Research
Audio Research
Soundscapes
Soundscapes are a technique used in popular media. Soundscapes add realism to an environment by using a selection of sounds to create the audio for a setting. An example of soundscapes could be fire crackling and sirens blaring as a building is burning in a city. By using sounds like this you can add so much detail and realism to a scene. Soundscapes are constant sound that create and indistinguishable flow of noise. Walking down a road you would hear so many sounds that they the definition between them fades away and they all combine into ambience like when walking on a busy street on a rainy day the sounds you would hear are things like cars going past, water splashing under car tires, wind howling, people’s feet stepping into puddles and so on. All of these sounds combine together and create a familiar sound, this is a soundscape. This technique was used a lot in Project 2 so I already have experience with how to use soundscapes. In this project soundscapes will be used to create the atmosphere of an apocalyptic dystopian city.
The term soundscape was invented by Canadian composer Raymond Schafer in the 1970s. At first the term was shunned in favour of terms such as “acoustic environment” however nowadays it is a developed term that is recognised worldwide. Shafer derived the term from “landscape” where he designates the elements that shape or compose a landscape “in an acoustic perspective aesthetically, historically, geographically and culturally.” He formalised this concept in his 1979 book “The Turning of the World.”
Foley Sounds
Foley sounds is an audio technique used to create the sound of something with out actually using the thing you want to get the sound for. The most well-known example of Foley sounds is making the sound of a horse galloping by using two halves of a coconut. This audio technique can be used to create a lot of sounds. We also used this technique in project 2 so it is familiar and fresh.
Foley sounds is a huge industry first pioneered by Jack Foley who would create foley sounds for movies up until his death in 1967. Jack Foley started working with Universal studio in 1914 in the peak of silent films, in this time the movie “The Jazz Singer” was released by Warner studios being the first film to include sound. Because of this Universal created a small group of audio engineers headed by Foley to stay competitive who would project films onto a screen while recording a single track of all their live sound effects, this is how the term Foley sounds was created. In the modern day Foley sounds are not recorded live and instead recorded separately and add in after effects.
A modern day example of a Foley artist is Volker Armbruster. Volker began working as a sound designer in 2012 and currently (as of 2022) works in a studio in Ludwigsburg where he mainly works on Foley sounds. Volker has used his knowledge of Foley on movies such as “Dear Future Children” and “Sunset over Hollywood”.
Sounds in Dystopia
In order to find what sounds you would hear in a dystopian city I used YouTube. On YouTube there are countless videos of Dystopian ambience and these are very helpful when thinking about what type of sounds you would hear in a dystopian world. I used these videos to break down the soundscapes to see what the uploaders use to interoperate a dystopia. This was useful for an array of reasons, firstly it gives an outside opinion on what a classic dystopia sounds like which means that I can create a soundscape for our game which appeals to how other people would expect a dystopian city to sound as the base background sound for our game which I can then edit to make it unique to the themes of our game. Secondly, after listening to some of the video I can take out what sounds are used and how they are used.
| Sound. | How it is used. |
| Rain sounds. | The rain sound is used as a base to for the other sounds. |
| Wind Sounds. | The wind sounds work with the rain to create general ambience they also show that it is set in a high up skyscraper in this dystopia. |
| Electrical buzzing. | In the scene there are lots of neon lights and flying vehicles, this sound adds depth to those. |
| Thunder. | The thunder goes alongside the rain and wind. |
| Whooshing of flying vehicles. | As the vehicles pass the camera a low buzz is hear. This creates more immersive background vehicles. |
Dystopian Research
BioShock
At the start of the project we began by researching dystopian games and media the first game I researched was BioShock
Bioshock is a 2007 first-person shooter developed by 2K Boston and 2K Australia. The game incorporates ideas from 20th century dystopian thinkers like Ayn Rand and George Orwell, famous writers known for works such as “The Fountainhead” and “Big Brother” respectively. Bioshock is set in 1960 and follows the protagonist, Jack. After Jack’s airplane crashes into the ocean, he finds himself in the underwater city known as “Rapture”. Rapture was intended to be a utopia hidden beneath the ocean waves, but the discovery of a new material called ADAM causes a large amount of the population to become possessed and gain superhuman powers. When Jack arrives in Rapture he is contacted by Atlas, a revolutionary who led many people of Rapture against the corrupt founder of the city, who directs the player along their journey. Atlas asks the protagonist to help in putting a stop to the founder, Ryan, and this is where the series begins.
Dystopian Quizzes
The next piece of dystopian research I did was using online dystopian quizzes. There are a lot of dystopian quizzes on google which ask targeted questions to find out what type of survivor you would be in a dystopian society. On example is from American express essentials. The types of questions it asks are around how you would find food, water and if you would be likely to join a group or resistance to help others in a dystopian world. Quizzes like this are a good way to put yourself into a scenario which helps to gain inspiration on how your imaginary dystopian world will look.
Sporcle is another site I found when looking for dystopian quizzes online. Sporcle is a quiz and trivia site which holds a good selection of different dystopian quizzes, although, these quizzes are only winnable if you know lots about dystopian media. Even though this site does not teach you anything new about dystopia as a theme it does ask questions about different titles to investigate.
Audience Research
I found that the main audience for dystopian media like books and games are young adults between 20 – 30. I think this age range is a bit too old for our game however, the giant dystopian series The Hunger Games had an age recommendation of 12 and a majority audience of 13-18 years old. This shows how younger audiences are open to dystopian media. Our idea for A.I Rising is honestly more family friendly than the hunger games so I think that an age range of 12+ is quite fitting.
The overall dystopian audience enjoy the dark consequences of humanity being put on show, to them they enjoy how it almost educates them about what may lie ahead of human civilisation. One thing which keeps the audience of dystopian media is that in each person’s version of a dystopia the world is always considerably worse than what we actually live in making every day seem more enjoyable, this shows how in order to have a good dystopia you must make it grueling and wild in order to make people feel relieved that they don’t live in the story.
Level Design Research
Katana Zero
Katana Zero is a 2019 neo-noir platformer game developed by Askiisoft. The game is set in a dystopian metropolis called New Mecca and follows a katana wielding assassin know to the player as Subject Zero. Subject Zero has a unique case of amnesia that allows him to slow down time and predict the future. Katana Zero follows this character as he unravels his past through completing assassination contracts. The gameplay of Katana Zero features a fast-paced side-scroller hack-and-slash style where the player runs through levels filled with enemies without being hit or the level will restart. Katana Zero lets the player use Zero’s ability to manipulate time in gameplay where they can do things like slow down time, dodge and dash. There are also features in the environment of each level that the player can use such as laser walls that the player can turn on and off to defeat enemies and things like vases and pots that you can pick up to use as a throwing weapon.
Katana Zeros levels follow one path continuously, you head right until you reach the end. This is what most side scroller games are like but Katana Zeros levels are broken up into a selection of segments that are usually separated by something like a door or elevator which gives the player some breathing room.
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles (China)
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles is a sub-series games in the Assassin’s Creed franchise which consists of 3 2D stealth games set in China, Russia and India independently. The first game in this series Assassin’s Creeds Chronicles: China was released in April 2015 onto Xbox One, Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4 and was set in 16th century imperial China. The game follows female assassin Shao Jun who has just returned from Europe after training under Ezio Auditore (the main protagonist for a majority of major Assassin’s Creed Games). With her new skill set she has found the key to liberating her people, eliminating a group of Templars know as the Eight Tigers.
The main gameplay of Assassin’s Creed China is based around stealth and combat. If the player choses to play the game in a stealthy approach then they can utilise various features imbedded in each level like using the shadows or creating distractions to create openings to get past the enemy. The game also features a parkour system which allows the player to find ways around the levels which can lead to potential opportunities for a stealthy kill or an item of treasure.
These images are examples of how the player can use the level layout to their advantage in order to avoid being seen by the enemies. This feature adds options to the gameplay which allows for more replay-ability as the player can always try again for a better stealth score.
Among Us
Among Us is a 2018 “online social deduction game” developed and published by Innersloth in 2018. The gameplay of Among Us features 4 to 15 players 2 of which are the “imposter”. The imposters are tasked with eliminating the other players without being caught. If the imposter is caught the player will call a meeting, this is where the “social deduction” takes place. In these meetings, all of the players will talk about who they think the imposters are and after a short timer each player will vote for someone to remove from the game. If both imposters are eliminated then the crewmates win but if the imposters manage to eliminate all of the crewmates without being caught then they win.
The levels of Among us have features imbedded into the levels that aim to make the game fairer for the Imposters in order to create balance. The first of these features is vents. Vents are simple, they are air vents located around the map which the imposter can get inside of to move around without being seen by the crewmates.
Among Us features a series of tasks. This is the other element of balancing in the game that makes it fairer for the imposters. A task in Among Us is a simple puzzle that can be completed for the crewmates to win before the imposter eliminates them all. An example of one of these puzzles is the “electrical puzzle” where the player connects a coloured wire to another of the same colour.
Another example of a puzzle in among us is the “weapons puzzle”. In this puzzle the player takes control of a small cannon and must shoot a series of asteroids out of outer space.
http://www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Balcony View Cyber Dystopian City Ambience For Sleep, Study, Inspiration | The Ascent |. [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/kjgx8Lq5mos
http://www.goodreads.com. (n.d.). The Hunger Games – Appropriate for what ages? Showing 1-50 of 120. [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/604080-appropriate-for-what-ages.
http://www.amexessentials.com. (n.d.). StackPath. [online] Available at: https://www.amexessentials.com/quiz-what-dystopian-world-would-you-survive-dystopian-novel-film/
http://www.sporcle.com. (n.d.). All Dystopian Trivia Quizzes and Games. [online] Available at: https://www.sporcle.com/games/tags/dystopian
Wikipedia. (2021). Katana Zero. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katana_Zero.
http://www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Student Level Design Analysis: Katana Zero by Joshua Melchor. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=OCA-yhT48iw
Wikipedia Contributors (2022). Assassin’s Creed Chronicles. [online] Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin%27s_Creed_Chronicles
Wikipedia Contributors (2019). Foley (filmmaking). [online] Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_(filmmaking).
DEAR FUTURE CHILDREN. (n.d.). Volker Armbruster. [online] Available at: https://dearfuturechildren.com/neue-seite-4
Waine, É.G. & translated by O. (2014). Soundscape Revisited. Metropolitics. [online] Available at: https://metropolitics.org/Soundscape-revisited.html.
Seb Crowhurst Game Development 