[games_access] DCC questions from Matt

[AudioGames.net]

Hi,

*quote*
The other way is simply to describe the sound as you suggested. With that, you could use suffix captions for weapons to say shotgun gun fire, assault rifle gun fire, etc. Or you can differentiate them as shotgun blast, assault rifle burst, rocket grenade launch.
*quote end*

Yes, this is a point I'd like to stress. Many "sounds" are often actually a collection of sounds. For instance, when looking in detail at a sound like "gunshot", you'll see it could easily consists of something like "mechanical triggerclick"+"gun explosion" + "wheezing bullet" + "bullet impact" + "automatic gunreload" + "shell falling on ground". People in my field often go to great lengths at getting such details right :) With CC it would be way too over the top to get into detail like this, you'd be better of reading a novel in that case. But I do think it is important to get some level of detail in there, either when it provides important information about the game or it is important for the player experience of the game. I guess the word here* is relevance. If it is important that enemy gunfire sounds differently than friendly gunfire, for instance for strategic reasons, communicate such relevant details (in which case I'd go for more detailed descriptions like "enemy gunfire" or "bazooka missile launch"). If you, as a designer, want to give the player the experience of a hectic war game, in which the experience of wheezing bullets and bug guns is important, include alternatives that are more suited for that experience (in which case I'd more easily go for onomatopoeia, maybe even with some graphic design or animations). Of course such decisions depend heavily on the aesthetics of the game. 
If something is not really relevant, and it does not enhance/improve player experience, I'd just not include such details. For instance, if there's a big soundloop in the background that contains all sorts of sounds you'd find in a swamp (insects buzzing, snakes hissing, frogs jumping in the water, some birds making noise in the background), I'd not describe all of these sounds with a caption for each event. I also would not simply say "swamp sounds", because that is very vague and one swamp is not the other. Instead I'd go somewhere in the middle, using something like "Constant buzzing of insects with the occasional hiss of a snake or plunge of a frog in the swamp's water". Although such background layers are mostly used for the setting of the game(world), they can communicate very valuable information, often by the event of state change. When all the sounds of a busy city suddenly die out and only the sound of pigeons remains, that can make a very powerful dramatic statement. In such a case the state change is relevant (why do it otherwise?), so communicate that. 
Film sound theory, by the way, divides the whole sound scene (called 'Scenic') in films into three main parts: background, midground and foreground (these also exist in other disciplines btw). These are the 'Immediate' (or foreground), the 'Support' (or midground) and the 'Background'. 'Immediate' is to be listened to, while the 'Support' and the 'Background' are merely to be heard. The 'Support' effect refers to sounds taking place in the immediate vicinity which have a direct bearing on the subject in hand (provide context to the actions), leaving the 'Background' effect to its normal job of setting the scene. So I think captions mostly sync to Immediate sounds, and only when there are relevant information in sound events in the Support or Background categories, these should be captioned.

Greets,

Richard


* this may go for the other conversation concerning caption prioritization - see other thread: "Feedback needed on poster for GDC 2008" - as well.




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Reid Kimball" <reid at rbkdesign.com>
To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" <games_access at igda.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2008 9:25 PM
Subject: [games_access] DCC questions from Matt


> Hi Matt,
> 
> Where possible in time, budget and creativity I like captioning sounds
> in the form of onomatopoeia
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onomatopoeia), the words read aloud
> resemble how they sound (BANG, QUACK, MEOW). It's very expensive to do
> this and takes a lot of creativity to figure how how an arrangement of
> letters captures the sound.
> 
> The other way is simply to describe the sound as you suggested. With
> that, you could use suffix captions for weapons to say shotgun gun
> fire, assault rifle gun fire, etc. Or you can differentiate them as
> shotgun blast, assault rifle burst, rocket grenade launch.
> 
> There's the possibility of captions being unfair, but only if the
> sounds themselves are hard to discern which is which. If it's easy for
> a hearing person to discern between a pistol firing and a
> semi-automatic uzi, then using captions that make clear the difference
> shouldn't be a problem in my opinion.
> 
> To denote when the sound is over, consider timing the visibility of
> the caption with the length of the sound. When the sound starts, the
> caption appears, when it stops, the caption disappears. Sometimes the
> sound is so short the caption doesn't stay on screen long enough to be
> read, then you'll have to keep it on screen longer and communicate in
> some other way the sound has finished playing. This is unexplored and
> has not been done in captioning for games yet.
> 
> -Reid
> 
> On Jan 4, 2008 9:29 PM, Matthias Troup <foreversublime at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Reid,
>>
>> A quick question before I call it an early night.
>>
>> Is it typical for [cc]'ers to use a standard set of keywords to identify
>> sounds of like-origin throughout a game?  In an FPS, for instance, if
>> certain sounds are specific to certain weapons does the caption read "gun
>> fire" (for nearly every weapon) or "[x] gun fire" where [x] might be a
>> keyword specific to a small automatic weapon?  That way it's understood what
>> weapons enemies have just by the sound - and puts the disabled player on an
>> even keel with others (in some cases it might be unfairly advantageous).
>> Also, reloading sounds are unique and knowing when/which weapon is being
>> reloaded is equally important "[x] reloads" - as well as making sure it's
>> noted when that sound is over.  You wouldn't want to charge in on a guy
>> thinking he's reloading if that sound finished a full second ago - changing
>> the text from bright white to off-white could indicate sound completion.
>>
>> -Matt
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