Blog 9 – DTC 375: Freestyle

Hello There Readers!

Well, I want to start with talking about the “Texture” section of our reading. I find this important because I find that with the right texture any game can become a memorable game, or a lack of texture can be game breaking. Now, to me, I don’t think texture simply applies to what we see and feel, but the levels of what we experience in a game are derived from the textures of everything within that system that are made up from different textures. One such texture would be sound. Now, how are sounds made? Well for games and movies a like there is a very important person who makes those sounds, or group of people who fabricate those sounds. Those people are Foley Artists. They use various methods and means to produce sounds but they have to do it with means one would not associate with the sound they are making. For example, I watched a Foley artist take a small airline glass alcohol bottle and run it along wind chimes to make the sound of breaking glass. Or, for a more modern version, here is Foley art behind Arkham City.

For those of you who don’t watch the video, I’ll give you a brief overview of one of the things I find so amazing about Foley. While playing Arkham, you break bones here and there of the enemies and baddies you fight, obviously they wouldn’t break real bones to make those sounds, but can you guess what they use to make it? Well you will be astonished to know that they use the sound of celery! One breaking is the sound of the celery coming off the main bunch, and another break sound is the celery actually being broken. This is astonishing because in what would would you think that the sound of celery breaking could be the sound effect for the sounds of breaking bones. In order to think of these sounds, and make them up, they have to get their hands on these abstract and even obscure items to make these believable sounds. But, once you realize just how much Foley does, you’ll never “hear” the sounds the same again. Another example, in Gears of war, one of the monsters with squishy feet sounds was actually an orange cut in half and splatted against the floor to make the sound of their squishy foot steps. I hope you learned something about Foley and sound texture.

I hope you enjoyed this reading and maybe you’ll look at some Foley art and be blown away like I was when I first saw it!

Quin

Blogs I commented on:

Victoria V.

http://victoriaorozcovalley.blogspot.com/2014/04/blog-post-8.html?showComment=1397497114700#c986354773511015522

Greg P:

http://gpdtc375.blogspot.com/2014/04/blog-8-freestyle.html?showComment=1397497580606#c1068741357091090956

Blog 8 – DTC 375: Stock (Dark Souls 2!)

Hello there readers.

Today I have chosen to go with the stock option for this blog prompt. For my chosen word from the reading chapters, I have chosen Pranks. This is because this really hits home with me. This is because in the game Dark Souls 2, when I play through it, and I die I often say “damn you game, you trolled me. Much like in the reading about “Cat mario” or Syobon Action.

Dark Souls has a way of tricking the player into multiple deaths until that player figures out the routines of the bosses or the “mobs” which are the standard baddies one must face. For example, with the Lost Sinner boss, you can fight him in the dark, but this decreases your visibility, thus when he retreats before his attacks, you can’t lock on meaning that you can’t block in the correct direction. Much like the Mario from Hell, you have to take the counter-intuitive method of completion. So, in order to beat that boss you have to go and face another different boss, more like 5 bosses. It is a boss battle between you and 5 gargoyle bosses all locked into a small fighting area, VERY VERY DIFFICULT! This leads you to a keep, then you get a key to unlock 2 doors that lead you to fires you can light in order to illuminate the fighting area for the Lost Sinner. If you don’t go and fight those 5 bosses you will lose to the Sinner, I know, because before I found out about the other option I died, many…many…many times. But such is the way of the Dark Souls series. Then there are some not so obvious pranks that one must find out the hard way. Like with the Cat Mario, and invisible blocks you have to find and avoid. In Dark Souls 2, there is a section where you have to fight dragons, many many dragons! With that being said, there are objects you can destroy, they are dragon eggs. You can’t immediately see any repercussions for breaking them, and why not? They’re just eggs, so smash away! Well eventually you come to a part when you have to cross a windy bridge over a large gap. You decide to run across and seconds later the bridge gets attacked by a dragon and you fall to your death! It turns out that with one egg smashed you get a “crossing timer”. If you break no eggs you can cross the bridge without fear of attack. With one egg broken, you have 20 seconds. and the more you break, the less time you have to get across the bridge. But no where does it ever warn you, or tell you not to break the eggs. The whole idea behind Dark Souls is to die and learn, learn what you did wrong, and hope you don’t die on your next attempt. Just break first and die later. Anyway, that is my 2 cents on how pranks are important in games and how Dark Souls 2 relates to Syobon Action and the reading.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Quin

 

Blogs I Commented on:

Jesse P: http://jessepearsondtc375.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/63/comment-page-1/#comment-9

Jake L: http://jakelotzgesell.blogspot.com/2014/03/blog-7.html?showComment=1396033507029#c1348640039268405754