sonofableep

what…17 months of it? kee-rist.

now that i see the site hasn’t been hacked, and that i remember how to “post” a “blog”, i’m out. at this pace, i’ll see you in 2013.

UI sound is hard.  UI sound has to punch through the din and communicate information in a split second.  UI sound is taken for granted.  UI sound seldom gets prasie from players & critics.  UI sound is wicked subjective.  UI sound can be the most experience-wrecking and immersion-breaking audio aspect of a game if done poorly.  hey now…let’s work on some UI sound!

in any game, there’s plenty of UI elements to hang audio messaging on.  but in an MMO, the list is hee-yooge.  the systems for combat, questing, commerce & itemization, travel & transportation, crafting & trades, socialization, communication, yada yada yada…they all have UI components.  the question is: which of those actually benefit from having audio feedback?  which would help the player play the game better if sound were added?  and of equal importance: what *doesn’t* the player need to hear?  what will just confuse the messaging and contribute to the cacophony meaninglessly?

i suppose there’s two ways to come at this: start with nothing and add sounds as needed, or start with everything and whittle away that which is not.  we’re giving the latter a go – putting sound hooks on every conceivable UI action, throwing sounds at ‘em all, then chiseling away as we play the game / inhabit the UI over time.  a lot of stuff quickly proves to be unnecessary and is eliminated, but we might be pleasantly surprised at some things we *do* find useful…things we might’ve never gotten around to hooking up had we gone with the “add sounds as needed” approach.

so for now, the interface goes “ClickDingClickFwapZoopClickFwupZipClickDingShunkThonk!” all over the damn place.  at least on my build it does – i don’t dare push that stuff out to the rest of the building for fear of co-workers seriously questioning my judgement / sanity.  plus, Nathan hates when everything goes “Click”.

some guys drink and argue about sports.  other guys drink and go and and on about the female form.  me, i get drunk and take an offhand question about game & film scores as an invitation to corner the questioner and belligerently berate him about how Varèse doesn’t get the credit he’s due as a influence on contemporary film scoring, and – listen damn you! – Webern was *clearly* the purest – and therefore the most significant – member of the Second Viennese School (buuRRRPPP!)…oh to hell with you anyway whaddooyoo know about music ya damn…(stumble, crash)…

moral of the story is: if you see me holding a can of natty boh at 1am on a school night, steer the discussion towards sports or chicks.  i’ll have nothing to contribute to the conversation and everybody will be better off.

i stumbled across this old blog post of mine from 1999 documenting an episode i’d completely forgotten about.  this is of interest to no one but me (so of course it makes perfect sense to repost it here) as it clearly shows that a) i already had developed an exaggerated sense of my own cleverness, and b) i still could regularly locate the SHIFT keys on a a keyboard.  also, i was trying to write About Something, instead of just this daily diarrhea (get it?  see, the category for my daily posts is “daily diary, uh…”, and if you say it out loud…oh nevermind).  enjoy / ignore!

btw, i probably wrote this on that NeXT machine in what appears to be a pedophile’s basement.

08/01/1999: One Man’s Art Is Another Man’s Ugly-Ass Coffee Mug

Ever have one of those experiences that’s both disconcerting and edifying at the same time?  No?  Me neither, usually.  But I had one today in the midst of my first arts ‘n’ crafts venture since 3rd grade.  I spent my afternoon in a place called “Glaze and Blaze” – not a head shop but a place where customers select various pieces of pottery, paint them, cook ‘em up in the kiln, then take the results home and stick flowers or toothbrushes in ‘em.  Sounds like fun.  Sounds like something an artistic person could get into.  I’m all about it.

I pick out a blank mug.  I pick out 12 great colors.  I’ve got two dozen brushes, sponges, templates, and patterns at my disposal.  I’m ready.  I pick up the mug.  “Speak to me.  Tell me how you want to look.  I’m listening!”  And it comes to me: The Vision.  The creative impulse to make something where there was nothing.  To create Art where there was none (I know, I know…it’s just a damn cup).  I wet my brush and I’m off and running.

One and one half hours later, and a considerable amount of frustration by the wayside, I’m looking at one ugly-ass coffee mug.  Not only does it look like Helen Keller could have done better, but it in no way resembles The Vision I began with and doggedly clung to despite numerous runs, drips, and errors along the way.  I’m disgusted.  Seeing the walls lined with the works of other patrons isn’t helping my ego either.  I’m an artist dammit!  Alright, not a visual one, but still…I had The Vision! What went wrong?

Then (seeking some meager form of solace) I started to think about the relationship between Artistic Vision and Artistic Execution, how having a command of only one or the other leads to frustration for the artist or audience, while the purest artistic expression comes from a command of both.  Looking at my mug I had the vision, but not having held a paint brush in my hand in 20 years except to smear Weatherbeater on the side of my house, is it any wonder I couldn’t get my point across?  Portrait of a frustrated artist.

But far worse to have the other shortcoming: long on execution and short on vision.  Hell, I could always keep trying or take painting classes, and maybe someday actually get my point across.  But having the best technique in the world and only being able to ape what has come before is A) generally without remedy, and B) more prevalent.  That is, A) you can’t teach vision, and B) there’s no shortage of unoriginal, perfectly executed art.  A particular piece of music which shall remain nameless – not out of respect but because I’ve forgotten it – written in the style of Mozart but in the era of Boulez was once described to me as having “a poverty of expression”.  I love that!  How much music around us today has a poverty of expression?  Depends who you ask I suppose, but I’d say just about all of it.  Execution without Vision.  Portrait of a frustrated audience.

So the silver lining in this otherwise humbling experience was an examination of my ability to execute a musical vision; taking some satisfaction from the knowledge that more often than not these days, what I set out to accomplish musically actually comes to be.  That’s not a comment on the merit of my artistic sense, nor is it indicative of some kind of endpoint.  It’s a beginning, much like reaching the age where communication becomes second nature, when you’ve learned enough vocabulary to adequately express what it is you’re trying to say.  There will always be more words to learn, but having learned enough to not have to struggle is a turning point to acknowledge.  It’s the point where the process of execution becomes a transparent conduit effortlessly channeling vision.

I guess that means in the painting world I’m the equivalent of a six-month old stewing in my own turd cuz I couldn’t tell anyone to change me.  Guess I’ll use the turd to hold pens and pencils in a less-travelled corner of the house.

you design something, you integrate it, you playtest it, you celebate your minor triumph, you show it off to everyone…then somebody on some other team changes some little thing and suddenly…mysteriously…poof!  it’s all gone.  so it went today, as i played through an area where all the voiceover was working like a champ a couple weeks ago but now is a jumbled mess.  the punchline is here is: i’m pretty sure the somebody on some other team who changed some little thing did so in order to faciliate some request of *mine*.  i have met the enemy, and he is me.

ah, so it goes in game development.  fortunately, this kind of thing diminishes as you approach the finish line.  at least you’d better hope it does…else that finish line’s going to keep moving just beyond reach, like a mirage leading yer tenderfoot ass to yer death in the game development desert.  :)

we take our team building seriously around here.  so much so that we’ve established a weekly multi-team communication seminar, aimed at promoting new inter-disciplinary synergies and opeing new avenues of idea cross-pollination.  This seminar is open to any and all members of the company – all are encouraged to participate, to have their voices heard, and to be an agent of direction.  from the CEO to the newest tester, we’re all equals here.

our first roundtable was a great success.  action items for next week:

1. should the kegerator be installed on the deck or in the basement?
2. how much kielbasa is too much kielbasa?
3. which of Steve’s marinades merit a return engagement?

can you make ridiculously inhuman noises with your mouth?  are you less inhibited than your average nudist?  do you work just down the hall?  then you too could voice one of the critters in our game!

come on in, don’t be afraid.  stand over here next to this microphone.  scoot up now, it won’t bite…whoa there, not *too* close.  now let’s hear what ya got.  just have a look at this concept art and watch the animations on that screen over there, and do whatever comes to mind.  let ‘er rip!  and don’t mind us…try and ignore us focusing on you, making mental notes and occasionally muttering some techno-speak or another that you won’t quite understand.

that’s good!  really, great job.  now here’s what we want you to do.  try it again, but don’t do it anything at all like you just did.  do it like this – imagine you’re a 300 pound duck, but with murder in your heart…but don’t lose the fundamental levity of the character.  yes, i know that looks nothing like a duck.  just trust us on this.  jeez, who’s the audio professional here?  hahaha, just kidding.  really, you’re doing great.  now let’s take another crack at it.

you don’t need a break, do you?  were you working on something important before we nabbed you on your way out to lunch?  never you mind, this is for The Greater Good…i’m sure your Team Lead will understand.  say…you’re not feeling self-conscious are you, knowing half the office can hear you floundering about…i mean voice acting?  oh, you didn’t realize?  ha, well, the walls aren’t *that* thick, you know?  don’t worry…just keep reminding yourself as you head back down the corridor that they’re not laughing *at* you, they’re laughing at the noises you just spent the last 45 minutes making.  but i’m sure they realize those long sustained groans were groans of “agony”, not…of… something else.

whelp, i guess we’re just about done here.  as it turns out, this is really good stuff!  we’re totally going to use this – though when we’re done with it you’ll never recognize it, thereby ruining any chance you might have down the road of bragging, “that’s me, that’s me!”  and by the way, what are you doing tomorrow, say…during your lunch break?

from the same audio department that brought you the sound at the end of this post, comes the following.  a recent audio dept. status report from my wingman included the following line item listed among the day’s accomplishments:

“#7) i farted a couple of times throughout the day.”

i’m sorry, but every time i read that it brings tears of laughter.  there, it just set me off again.  really, i’m sorry.  hey i’m just using the power of the press to peel back the glamorous facade of game development and expose its clandestine and tawdry nature.  i’m a muckraker, i am.