作者：Michael Brown

游戏会控制我们。无论你是否赞同这种看法，每当你打开主机的时候都会受到控制。当我开始用iPad玩游戏《Pulse》的时候，我坐在船上听着音乐并根据节奏来点击那些小点，那时我极为关注游戏的状况及其能够对我产生影响的音轨。我打开游戏后就会觉得音乐影响着每个关卡的基调，我的情绪也会受到控制。

Cipher Prime Studios（游戏邦注：这家开发商位于美国费城）程序员和音频设计师Dain Saint表示，这是一种行业惯例。他说道：“你经常会看到AAA游戏的开发者用音乐来让玩家明白正在发生什么事情。比如，好莱坞电影人可能会有‘这是个悲伤的场景，配上段悲伤的音乐’之类的做法。他们在使用的是背景情绪控制。因为我们做的是音乐游戏，所以在《Pulse》和其他游戏中，我们就尝试将情感链接提到前景处，而不是将其作为背景音乐。”

Pulse(from 1up.com)

因为玩家与游戏间的关系很紧密，所以这种做法能够取得成效。Saint说道：“《Pulse》中可供发挥的设计空间很少，所以我们尽量清除玩家与音乐间产生联系的障碍。”

据Cipher Prime联合创始人及首席执行官Will Stallwood所述，iPad游戏《Pulse》是款简单的音乐游戏，其设计目标是成为互动音乐集。

他说道：“你进入游戏的那一刻就要开始学习。我们所有的游戏中都没有教程。当你首次打开游戏时，会产生一个问题。这个问题就是‘我要如何开始玩游戏呢？’。在你真正开始玩游戏之前，你已经学到了基本机制，也就是你会去触碰那些环状物。甚至你在进入游戏主菜单之前，游戏已经在教你怎么玩。”

Saint说道：“我们对游戏做了许多测试。我们将游戏带到GDC大会和费城各地，甚至将其带到酒吧中，让某些喝醉的人来学习如何玩这款游戏。我们认为只要有人无法弄明白游戏玩法，游戏中就要添加些注解。但最终的测试结果是，即便连醉酒的人都会玩这款游戏，对我们来说这是个巨大的成功。我们可以做出凭直觉就可以掌握的产品来。”

《Pulse》的音乐与玩家交流每个关卡的音调。游戏极少依赖视觉效果，Cipher Prime的开发者让音乐成为每个关卡的中心元素和气氛来源。

Saint解释道：“每个音轨都传达着不同的感觉和情感。而且我觉得游戏在这方面做得确实很好。”

《Pulse》的关卡和辅助音频设计师Kerry Gilbert分享了他对游戏音乐功效的看法：“音乐带有指导作用，让玩家经历一段情感旅程。你听着这些歌曲，每首歌曲都有自己独特的感觉，歌曲引导情感起伏。音乐节奏时而紧张时而缓慢，最终用《Cinder》作为结尾。从某种程度上来说，我感觉音乐带来的感觉流畅自然。”

音效和音乐两者都能够控制产生不同的情感。但这些层面除了可以用来引导玩家之外，它们还能够用于在游戏中营造气氛和基调。尽管与《Pulse》大不相同，但Visceral Games的最新产品《死亡空间2》也利用气氛和音调来为玩家营造出非同寻常的环境氛围。

《死亡空间2》之所以会令人感到如此恐惧，部分原因在于游戏使用快节奏管弦乐来增加玩家的紧张感。这便是Visceral的音效制作人Andrew Boyd及其团队努力实现的目标。

死亡空间(from 1up.com)

Boyd说道：“我觉得音乐对《死亡空间》来说非常重要。尽管我认为它对所有游戏都很重要，但音乐在《死亡空间》中是个关键元素。我们对角色Isaac能够让人产生的心理作用很感兴趣，我们想让玩家获得游戏中的真实体验。但是，玩家玩游戏时是坐在沙发上，而并非真正行走在某些荒废的过道上。我们要如何让你产生真实的感觉呢？音乐可以在不知不觉中实现这种效果，而且如果你做得够好，玩家根本不会对此有所察觉。我们在《死亡空间》中用音乐来营造孤独和恐惧感，我们有大量技术来实现。我们想让玩家有局促不安的感觉。但如果游戏产生的总是这种感觉，久而久之玩家就会觉得枯燥，因而我们需要调节你们的体验。《死亡空间》确实能够让人产生阴暗的感觉，但这正是我们的部分目标。”

玩家还经常忽略的一个层面是，与气氛无缝连接的音效。它们是每款游戏的基础成分，多数玩家甚至都没有注意到它们，这是很自然的情况。但如果游戏音效消失，游戏的效果便大不相同。

Boyd声称：“《死亡空间》游戏中有滚动条，你可以分别调整音效和音乐音量大小。关闭音乐然后把游戏玩通关也是个很有趣的体验。反之亦然，即关掉音效，只在播放音乐的前提下玩游戏。你会马上发现游戏的感染力下降许多。也就是说，音效和音乐是相辅相成的关系。缺失其中之一不会完全失去游戏体验，但效果会大大下降。”

在制作《死亡空间2》时，Boyd及其团队确保了这两个层面间的界线变得更为模糊。他还强调了如何紧密结合音乐和音效：“在《死亡空间》中，二者紧密配合。有时候，你根本分不清自己听到的到底是音乐还是音效。游戏世界中许多环境音效都有着与之相对应的声调元素。它已经完全成为影响用户心理的部分内容。通常音乐都会先逐渐减小声音直至完全消失，我们也采用了这种效果。有时候能够营造出最可怕气氛的恰恰是无声的环境。”

Cipher Prime的开发团队也在《Pulse》中运用无声来营造情感氛围。但其目标不是让玩家感到恐惧，而是间或用无声让玩家有喘息的机会。Dain Saint解释道：“我觉得游戏对音效的运用与其他媒介并无差别。《Pulse》的菜单处并非无声，菜单处的音乐好似管弦乐队正在调音，它让玩家为游戏做好准备。当你选择一首歌曲后，会暂时无声一段时间。当歌曲结束后，游戏又会有一段无声的时间。我们在游戏中运用无声来提供现场演奏的真实感。”

Kerry Gilbert说道：“这些无声就类似于暴风雨前的寂静。在幕布拉开之前，让玩家为接下来的演奏做好准备。”

但是在《死亡空间》中，无声却是个有趣的游戏可玩性元素，几乎经常发生改变。

Boyd说道：“无声部分或许并不独特，但无疑是《死亡空间》中的标志性要素。这是种非同寻常的音效。无声来临的那一刻，你会感到大为惊奇。所有的音效和音乐均已远去，剩下的只有你的心跳和喘息声。我觉得这么设计的游戏应该不多。”

每款游戏的音频设计都各不相同，其中的对象和氛围都不同，而且每个团队对于游戏要营造的效果都有着不同的想法。

Dain Saint回忆道：“去年我前往GDC大会参加讨论会，与众多音频设计师交谈过。有些人表示，玩家会因为游戏音乐设计得很差而关掉音乐。但我觉得其中的原因并不是游戏音乐很差，而是因为当你在玩《荒野大镖客》之类的游戏时，每次走进城镇听到的都是同一首音乐在不断循环，这势必让玩家最终感到厌倦。你必须将音乐设计得更为巧妙，这样人们就不会把它们关掉了。你必须做得更精明些，你需要找出让游戏动态改变、产生和融合音乐的方法，尽全力避免让玩家发现音乐播放的规律，这样玩家就不会有‘音乐又开始循环了，这首歌曲又重新播放了。’之类的想法。如果你能够做到这一点，那么同样的音乐便能够产生更好的效果。音频设计必须更为精妙些。”（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Puppet Masters: How Game Musicians Manipulate You

Michael Brown

Games control us. Like it or not, we’re being manipulated each time we boot up our consoles. When I started the rhythm game Pulse on my iPad, sitting on my bed, listening to the music and tapping the dots in tune to the rhythm, I was acutely aware of how the game and its soundtrack were affecting me. As I started the game, I couldn’t help but feel as if the music was affecting the tone of each level, and controlling my emotions in turn.

This is a standard industry practice, says Dain Saint, a programmer and audio-designer at Cipher Prime Studios, a developer based out of Philadelphia. “In general, you’ll normally see in AAA titles people using music to try and tell the player exactly what is going on,” he says. “So for example, in a Hollywood movie they’ll say, ‘Ok, this is a sad scene. Bring up the sad music.’ They’re using those kinds of background emotional controls. With Pulse and the rest of our games — since we do music games — we try to bring that emotional connection to the foreground instead of leaving it in the background.”

It’s an effect that works because of close proximity players have to the game, Saint says. “In Pulse, the design is very minimal so we try to take away as many barriers between the player and the music as possible.”

Developed for the iPad, Pulse is a simple music game designed to be an interactive album, according to Will Stallwood, CEO and co-founder of Cipher Prime.

“You’re learning the second you get into the game. We’re all really big fans of teaching here, and on all of our games we don’t have tutorials. So when you first get into the game, you’re presented with a problem. The problem is, ‘How the f*** do I start the game?’” he says.

“Before you even get into the game you’ve already learned the basic mechanic — you have to touch circles. You’re getting taught before you even get into the menu to get into the game.”

“We went through a lot of testing,” says Saint. “We took it to GDC, we took it around Philadelphia, we took it out to bars and actually had quite a few drunk people sit down with Pulse and figure out how to play it. We would take notes and if somebody couldn’t get it, then we would make note. The thing was, that by the end, even drunk people could play it, and for us that was a win. We were able to make something that was that intuitive.”

The music of Pulse communicates the tone of each level to the player. Sparsely relying on visuals, the developers at Cipher Prime are able to let the music become the central character and source of atmosphere in each level.

“With each track we communicate a very different sort of feel; a very different sort of emotion. And I think that it does that really well,” explains Saint.

Kerry Gilbert, level and co-audio designer on Pulse, shares his opinions about the abilities music has in their game: “It sort of guides, for lack of a better term, the emotional journey. You know, you’re going through each song and they each have their own feeling and song takes you up and takes you back down. It speeds you up and then slows you down, and then you finish with a big finale with Cinder and then you’re done. It feels very linear to me, in a way.”

Both sound and music have multiple different properties and uses. Besides using these aspects as a means to educate players, they can also be used to create ambience and tone (or lack thereof) in games. However, in a very different vein than Pulse, Dead Space 2, the latest production from Visceral Games, uses ambience and tone to create a very different sort of atmosphere for the player.

Part of what makes Dead Space 2 so scary is its use of a tense orchestral score to heighten tension. This is exactly what Sound Producer Andrew Boyd, and his team at Visceral were looking to accomplish.

“I think [that music] is pretty important in Dead Space,” remarks Boyd. “I think it’s important in all games, but in Dead Space it’s really a key component. We’re very interested in the psychology of the character — Isaac’s character — and we want to put the player through some of those same kinds of experiences. So, as a player, you’re sitting on your couch, you’re not actually walking down some deserted hallway. How do we make you feel like you are? How do we play with that?

“Music works on this great unconscious level…if you’re doing it right, people don’t recognize what’s happening necessarily. But we use the music in Dead Space to create that sense of loneliness and isolation and dread — and we’ve got a million techniques for doing it.”

“We want to play with a sense of uneasiness. Constant uneasiness kind of dulls its edge, so we want to modulate the experience for you. Dead Space is obviously a very dark place to spend time, and you know, that’s part of the goal.”

One aspect players frequently overlook is the seamless integration of sound effects into the atmosphere. They are such a basic component of every game, yet most players don’t even notice them — it’s natural. If the sound effects were missing, of course, that would be another story.

“[Dead Space] actually has the sliders in it so you can adjust sound effects and music separately. It’s kind of interesting to turn the music off and play through it. Or vice versa — turn the sound effects off and play with the just the music. You’ll see immediately how much less effective it is,” states Boyd. “In this case, there’s a synergistic relationship between the sound effects and the music. Taking either one away doesn’t let you have the experience; it makes it significantly less.”

When creating Dead Space 2, Boyd and his team made sure that the line between these two aspects would become blurred for the player. He also remarks at how both the music and sound effects are tied together as one unit: “[They] work really closely together in Dead Space. Sometimes the line is really blurry between what you’re hearing — are you hearing music, or are you hearing sound effects? A lot of the environmental sounds of the world have a tonal element to them. It all becomes part of the psychology of the presentation.”

“Often the music will just trail off and disappear completely, and we use that as an effect as well. Sometimes the scariest thing we can do, the best mood we can set, is just silence.”

In Pulse, the team at Cipher Prime also uses silence to set the mood. However, instead of scaring the player, the game uses silence sparingly, as a way of giving the player time to breath. “I think that sound is appropriate in a game in the same places that it’s appropriate in another medium,” Dain Saint explains.

“The Pulse menu isn’t exactly silent; it just has this sort of ambient feeling where it has this sound that is similar to an orchestra tuning up. It prepares you. But when you are going into a song, the game becomes silent. When the track is finished, the game is silent again. We use silence in the game to give the feeling of performance.”

“It’s kind of that calm before the storm,” says Kerry Gilbert. “You’re getting ramped up and you’re ready, and this is right before the curtain opens.”

However, in Dead Space, the use of silence is an interesting gameplay element that almost always changes.

“The airless sections are, if not unique, certainly signature elements for Dead Space. It’s a different sound; it’s a very unusual sound,” states Boyd. “If you haven’t heard it, then the first time you do it’s quite surprising to have all of the sound sucked away and to just be left with your heartbeat and breath. I don’t know if a lot of games are doing that.”

Audio design changes drastically from game to game; objectives are different, atmosphere is different, and every team has different ideas of what they want to create with their games.

“I went to a talk at GDC, not this year but the year prior, and there was a big talk from a lot of the audio designers,” recalls Dain Saint. “They said, ‘Hey, guess what? People are shutting off your music because your music sucks.’ And it’s not that your music is bad, it’s just that if you’re playing something like Red Dead Redemption, and every time you go into this town the exact same song plays on loop, eventually you don’t want to hear it any more. You have to design your music more intelligently so that people don’t shut it off.”

“You have to be smart; you have to figure out ways to have the game dynamically change the music and generate and synthesize, and do everything you can do to avoid the pattern detection algorithm that humans have where somebody says, ‘Oh, that music just looped. That’s the beginning of the song again.’ If you can avoid that, then you can get a lot more mileage out of the same music. It’s just a matter of intelligent audio design, not just necessarily subtle design.” (Source: 1UP)