My Master’s dissertation involves bringing film-like music, with synchronized events happening in time with the music, to a dynamic video game. A simple example of what I am referring to is demonstrated in the 9 film trailer.  Many of the events in the trailer timed with drum beats or other parts of the music are scene transitions, but it demonstrates the impact of the punctuating something visual with synchronized audio.  In a game it would be more useful to time this with environmental events since fast-paced camera changes could cause difficulties for the player.

This is difficult in a video game environment because most game levels are dynamic in many ways. A dynamic level allows the player to make choices which will often affect how long it takes the player to complete the level. This a problem because music is normally based on specific time intervals and runs for a certain amount of time. So when a player reaches a certain point in the game level, a traditional song may have already passed the point that was meant for that section of the game. Many current games have music that is somewhat dynamic, allowing for specific music to be played at certain moments in the game, but games don’t often couple music to gameplay events as tightly as in the trailer shown above.

My project aims to create a simple demonstration to show this effect in a dynamic game environment.  A player should be able to move through the virtual world at their own pace, but when it comes time for important events they should still be able to be synchronized.  This dissertation is still in progress, so check back to this page or watch the blog for updates.

Latest Screenshots:

(26/01/2010) The final hallway in the demonstration.

(04/12/2009) Making the level more interesting now that the music is closer to working.

(01/12/2009) The current test level. The colour of the tall block changes on certain beats of the song.