作者：Sande Chen

第一部分：首席音频设计师Gina Zdanowicz将讨论电子游戏音乐会如何加强玩家的游戏体验。

音乐是娱乐媒体的一个重要组成部分。随着游戏不断发展，游戏音乐更加依赖于与游戏视觉效果的互动，以此引入情景并激发玩家的情感。游戏音乐应该影响游戏玩法，游戏玩法也应该影响音乐。玩家的行动会影响音乐的互动与发展，就像音乐会在游戏过程中影响玩家的决定一样。这种结合能够让玩家更深入地沉浸于游戏体验中。

面向电子游戏创造音乐的最大挑战之一便是在尝试着提供无缝互动体验的同时理解游戏音频引擎的局限性。

像变化的拍子，类型，乐器和音乐节点等技巧能够为每个游戏领域设置最完美的氛围，并准确地告知玩家他们将在这些领域获得怎样的情感。

分层配乐是一种使用不同乐器演奏出不同流的技术。通过作曲而成就的这些流本身就非常强大了，并且能够与游戏视觉效果很好地合作，但同时也能够与其它流混合在一起，随着游戏玩法的改变而变换音乐。

通过创造逐渐加强的音乐能够告知玩家危险就在前方。与boss的战斗需要带有乐器和沉重敲打乐器等多个层面的强烈音乐。在boss被打败后，音乐的速度将放缓，乐器声将逐渐变小，以此告诉玩家危险将不再出现。

《超级玛丽兄弟》便通过加快拍子去告知玩家快没时间了，这将唤醒玩家的紧迫感，推动着他们在时间用完前完成关卡。《死亡空间2》利用了环境音景和大型管弦乐队去创造了一种可怕的氛围。游戏还使用了弦乐四重奏去与大型管弦乐队的演奏形成对比，以此描述了主角的脆弱性。

不管是音乐和视觉效果都是开发者必须谨慎对待的内容，只有将其紧密结合在一起才能创造出一种强大且逼真的环境。游戏的节奏与音乐增强效果一样重要，即为了传达下一个紧张时刻而先让玩家感到安心。

Guitar-Hero-Game(from 4hdwallpapers)

当你着眼于游戏中的音乐发展到什么程度时，它清楚地证明了自己在游戏产业的重要性。音乐不再只是设置在游戏的背景中。像《摇滚乐队》和《吉他英雄》等基于节奏的游戏类型改变了标准的游戏玩法并将音乐变成一种游戏。

Gina Zdanowicz是Seriallab Studios的创始人，Mini Monster Media的首席音频设计师，以及Berkleemusic的游戏音频导师。Seriallab Studios是一家全方位音频内容供应商，即面向电子游戏产业提供定制音乐和音效。Seriallab Studios已经参与了60多款游戏的音频开发。

第二部分：关于游戏中剧情音乐与非剧情音乐的一些例子。

剧情音乐是游戏产业中越来越受欢迎的一种技术。剧情音乐指的是源自游戏世界的音乐。如果游戏配乐能够在游戏世界中整合史诗音乐的话就太棒了，但是在现实中，当你在公园里或海边散步时，你是不可能提到任何音乐的，除非你带着耳机。尽管剧情音乐是源自游戏中的一个对象，但却仍然能够设定环境的氛围。

让我们着眼于一些利用剧情音乐去加强玩家沉浸感的游戏。

《辐射3》有效地利用了剧情音乐和非剧情音乐。游戏中的角色配有腕带式计算机，名为Pipboy 3000，同时分配在游戏世界各地的收音机也会播放音乐和其它来自游戏内部广播电台的广播。如果玩家打开了自己的Pip-boy 3000，他们便需要小心收音机会引来NPC。当受因此被关闭时，非剧情背景音乐便会响起。

《生化奇兵》也结合了剧情音乐和非剧情音乐，以及没有音乐去设置游戏氛围。在游戏的开场中，玩家将从飞机残骸中逃到一座小小岩石岛上的灯塔中。在这个场景中为出现任何音乐将让玩家有种不顾一切地生存下去的感受。在玩家进入灯塔后，音乐将渐渐融入场景中。音乐是源自楼下，即让玩家会循着音乐走下楼去寻找球形潜水器中的收音机。在这个例子中音乐扮演着两种角色：它让玩家有理由在游戏中向前移动，同时还能感受到游戏的氛围。

在《生化奇兵》中当玩家进入一个传出刮擦声的60年代录音机时，剧情音乐有效地强调了那座衰败的城市。我们可以从角落或门缝中听到剧情音乐（游戏邦注：用于替代管弦背景音乐）。

《侠盗猎车手》便是剧情音乐的典型例子。玩家可以在游戏中驾驶汽车的同时选择播放不同的音乐。毕竟没人不喜欢伴随着音乐开车。

剧情声的转换可以用于贯穿游戏持续剧情音乐。音乐作为收音机或游戏中其它来源的剧情广播出发，随着剧情的改变，音乐将转换成同样歌曲的非剧情版本并继续回荡在环境中。

《塞尔达传说：时之笛》便是从塞尔达的剧情音乐版本开始，并引导着玩家通过迷路森林的迷宫。当歌曲声越来越大时，玩家便知道他们是朝着正确方向前进。如果玩家偏离了正确道路，歌曲的音量便会下降，以此提醒玩家改变方向。当玩家熟悉了歌曲时，它便会在环境中转变成非剧情音乐。

随着电子游戏的发展，游戏音乐也跟着发展着，推动着无缝视觉效果与听觉体验的互动，并将玩家更深入地带进游戏世界中，直至他们按下暂停键。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Video Game Music: Player Immersion (Part I)

by Sande Chen

In Part I of this article, lead audio designer Gina Zdanowicz discusses how video game music enhances a player’s gameplay experience.

Music has always been an important part of entertainment media. As gaming continues to evolve, game music is more heavily relied upon to integrate with the games visuals, to set the scene, and to evoke players’ emotions. Game music should affect the gameplay, and the gameplay should affect the music. The player’s actions influence the interactivity and evolution of the music, just as the music influences the player’s decisions during game play. This combination immerses the player deeper into the gaming experience.

One of the biggest challenges in creating music for video games is in understanding the limits of the game audio engines while trying to provide a seamless interactive experience.

Techniques such as varying tempo, genre, instrumentation and musical notes can set the perfect mood for each area of the game and tell the player exactly what emotions they should feel in those areas.

A layered score is a technique that has several streams with different instruments on each. Those streams should be composed so they are strong on their own and work well with the games visuals, but also be able to be mixed together with the other streams to evolve the music as the game play changes.

Music that builds to a crescendo can signal to the player there is danger just ahead. A boss battle may require more intense music with several layers of instruments and heavy percussion. After the boss is defeated, the music slows down in tempo and the instrumentation thins out, signaling to the player that the danger is no longer imminent.

Super Mario Brothers utilized increased tempo to signal to the player that time is running out, which evokes a sense of urgency to complete the level before running out of time. Dead Space 2 uses ambient soundscapes and a large orchestra to create an eerie, yet larger than life feeling. A small string quartet was used in the game to contrast the large orchestra and to portray the vulnerability of the main character.

Both music and visuals must be well thought out and tightly integrated to create a cohesive and ambient environment. A game’s pace is just as important as the musical build up that allows the player time to feel safe in order to deliver the next tense moment with impact.

When you take a look at how far music in gaming has come, it speaks volumes to its importance in the game industry. Music is no longer just set in the background of the game. Rhythm genre game titles such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero offer a twist on standard game play and offer music as the game.

Gina Zdanowicz is the Founder of Seriallab Studios, Lead Audio Designer at Mini Monster Media, LLC and a Game Audio Instructor at Berkleemusic. Seriallab Studios is a full service audio content provider supplying custom music and sound effects to the video game industry. Seriallab Studios has been involved in the audio development of 60+ titles.

Video Game Music: Player Immersion (Part II)

In Part I of this article, lead audio designer Gina Zdanowicz discusses how video game music enhances a player’s gameplay experience.  In Part II, she offers examples of diegetic and non-diegetic music in games.

A technique that is becoming more popular in games is diegetic music. Diegetic music refers to music that originates from within the game world. It’s always nice when a game score can incorporate epic music in the game world, but in real life when you are walking around in a park or on a beach, you don’t hear any music unless you have your headphones on. Diegetic music, although coming from an object within the game, can still set the mood of the environment.

Let’s take a look at some games that use diegetic music to enhance the player’s immersion into the game world.

Fallout 3 makes great use of diegetic and non-diegetic music. Characters in the game have wrist-mounted computers called the Pip-boy 3000, as well as radios scattered around the game world which play music and other broadcasts from in-game radio stations. If the player has their Pip-boy 3000 turned on, they have to be careful of the radio alerting NPC’s to their presence. When the radio function is turned off, non-diegetic background music is played through the game world.

Bioshock also uses a combination of diegetic and non-diegetic music, as well as no music, to set the mood. In the game’s opening scene, the player escapes from the plane wreckage to a lighthouse set on a small rocky island. The lack of music in this scene hints to the player the feelings of a desperate struggle to survive. After the player enters the lighthouse, music starts to fade into the scene. The music is coming from downstairs, which provokes the player to follow the music down the flight of stairs to find the radio in a bathysphere. The music plays two roles in this example: It gives the player a reason to move forward in the game, as well as sets the mood.

The use of diegetic music in Bioshock really underscores the dying city when the player enters a room with a scratchy, 60’s-era record playing. Diegetic music, which is used in place of orchestral background music, can be heard from around corners or can be muffled by doors.

Left 4 Dead allows a player to turn on a jukebox, which will attract a zombie horde. During this attack, instead of non-diegetic music playing, the jukebox music continues to play even if the jukebox is out of visual range.

Grand Theft Auto is, while cliché, a good example of diegetic music. Car radios broadcast different stations and songs that the player can choose to tune into while driving the vehicles in the game. After all, who doesn’t love riding in a car with the music pumping?

A diegetic switch is a technique which can be used to continue the diegetic music throughout the game. The music starts off as a diegetic broadcast from a radio or other source within the game, and as the scene changes, the music switches to a non-diegetic version of the same song and continues to play in that environment.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time starts with the diegetic version of Saria’s as it directs the player through the lost woods maze. As the song grows louder, the player is aware that they are moving forward in the right direction. If they player goes off course, the song’s volume decreases, alerting the player to change direction. After the player learns the song, it becomes non-diegetic music in that environment.

As video games evolve, game music must also evolve, allowing for a cohesive integration for a seamless visual and aural experience, which will deeply immerse the player into the game world and keep them there until they press the pause button.(source:blogspot)