Machinarium - Game and Sound design

Machinarium

 

Machinarium is a puzzle point-and-click adventure game developed by Amanita Design. It was released on 16 October 2009 for Microsoft Windows on 8 September 2011 for iPad on 21 November 2011 for BlackBerry, on 10 May 2012 for Android Systems on 6 September 2012 on PlayStation 3 in Europe.

The goal of the puzzle point-and-click adventure game, Machinarium is to solve a sequence of brain teasers and puzzles. The puzzles are linked together by an over world consisting of a traditional "point and click" adventure story. The over world’s most radical rule is that only objects within the player character's direct reach can be clicked on, for use or for storage.

Machinarium employs a dual hint system. Once per level, the player can receive a hint, through completing a mini game. The mini-game is challenging. Adding another dimension to the puzzling game play. Machinarium also comes with a walk through. The walkthrough can be accessed at any time by playing by also playing a type of mini game. As with dialogue, the walkthrough is not in written or spoken form, but instead a series of sketches describing the puzzle at the moment and its solution. However, the walkthrough only reveals what must be done in that area, and not how that puzzle relates to the game chronology.

Machinarium contains no dialogue, spoken or written, except for a chant like voice coming to life ever so often. Really adds a dimension to be lost, puzzled. Separately from a few tutorial prompts on the first screen, is null of understandable language period. The game instead uses a system of animated thought bubbles. Easter eggs of “ah-ha” and interactive back story. Idling in certain areas can only reveal scenes in the same format.

The soundtrack for the video game Machinarium was written, composed, mixed and produced by Floex, alias Tomáš Dvořák for Amanita Design. The video game soundtrack was released on October 21, 2009 in digital format (mp3 and flac), on February 27, 2010 on vinyl LP and on March 5, 2010 on CD (as part of Collector's Edition of the game). The album includes 14 tracks. Sound effects are of those found in a junkyard but fit in the environment. The sounds are staged and seems to only have one sound per item no matter how may time you press it. The music sounds good and changes through out the game. Overall the game is puzzling, challenging and fun. Figuring out what does what and the sound it makes make for a great environment.

Investigation of a post-1994 computer game: NBA 2K

While playing basketball in high school, watching basketball on Television, in video games, live or even listening on the radio, I would often dream that I could be the guy on the court, the star. Often I would visualize my self as the person on the TV screen or sometimes the coach. I achieved this by simply squinting my eyes; even then I think I fooled my self. I would even call the game as the announcer. While doing play by play, I would often add sound effects to make the audio match the visual that was in my mind. I wanted to be apart of it in some capacity. I loved the game. Unfortunately my dream to be a NBA star was shot down by my 5’11 build. But luckily I can still live my dream vicariously through one of the outlets previously mentioned, video games. The video game I am going to be discussing is the Sega Sports/2K series NBA 2K.

            Since the game made its debut in October 17, 1999 on the Sega Dreamcast it has continue to get better in both in graphics and sound. 2K were one of the first basketball games to use 3D graphics with full color and sound effects. The Dreamcast sound feature was the best around at the time. The Dreamcast was equipped with a Yamaha AICA Sound Processor with a 32-Bit ARM7 RISC CPU operating at 45 MHz, 64 channel PCM/ADPCM sampler (4:1 compression), XG MIDI support and 128 step DSP. The Dreamcast has 16 MB 64-bit 100 MHz main RAM, with this power the 2K series was rich in sound design. 

 

The series features live play by play done actually by television personality in that role. In the beginning stages it was done by local radio voices. Now it is done by the likes of the best in their field like Clark Kellogg, Steve Kerr, Bill Walton and Hanna Storm. The sound effects themselves are Foley work or actually recordings from an actual game. The player’s actual voices are recorded for use in post game interviews. Though in the beginning stages all sound were not evident like small things like the squeaking of the shoes and velocity of impact. In some version there were sync issues. This was mostly in part due to limitations. Limitations were due to size of the disc (DVD), type of processors and lack of technology. Now bring the game up the date, the sound design is beautiful. The environment is interactive while the convolution reverb is right on for each arena. The voiceover work is clear, concise and is exactly what one would expect while at a live basketball event or watching it on TV but heighten for the consumer’s entertainment, And for that I am grateful. The gaming experience is just great for the basketball enthusiast. Especially some one who had dreams like me.

 

The music in the earlier version was syntheses sound produced through midi or royalty free music. The music in the game lacking but not really missed due to the good gameplay. Now fast forward to today. I didn’t realize how much I missed the music aspect of it. The soundtrack now is litter with Grammy Award winners like Eminem, Jay z and Daft Punk. The clarity, spatial aspect and numbers of sound files uses really enrich the gameplay. The Newest versions of the series can be found on systems such as Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. Now the games are presented on Blu-Ray dick and no longer DVD so the size of project can be larger making more room for the sound design and it shows, Paired with the powerful sound card found in the 7the generation systems the possibilities are endless and continue to get better yearly.