Hey, Listen! - An Exploration of Game Music as Provider of Information: An Exploration of Game Music as Provider of Information

Sønderup, Mads Maretty ; Olsen, Jacob Lynggaard

4. Term

Sound and Music Computing

2017

2017-06-02

118 pages

Games as an art form continuously evolves and reaches new heights. Game music plays an important part in most modern game experiences, often responsible for setting the mood of a scene, or providing clues about what kind of gameplay is expected (eg. combat music). Especially for game experiences that are linear or hand-crafted, it is often desired to guide the players' choices about where to go and what to do, but this seldom happens through the use of music. This thesis explores the qualities of music as a medium for information, investigating whether music can effectively be used to guide player decisions in a real game scenario, with the following problem statement: "How do players perform in a game scenario when information necessary to successfully progress is provided solely through associative music?" Through a highly iterative approach with multiple production and test phases, a game was developed to act as an industry-grade testing platform for the problem statement. A total of 8 tests were conducted, of which 5 were preliminary and guided the continuous production cycle of the game product. The final iteration was tested over 3 separate tests, of which one was published online to the world, another was conducted locally - both with control groups. Lastly, a bonus test was conducted to check for differences in performance when player were explicitly told to listen for the music - which is otherwise besides the motivation for the study. Unfortunately, no significant performance improvements was found between the groups that received musical hints, and those who didn't, indicating that players are simply not used to receiving valuable information through music.

Leitmotifs ; Music

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