Music Design and Systems
Achieving Inaudibly Complex Systems in Video Games
This talk presents a data-driven case study of Marvel’s Spider-Man, forming part of my broader PhD investigation into the technical and musical systems that contribute to immersion in video game audio systems. Using original gameplay capture and a custom analytical framework, I evaluated how musical transitions are triggered during combat sequences. That method includes multiple variables: audio food grouped, functional aspects of audio, drivers of immersion, and emotional intensity. This an analysis provided a visual method of assessing how interactive music systems perform in real-time and how effectively they contribute to a player’s sense of immersion.
The analysis reveals a critical implementation issue: transitions and the musical cues associated with them are not designed to consider all musicality aspects on either side of the transition. This disregards the musical context and disrupts musical cohesion but also immersion as these repeated transition cues present an opportunity for obvious repetition at a minimum and clear musical incongruence. While subtle this disruption can weaken immersion and players achievement of flow state. These findings suggest a need for deeper collaboration between composer and technical audio teams, particularly when composers are subcontracted and removed to varying degrees from the implementation decisions and design overview.
By combining musicological analysis, system design critique, practice-led research (in the form of a prototype), and practical recommendations, the talk argues for more musically informed middleware strategies – such as aligning transitions with two-bar phrasing – to preserve both musicality and immersion. This session will appeal to audio programmers, technical sound designers and composers seeking to improve the cohesion between composition and implementation in game audio systems.
Liam Peacock
I am a Deputy Course Leader with additional responsibilities in the field of Music and Sound Production. My specialisms are Game Sound and Music and audio postproduction. I hold a BA Music, PGCE, MFA Video Game and Media Composition and I am a first year PhD Creative Music Practice student, focusing on game audio implementation strategies.