Hi. In writing my recent message about games, I did have a rather odd thought about audio.
In a game like Super Mario Brothers, (sorry I'm using it as an example again, but it is just one of the simplest and most mechanically perfect games ever created), the player needs to avoid a monster by judging when it reache's Mario's position and taking appropriate action, be that jumping on it's head, moving out of the way or whatever. Even on a flat surface, the player has to judge the relative speed of the monster, and how Mario moves with respect to that, indeed I remember the first time I started that level on super mario brothers that first Goomber who you meet walking along the screen got me, and indeed even a few times after that if I tried to jump on his head and was too slow, thus, a sighted gamer needs to learn and make judgements about the game elements. In a side scrolling audio game like superliam or Q9 however, the movement speed of the monster is always known sinse the player can always hear where the monster is and how fast it is going, and needs to only wait until it gets to the position of the character (usually the center of the sterrio field). Thus, the player has a significant advantage in judging the horizontal speed and movement of the monster as compared to the sighted player sinse the monster's position is always telegraphed, and (thus far), the player's own character in audio always responds instantly when the button is hit, moving when the arro is pressed, stopping the instant it is released, and instantly running when the correct button is held with no accelleration. similarly, sinse in audio an attack needs to have a sound signifyer, the player's attacks are always instant, thus meaning a player is simply waiting for the monster and then hitting the button, as compared to the sighted player's need to judge the monst er's speed and move their character or attack accordingly. I therefore wonder, if by the design of audio games always having monsters and other game elements needing to telegraph their position by sound, if we effectively miss part of game mechanics. Of course, sounds can be obscured and hidden in the mix, but this is a long way from say a sighted player being in a situation tracking several enemies and ffailing to caclulate the movment of one, or being so busy concentrating on what their character is doing they forget the movements of a particular enemy. One way to fix this would be to make the movements and attacks of characters far less efficient in audio. For example, at the moment, you can swing away in a game like Q9 or Superliam, and hit anything, yet if your attack only hit at a range in front of you and not close to your character, you'd need to calculate much more carefully sinse you wouldn't want to risk the monster getting inside your range. This is I believe why 2D fps games have been far more addictive in audio, sinse there you actually need to aim and calculate the range of your attack relative to yoru enemy not just wait and smack. Similarly, at the moment in audio all attacks are pretty instant, you hit the button, the sound plays, the attack comes out. Some games have cooldown on attacks, witness for example the slow rate of fire of say the shotgun in swamp, however one aspect that has not been explored are attacks that begin with a wind up sound and then hit when that sound is over, meaning a player needs to anticipate the movement of the monster, and attack according to the relative position of the monster and when the attack hits. This was another fun mechanic in blind swordsman I noticed, indeed Blind swordsman is a great example of a very simple audio concept, but one which employed many of the mechanics tricks I've thought over the years needed to happen in audiogames. Hope this makes sense. Beware the grue! Dark. Take them to the refirbished chamber that was once bad! --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
