actually already kind of answered that but, the perspective in time. I really really like the story-fact that you actually after the tutorial you meet the narrator. That was kind of like the, okay now I’m hooked on this game, for me in Bastion. Do you think that, maybe this isn’t like your forte and your field of expertise, but do you think the time displacement changes the way the narration of the game is experienced? In a way that is significant? And if you had done the same thing with Transistor, would you have gotten closer to the same result?

D: We wouldn’t have wanted to, I mean we specifically avoided it for Transistor. For the reason of that it’s a really specific thing. We had already covered a lot of that territory. We wanted your feelings towards the voice in Transistor to be a totally different feeling than you had towards the narrator in Bastion, where you shouldn’t know whether or not to trust him. Because he changes stuff, I mean he says stuff that’s like, you know, he has a lot of opinions that he gives you throughout the game and you don’t know like what is. It becomes clear after you meet him that he is telling you a story that he was involved with in the past tense. Well it’s not really the past tense, it’s present tense, but he is telling the story like, you know, to someone in the future. “He gets up”, it’s present tense, you know. But he’s telling a story in present tense like, at some time in the future.

45 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Bilaga 1: Intervju med Darren Korb

DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22

O: Yeah, it’s weird.

D: Yeah, it’s a strange thing.

O: But it is definitely cool.

D: Yeah, I mean it definitely should, sort of like uncertainty about the narrator and the fictive frame and about, you know, uncertainty about what is 100% really what happened and what is. How did the narrator know all this and what is all, and all those questions should be in your mind, you know, theoretically? Or could be, in Bastion. But in Transistor we do not want those questions in your mind. We want you to be totally present and this character is totally present with you. So, it’s just different objectives, you know? And we avoided that specifically, because we wanted to do something different narratively with a similar technique, but from a different angle.

O: Yeah and you like, I don’t know if you’ve seen a lot of this, but you caught some flak for like having your little safe space with the isometric action-RPGs about the one character and the voice narrator. I know for a fact that like zero-punctuation did a thing where.

D: He really liked Transistor though, he jokes about it.

O: Yeah, it’s like if you start thinking about parallels it’s like yeah, they have their thing that they do and that they’re good at and then you release Pyre and just blows that out.

D: Yeah, no we wanted to try something different for sure. I mean the thing is you know, yeah, we wanted to make a game that was a similar format, but very different. Like where it was only superficially similar basically and pretty much everything about playing that game is totally different, from playing Bastion.

O: And everything about the storytelling as well like, if you think about it superficially then yeah these are kind of the same games but then if you go one level deeper they’re like, no.

D: Exactly, exactly. It’s an isometric action-RPG where a character talks through the whole time. Like the pitch is, or not even the pitch the just sort of general description of what it is, it’s the same. But like all the details are different.

O: As well as the art style and everything about it.

D: And the tone, and the setting and the everything, so yeah.

O: And the goals of the characters as well. Like one is trying to escape something that has already been ruined and one is trying to stop or find the people responsible. Like it’s, I really like you guys.

Thank you so much for talking to me, you have no idea how much of a help that is for me.

D: No worries man, I’m always happy to help out with that sort of stuff you know I know, like I didn’t even know this was a thing you could do as a job when I was in school so I’m happy to help people figure it out you know.

46 Ljuddesignens påverkan på spelarupplevelse Bilaga 2: Data från enkät DiskussionSlutsatsMetodTeoriOlof Pettersson 2018-01-22 Bilaga 2: Data från enkät TimestampWhat is yourWhat gender? is yourWhat age range?did you think Whatabout didthe you sound thinkHow design about did theof the the sound game gaDo design youin general? haveme? impact anything [PickWhat [Pick your one] did elseopinion you to thinkWhatone] addon theregardingabout did you the think theHowsound game soun aboutdid designas the athe whole?sound ofgame dthe Dodesign design [Pickga inyou general? Whatofhave one]impact INSIDE? me?anythingdid [Pick your you [Pick opinion thinkelse one]What toabout one]on adddid the theyouregarding sound thinkHow aboutgamethedesign did sounthe theas of sound athegame whole? gaDo design ind you designgeneral?[Pick haveimpactme?What one] of anything [PickLIMBO? [Pick yourdid you opinionone] else thinkWhat toone] on aboutadd thedid regarding youthe soundthinkHow game the about designdid soun asthe the a of soundwhole? gametheDo ga youddesign in [Pickdesign general? have impactone]What ofme?anything Bastion? [Pick [Pickdidyour youelse opinionone] think toWhat addone] onabout regardingthedid theyou sound think Howthe game soun aboutdesigndid theas the aofsound whole?thegameDod ga designyoudesign in[Pick general?have ofimpact one] Transistor?me?anythingWhat [Pick [Pickyour did else opinion one]you to think add Whatone]on regardingtheabout did youthe thesoundthinkHow game soun didabout design as the a the whole?sound of game dthe designDo designga[Pick youin general? of Whathaveone] impactDeadme? anythingdid Space?[Pick your you[Pick opinionthink else one]What aboutto one]ondidadd the theyou regarding soundthinkHow about diddesignthegame the soun the assoundof gameatheDo whole? gayoudesign ind general?have design[Pick impactWhat anythingme? one] of [Pick didAmnesia:your[Pick you else opinion one] think toWhat The add one]onabout Darkdid regardingthe you theDescent? thinksoundHow the game about did soundesign the as the sounaof game whole?thed Do gadesign in you [Pickgeneral? haof one] me?HyperWhat [Pick [Pick Lightdid youone] Drifter? Whatone] did you How did the soun Do you hav Olof MalePettersson 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Not played Good Very good A fair am ount Very good Very good A lot Not played Not played Not played Very good Very good A bit Good Good A bit ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Neutral Good A bit Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not p layed Very good Very good A lot Not played Not played Not played ## Female 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Very good Good A lot Very good G ood A lot Very good Very good A fair amount Not played No t played Not played Very good Good A lot Very good Very go od A bit Not played Not played Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Don't kn ow Don't know Don't know Been tooGood long since I played Bad it. I don't Don't remember! know Good Neutral Not at all Very good Very good A lot Neutral Neutral Don't know Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Good Neutr al A bit ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Not played Not played Not played No t played Not played Not played ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Very goo d Good A fair amount Neutral Neutral Not a lot Not played Not played Not played Good Very good A fair amount Very good Good A lot Not played Not played Not played Very goo d Very good A fair amount Good Very good A fair amount ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Very good Very good A lot Very g ood Very good A lot Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not p layed Not played Not played Not played Very good Good A fa ir amount ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Good Neut ral Don't know Very good Very good A lot supergaintVery have good some of Very the bestgood audio A lotdesign in th oncee business again supergiantNot played have Not some played of the Not best played sound d esign Good in the business Neutral A fair amo unt Not played Not played Not played Neutral Good Don't kn ow Not played Not played Not played ## Prefer not toPrefer say not toNot say played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Not played Not played Not played No t played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not p layed Not played ## Female 25 - 36 Very good Very good A fair amount Very good Very good A fair amount Very good Good A lot I haven't playedNot played the game Not in played some time, Not but played I still listen Very to the good soundtrack Good from time A bitto time, and it really Ver stuck with me. y good Good A fair amount Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Good Very good A bit ## Male 37 - 48 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Not played Not played Not played No t played Not played Not played ## Prefer not to19 say - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not p layed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pla yed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played ## Female 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Very g ood Good A lot Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Not played Not played Not played No t played Not played ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Very good Very good A lot Very g ood Good A bit Very good Very good A lot Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pla yed Not played Not played Good Very good Not a lot ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Very good Very good A lot Don't know Bad Not a lot Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Good Very good A fa ir amount ## Male 25 - 36 Good Good A bit Good Very good Not a lot Very good Good A lot Very good Very good A lot Very good Good A b it Not played Not played Not played Good Neutral A bit Not played Not played Not played Good Good A lot ## Male 25 - 36 Good Very good Not a lot Very good Very goo d Not a lot Neutral Bad Not at all Neutral Neutral Not at all Neutral Good Don't know Neutral Neutral Not a lot Neut ral Neutral Don't know Neutral Bad Don't know Good Good Don' t know ## Male 25 - 36 Don't know Not played Not played Good Very good A bit Very good Very good A fair amount Very good V ery good A bit Very good Very good A lot Very good Good A fair amount Very good Very good A fair amount Very good Very good A lot Good Neutral A bit ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Very good Very good A fair amount Good Good A fair amount Not played Not playe d Not played Very good Very good A bit Neutral Good Not a l ot ## Male 37 - 48 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Good Don't know Not at all Good Neutral Not at all Not p layed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Good Very bad Not a t all ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Very good Neutral A lot Very goo d Neutral A lot Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Good Neutral A fair am ount ## Male 25 - 36 Very good Very good A fair amount Good Ver y good A fair amount Very good Very good A lot Good Neutr al A fair amount Not played Not played Not played Good Ve ry good A lot Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Neutral Very good A bit ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Good Very good A fair amount Very good Very good A lot Very good V ery good A lot Very good Very good A lot Not played Not p layed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Very good Good A lot ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Good Very good A fair amount Very good Very good A lot Very good V ery good A lot Very good Very good A lot Not played Not p layed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Very good Good A lot ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Good Very good A fair amount Very good Very good A lot Very good V ery good A lot Very good Very good A lot Not played Not p layed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Very good Good A lot ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Good Neut ral A lot Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Good Good A fair amount Very good Very bad A lot Not played Not played Not played Not played No t played Not played Neutral Good Not at all ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Good Neutral Not a lot Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Not played Not played Good Good A bit ## Female 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Good Go od Not a lot Not played Not played Not played Good Good A bit Not played Not played Not played Neutral Bad Not at a ll Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played ## Female 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pla yed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Good Neutral A fair amount Not played Not p layed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played ## Male 19 - 24 Neutral Neutral A bit Good Good A bit Neutra l Neutral A bit Neutral Neutral A bit Good Good A fair amou nt Very good Very good A lot Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Very good Very goo d A lot The sound ## Female 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Good Go od A bit Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not p layed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pla yed Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Very good Very good A lot Good Good A bit ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Good Good A lot Not played Not played N ot played ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Good Not a lot Bad Neutral Not a lot Neutral Neutral Not a lot Music wasNot ok-good, played but Not felt playedout of place. Not Soundsplayed we ren't Very anything good special Very good A f air amount Good Good A fair amount Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Very good Goo d A lot The water s ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Very good Very good A lot the sound Not played Not played Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Very good Very good A lot Very good Very g ood A lot Very good Very good A lot Very good Neutral A bi t Good Good A bit Good Very good Not a lot Very good Very g ood A lot Not played Not played Not played Neutral Good Not a lot ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Good Very good A bit Good Good A bit Very good Very good A fair amoun t Very good Very good A lot Good Good A fair amount Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pla yed Neutral Very good A bit ## Female 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pla yed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Very good Very good A fair amount Very go od Very good A fair amount Very good Neutral A fair amou nt Good Neutral A fair amount Neutral Neutral Not at all N ot played Good Good A bit Neutral Neutral Not at all Not played Neutral Neutral Not at all Not played Good Good A fair amount ## Male 19 - 24 Very good Very good A fair amount Very go od Very good A lot Not played Not played Not played Not p layed Not played Not played Very good Very good A lot Ver y good Very good A lot Not played Not played Not played Go od Good A bit Good Good A fair amount ## Female 25 - 36 Very good Very good A fair amount I particularly likedNot the played section Not where played the Notdeep played aud io pulse Very that good you have Good to time your A movementlot to avo id. The musicVery is amazing good (which Very good is a staple A lot of Supergia Thent humming GamesNot andsections played Darren were Korb), Not amazing, played and the andNot storyteller's reallyplayed reinf voi orcedce Notsets Red's played the character! tone Notof the played game Nextremely well.ot played Not played Not played Not played Very good Ver y good A lot The game' Not played Not played Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Good Very good A bit Good Good A bit Very goo d Very good A fair amount Very good Very good A lot Very good Very good A lot Not played Not played Not played Good Good Not a lot Very good Very good A fair amount Good Neut ral Not a lot ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Not played Not played Not played No t played Not played Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Not played Not played Not played No t played Not played Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Not played Not played Not played No t played Not played Not played ## Female 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Good Neutral A bit Very good Neu tral A fair amount Not played Not played Not played Very good Good A fair amount Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Very good Very good A bit ## Male 25 - 36 Good Good Not at all Good Good Not at all Good Go od Not at all Good Neutral Not at all Not played Not play ed Not played Good Good A fair amount Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Good Good No t a lot ## Female 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Good Go od A bit Very good Very good A lot soundtrackNot and played narration Not are played the most Not memorable played thi ngs Not playedabout the game Not played N ot played Not played Not played Not played Not played No t played Not played Good Very good A bit Very good Very go od A fair amount the sound i ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Good Very good A bit Very good Very good A lot Not played Not play ed Not played Very good Very good A fair amount Neutral N eutral A bit Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Don't know Good Not a lot ## Male 25 - 36 Very good Very good A fair amount Good Ver y good A fair amount Very good Good A lot Very good Good A lot Neutral Very good Not a lot Good Good A fair amount Ve ry good Very good A fair amount Not played Not played No t played Not played Not played Not played ## Female 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pla yed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Good Very good A lot Not played Not played N ot played Very good Very good A lot EXCELLENTNot played Not played Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Very goo d Very good A bit Very good Very good A lot Very good Very good A lot Good Good A bit Neutral Neutral A bit Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Good Good A bit ## Female 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Good Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Good Good A bit Neutral Neut ral A bit Not played Not played Not played Good Good A bit Go od Good A bit ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Very goo d Good A lot BeautifullyNot darkplayed ambient Not soundtrack. played Not Close played to a lot of Not the played stuff I already Not played listen to Nlike Robert Turmaot playedn, Boyd Rice Very kind good of experimental Very good music A lot Still love this game.Good Sound design Neutral was pivotal A fair in amount t he experience. Very good Nothing Very beats good those A lot whispers in the Notdistance over theplayed speaker Notsystem played Not played Good Good A fair amount ## Female 13 - 18 Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pla yed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Very good Very good A lot Not played Not p layed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Good Good A lot Not played Not played Not played Good Neutral A fair amount Not played No t played Not played Not played Not played Not played ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Good Neutral A bit Not played Not played Not p layed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Neutral G ood Not at all Good Neutral A bit Not played Not played Not played Good Good A bit Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Not played Not played Not played No t played Good Good Not at all ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Good Good A lot Very good Good A lot The live narrationDon't know was a Don'treally know nice touch. Don't know Played it butVery dont good remember, Good so it can't Ahave lot been that awesome Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Very good Very good A lot ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Very good Good A fair amount Very good Very good A lot Not played Not played No t played Not played Not played Not played Neutral Good Not a lot ## Male 25 - 36 Very good Very good A lot It was remarkable.Very It good worked Very seamlessly good Awith fair theamount ge neralI can't sinister rememberVery vibe good of much the game Good about itself, it generally, and A lot to my but m I sti emoryll Irecall didn't also thecomplete aidedVery sounds with good it, ofthe but the completion I Very stillspider thoughtgood crawling of puzzles.the A lot andgruff att narratoremptingI loved was tothe akill hugemusic, Veryyou highlight andgood the the voice minimalalong Very of the with good effectssword the Amusic (theand lot ambnarr beingatorience.Absolutely a of secondary this game). fri highlight.Not It was played really Notup my played alley (firs Not playedt thing I did Veryafter goodplaying was Very find good and listen A l to otthe soundtrack),Disasterpe and I stillNeutral remember Goodthe impact of Not a lot the blows of yourIt was sword fine andVery the good sound of Very enemies good l A lot u Very good. ## Female 37 - 48 Not played Not played Not played Don't know Good Don't know Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not p layed Not played Not played Not played Not played Neutra l Neutral Don't know ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Not played Not played Not played No t played Not played Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Very good Very good A lot Very good Neutra l A fair amount Very good Neutral A lot Very good Very go od A lot I listen to thisGood soundtrack often. Good A bit Very good Neutral A fair amount Don't kno w Good Don't know Good Good Not at all Good Very good A bit ## Female 25 - 36 Good Good Don't know Don't know Neutral Don 't know Not played Not played Not played Neutral Neutral Not a lot Very good Good A lot It's horror. So theNot sound played design Not is played important. Not Realplayedly continued Not played to the creepy Not played feel. N ot played Not played Not played Not played Very good Ver y good A fair amount ## Male 25 - 36 Very good Very good A fair amount Very go od Very good A lot Very good Very good A lot Very good Ver y good A lot Very good Good A lot Good Good A fair amount N eutral Good A bit Not played Not played Not played Very go od Very good A bit ## Female 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pla yed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Very good Very good A fair amount V ery good Very good A lot The sound ## Male 13 - 18 Good Very good A fair amount Neutral Good No t a lot Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Very good Very good A lot Not played No t played Not played Very good Very good Not at all Very good Very good A bit Not played Not played Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Don't know Not played Don't know Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Good Good A fair amoun t Good Neutral A fair amount Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Very good Very goo d A lot ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Good Very good A fair amount Good Very good A fair amount Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Very good Very good A lot Not played Not played Not pla yed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played ## Female 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pla yed Not played Not played Not played Good Good A fair amo unt Very good Good A fair amount Not played Not played No t played Very good Very good A bit Not played Not played Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Very good Very good A lot The soundsNot are played amazing Not and played in particular Not playedthe narrat or Verymakes good the game Neutral for me. A fai r amount Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Neut ral Neutral Not a lot ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Good Very good A lot Good Very good A lot Not played Not played Not played Very good Good A fair amount Not played Not playe d Not played Good Neutral A bit Very good Very good A fair amount Good Very good A fair amount ## Female 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pla yed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Very goo d Very good A fair amount Very good Very good A lot The soundVery design good is what Very sets good this game Aapart. fair amount Abso Not aslutely evidently flawlessNeutral amazing execution. as Neutral Bastion. Doesn't Not a lottake t he same Very level good of creative Very usagegood of A it'sfair sound. amo unt Good Very good A bit Good, but I Goodfelt more impacted Very goodby the visual A bit design . As with HLD,Good this game was Very more good visually A fair stunning. amount ## Male 25 - 36 Good Good A fair amount Good Good A fair amou nt Neutral Neutral A bit Neutral Neutral A bit Good Good A f air amount Neutral Neutral A bit Neutral Neutral A bit Good Good A fair amount Neutral Neutral A fair amount ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Good Very good A fair amount Very good Very good A lot Not played Not played Not played Good Neutral Not a lot Not played N ot played Not played Neutral Neutral A bit Not played Not played Not played Neutral Good Not at all ## Female 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pla yed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Very good Good A lot Very good Good A fair a mount Very good Very good A lot The musicNot and played VO lifted Not the played game up Notto the played heavens Very good Very good A l ot The ship-sound,Good loud noises Goodfrom malfunctioning A fair amount equ ipment Not played and monsters Not played made it Avery fair spookyamo unt Very good Not played Not played Good Good A fair amoun t ## Female 25 - 36 Good Good A bit Good Good A lot Very good Ver y good A lot Very good Very good A lot Not played Not pla yed Not played Good Neutral A bit Not played Not played No t played Not played Not played Not played Very good Good A lot ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Good Good A fair amount Very good Neutral A fair amount Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Not played Not played Good Neutral N ot a lot ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Not played Not played Not played No t played Not played Not played ## Female 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pla yed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Very good Very good A fair amoun t Not played Not played Not played ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Good Good A bit Very good Very good A lot Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Very good Good A bit Not played Not played Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Very good Good A lot Not played No t played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Neutral Good Not a lot ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Very good Good A lot The narratorVery made good the game. Very good WithoutA his lot voice I dou Thebt narration I wouldNot havewas played thecared best much Notpart played forof thethe game.sound. Not played I look ed forward Good to hearing more. Good The music A lot was well util Notized play and featured moreed thae Notin Bastion, played which Not played I was a good Not thing. played Not played Not playe d Neutral Bad Not a lot The sound ## Other 57 or above Neutral Very bad A lot Very bad Bad A bit Very good Very g ood A fair amount Bad Very good Not at all Neutral Neutra l Not at all Very good Very good A bit Very bad Bad A lot B ad Very good A bit Good Good Not at all ## Female 19 - 24 Bad Neutral Not a lot Very good Neutral N ot a lot Bad Neutral Not at all Very good Bad A bit Bad Ver y bad Not a lot Good Neutral Not a lot Not played Not pla yed Not played Bad Good Not a lot Bad Very good A lot ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Good Good A lot Very good Good A lot Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Good Good A fair amoun t Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Very good Good A lot ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Very goo d Good A lot Limbo wasVery 90% good atmosphere Very good for me, A and lot the sound was When Iinstrumental thinkVery of good Bastion in bringing Verythe first good that thing atmosphere Athat lot comes to life. Basicallyto mind is everything theNot music, played I saidwith Notforthe Bastion playeddynamic applies Notnarration played for in Transistor a close Not assecond well,played withplace. Notthe Now addedplayed normally bonus N you of a would desi ot put played t gnatedhese button two Very specifically things good in a for separate Good humming category along A lot withfrom t the souhe music,Thend bit-cru whichdesign, Notonly but played serves given howto Not further the played music blur the Notand alrplayed narrationeady ar tenuouse Very line goodbetween Neutralthe game world A fai and the ba r amountc The consta ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Good Neutral Not a lot Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N eutral Neutral A bit Not played Not played Not played Good Good A fair amount Good Neutral A bit ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Don't know Very good Not a lot Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Don' t know Very good Not at all ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Good Good A fair amount Very good Very good A fair amount Not pla yed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Very good Very good A lot Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Good Very good A bi t ## Female 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Very g ood Very good A lot Very good Good A lot Not played Not pla yed Not played Very good Good A lot Good Good A fair amoun t Not played Not played Not played Very good Very good A lot Good Very good A bit ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Not played Not played Not played No t played Not played Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Very good Very good A lot Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Not played Not played Not played Go od Very good A fair amount ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Good Good Not a lot Very good Very good A lot Not played Not playe d Not played Don't know Neutral Don't know Neutral Good No t a lot Not played Not played Not played Very good Very good A fair amount Not played Not played Not played ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Very goo d Very good A lot Very good Good A lot Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Good Neutra l A fair amount Not played Not played Not played Good Good A lot Neutral Good Not a lot ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Good Neut ral A bit Very good Neutral A lot Very good Good A lot Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not p layed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played ## Other 19 - 24 Neutral Good A bit Neutral Good A bit Good Good A fair amount Good Neutral A fair amount Good Good A fair amount Good Good A fair amount Neutral Neutral Not at all Neutral Neutral A bit Good Good A fair amount ## Female 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pla yed Not played Not played Not played Very good Good A fai r amount Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Very good Very good A fair amount ## Other 25 - 36 Neutral Bad Not a lot Good Good A fair amou nt Very good Good A lot Good Bad A bit Neutral Very good Not a lot Neutral Good Not a lot Not played Not played Not pl ayed Good Neutral A fair amount Very good Very good A fair amount ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Not played Not played Not played Go od Very good A lot ## Female 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pla yed Good Neutral A fair amount Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not p layed Not played Not played Not played Not played Very g ood Very good A bit ## Male 25 - 36 Good Good A fair amount For me the soundGood design of Goodthis game was A fair spot amount on, a ndIn differencenot justNeutral by from itself inside, butNeutral the Limbo game had as Aa bitmorewhole "sad" pi tu f reeeling I washave one tonot it Neutralof playedwith the thebest this music, games game, Neutral loved releasedlistened it even Atothat bitifthe it year, inost noth manySameew cases musicand asi believewas inprevious combinationGood really its title, wellsubtle fittinghavnt with and Good everythingplayedfor could how barely thethe A else game gamefair be inamount h thel ookseardgame at all, really Neutralwith showedmore sound from Neutral effectsthe start A that fair somethingamount wa s Scary....Neutral Neutral A bit Havnt playedGood it Good A fair amount MastapeaceGood <3 Good A fair amount Loved the o ## Female 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pla yed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played ## Female 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pla yed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played ## Female 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not pl ayed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not pla yed Not played Not played Not played Good Good A lot Very good Very good A lot It is on Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Neutral Neutral Not a lot ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Good Good A bit Very good Very good A fair amount PhenomenalVery soundtrack good Good and narration A accompanying lot th Like Bastion,e gameplay.Not great played soundtrack Sound Not effects played and were narration, Notnothing played but out a of the olso good Neutral rdinary.sound effects. Neutral Nice touch Not with a lalternative ot, hummed, Notversion played of music Not being played played Not whenplayed in str ategy Very modegood during Very combat. good A lot Absolutely Not played Not played Not played ## Male 25 - 36 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played N ot played Not played Not played Not played Not played No t played Not played Not played ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Good Good A fair amoun t Very good Good A fair amount Very good Very good A lot V ery good Very good A fair amount Very good Very good A l ot ## Male 19 - 24 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Very good Good A lot Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played Not played ## Male 37 - 48 Not played Not played Not played Not play ed Not played Not played Very good Good A lot While I didn'tNot careplayed much Not for playedthe gameplay, Not played the soun dtrack Good drove my Goodpurchase, and A bitI still listen to it. Not play ed Not played Not played Not played Not played Not playe d Not played Not played Not played Good Neutral A bit ## Male 25 - 36 Good Very good A bit Neutral Very good Not a lot Very good Good A fair amount Not played Not played No t played Very good Very good A lot Very good Good A lot No t played Not played Not played Very good Very good A fai r amount Good Good A bit