Abstract
We experiment with mood-expressing, procedurally generated
music for narrative foreshadowing in videogames, investigating
the relationship between music and the player's
experience of narrative events in a game. We designed and
conducted a user study in which the game's music expresses
true foreshadowing in some trials (e.g. foreboding music
before a negative event) and false foreshadowing in others
(e.g. happy music that does not lead to a positive event).
We observed players playing the game, recorded analytics
data, and had them complete a survey upon completion of
the gameplay. Thirty undergraduate and graduate students
participated in the study. Statistical analyses suggest that
the use of musical cues for narrative foreshadowing induces a
better perceived consistency between music and game narrative.
Surprisingly, false foreshadowing was found to enhance
the player's enjoyment.
music for narrative foreshadowing in videogames, investigating
the relationship between music and the player's
experience of narrative events in a game. We designed and
conducted a user study in which the game's music expresses
true foreshadowing in some trials (e.g. foreboding music
before a negative event) and false foreshadowing in others
(e.g. happy music that does not lead to a positive event).
We observed players playing the game, recorded analytics
data, and had them complete a survey upon completion of
the gameplay. Thirty undergraduate and graduate students
participated in the study. Statistical analyses suggest that
the use of musical cues for narrative foreshadowing induces a
better perceived consistency between music and game narrative.
Surprisingly, false foreshadowing was found to enhance
the player's enjoyment.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 9th Audio Mostly: A Conference on Interaction With Sound : AM '14 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery |
| Publication date | 2014 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-1-4503-3032-9 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |