Kill Screen Magazine's Blog, page 282

Gameplay becomes a musical instrument in Sound System II

What does a videogame sound like? That's the question Pippin Barr has been trialing as of late. It might seem absurd at first—we know what games sound like, don't we?—but he doesn't refer to diegetic sounds or sound effects that go towards making a convincing world. What he is interested in is the idea of gameplay as an instrument.

David "Proteus" Kanaga can be pointed to as the source of this concept, at least for Barr. Before even Proteus, Kanaga was scoring videogames in a way that gave each verb or action an auditory identity. His idea was that the play of games and the creation of music was an isomorphism; that is, our experience of creating meaning in both is the same. Hence, in Proteus our exploration of the lo-fi island doubles up as an improvised piece of music elicited by the creatures, plants, and weather.

Kanaga's scores were a way to put his theorizing into action. Take a look at his "Let's Score Assassin's Creed" above as a quick case study. The horse's trot and Altaïr's walk are matched by plodding hits, and the pitch of the sustained otherworldly synth, which starts when Altaïr dismounts, rises after the assassination has taken place. We're inclined to use the sounds as much as the actions we see (and that we'd normally enact) to substantiate meaning. "For every process or change of state in a game, there should be a corresponding process or change of state in its soundtrack," Kanaga writes about scoring games. "So, don't think in terms of background music and sound effects, but rather events, states, processes, textures, rhythms, and forms."

The player becomes the composer 

Barr wanted to draw across from Kanaga's work after Sound System I, which was his experiment in using physics to generate "natural" musical compositions. What he has come up with is the imaginatively titled Sound System II. The only connection between this sequel and its predecessor is that it's a continuation of Barr's exploration of the application of sound in games. Oh, and the William Turner painting in the background, which is there only to make a visual connection, and nothing else.

Essentially, Sound System II is Atari's classic arcade game Breakout. But the difference is that when the ball (represented by a pixel) hits a surface it creates a sound specific to that surface. When it contacts the paddle this sound might be a bass hit. If it's the borders of the playing space then perhaps a snare drum is heard. The rainbow of blocks that you chip away at with the ball have the most variation between the ten levels. Sometimes the blocks only react with a single noise, but in the higher levels the ball sends sonic waves across them as if someone is playing up and down the scale on a piano, with each colored layer having a different timbre. 

By playing Sound System II, then, you generate music from all of the different game elements. Barr also relates the challenge of the game to the skill required to play an instrument—"the amount of time one can 'survive' in a game might correspond to the length of a piece of music - that they are one and the same thing," he proposes.

So what a videogame sounds like, in this case, is entirely affected by what you're doing and how well you're able to do it. The player becomes the composer. The game is their instrument.

You can play Sound System II in your browser.

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Finally, African fantasy is getting its own gorgeous RPG

If you were to rifle through the annals of videogame history you'd never guess that Africa is the second largest continent on the planet. There's a distinct lack of African stories, characters, and art represented in the medium. Which is a shame when you consider how rich Africa is with history, language, people, traditions, myths, architecture, and so on.  

The reason for Africa's absence is obvious: there aren't many Africans making videogames infused with their culture and stories that reach a global audience. What we're familiar with, instead, is reappropriation by blockbuster titles that only use the ambiguous setting of "Africa" (rather than a specific country) as an exotic backdrop for their violent narratives: Resident Evil 5's plague-riddled Africa, the African drug barons of Far Cry 2, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance's cyborg blaze across a politically unsettled Africa.

peoples' daily lives are being turned into inspiration for computer art 

Videogames are hardly the only guilty party in spreading this negative portrayal of Africa in its fictions. Hollywood movies also play a big part in this. It's a portrait of the continent that seems to be born from international news, which is probably the only place most of us hear anything about Africa. When something horrendous is happening there, such as apartheid, cannibalistic war kings, Ebola, or the frights of female circumcision, we're told about it. Otherwise? Nah.

But this is beginning to change, if only slowly. In recent years, computers have become more accessible across the continent, smartphones especially. I learned this when I went to South Africa in 2013, attending a talk by Jepchumba, the founder of African Digital Art. She spoke of a certain African "hacker culture," which is keen to customize and reshape devices to better fit the user's needs, and how this has transferred to digital art and videogames. She also spoke of how digital media is being used to help people learn to count to 10 in tribal languages. And how clothing, transport, and even mundane aspects of peoples' daily lives are being turned into inspiration for computer art.

(Unknown Tribe by Rafa Zubiria. Via African Digital Art)

The message that Jepchumba had was clear: Africa is embracing technology, and in turn, its people are gaining a voice that has the potential to be spread across the planet. It's her goal to not only unite a pan-African digital art, but to also bring it to the rest of the world so African culture and creativity can be seen and appreciated internationally.

African videogames, while a part of this new wave of digital artists, are still trying to find their feet. But it's important at this stage that they exist at all. While there, I met Nigerian studio Maliyo Games, who remakes traditional videogames to reflect their own surroundings and experiences. Okada Ride, for instance, is based on the essential form of transport in Nigeria's bustling cities—a small motorbike that people dangerously pack onto.

There was also a solo game designer from Kenya who had made a racing game for mobile based on the country's matatu culture. They're small minibuses that taxi people around. And as competition for customers is fierce among them, the owners will make their matatu as attractive as they can with elaborate, personalized artwork painted to the vehicle's shell. The game gave you a chance to customize your own matatu before you raced to your customers.

here comes African fantasy made by African people 

As Africans continue to explore what's possible with videogames we're starting to see larger productions than the ones I saw. Among the first is Aurion, Legacy of the Kori-Odan, which retains that interest in local culture, but also manages to balance that with a more universal appeal. This means that, unlike those smaller games, it could find fans outside of African countries.

Aurion is an African fantasy action-RPG being made by Kiro'o Games, a small team from Yaoundé, Cameroon. Its native origins are important as the computer-RPG has been dominated by Euro-centric and Asian fantasy since it first arrived. This has meant that the myths, settings, and popular narratives of those cultures monopolized the genre. But here comes African fantasy made by African people. And how refreshing it is to see. Even upon first sight, with its gorgeous blend of colors, Aurion has a distinct feel when compared to other RPGs, and that's due to its African roots.

For its original African fantasy, the team has invented the Kiro’o Tales, the name being derived from "Kiroho Maono," which in Swahili means “Spiritual Vision.” The Kiro'o Tales take from three distinct sources: African mythology, "true" African stories, and African traditions. This is why Auriona, the planet this fiction takes place upon, is made up of six continents each with their own ethnic group, all of whom are connected by a "horrible history."

Importantly, as with Africa's history of colonization and slavery exportation, this trauma suffered in the past is something for the inhabitants of Auriona to overcome together. And so, the game focuses not on encouraging further cultural clashes but on uniting the people. Or, as the team put it, acting as "an ointment for [the peoples'] harmony." It's a fantasy that looks forward to a more positive future, rather than dwelling on the past.

experience parts of African daily life within the RPG formula 

"[W]e have observed that African art has done much in the construction of the continent's history and its initial cultural wealth," writes Kiro'o Games. "This explains why those who came before us concentrated a lot on the creation of works (books, films, etc) which recounted the history of Africa, as well as its forgotten traditions and myths. However, very few works dwell on the fantastic or progressive possibilities of this culture."

This is why, in Aurion, you must create a better future for the planet's people. As Enzo Kori-Odan, the new king of Zama, and his wife Erine Evou, you travel across each of the six continents to find support for your cause. That cause is taking Enzo's throne back after his brother-in-law performed a coup d'etat on the day of his coronation. In this, there is time given to explore and speak to peaceful villagers as they go about their day; telling stories, raising farm animals, selling fresh catches of fish, fetching water. It's in these exploratory moments and the ancillary activities tied to them that you get to experience parts of African daily life within the RPG formula.

Also, by travelling to the varied cultures of the planet, Enzo and Erine "discover the geopolitical and existential dilemmas attached to their functions of King and Queen." But, more than that, it allows them to unite their "Legacy"—the African past isn't completely forgotten. This Legacy is tied to a fantastical energy that some people in Aurion's fantasy are able to channel, many of them using it to produce artwork, and other forms of handiwork. Enzo and Erine use this energy in combat, as they are Aurionics, and it's their "art of battle" that this "Legacy" refers to.

Importantly, when channeling the energy they hear the voices of their ancestors. Kiro'o Games explains that this is due to Aurionics being the result of generations of emotions and thoughts bundled up into one person. Enzo and Erine's abilities, much like their royal positions, are the product of their lineage. And so, they're using what is essentially African culture, realized as a form of magical energy, to unify the six continents of Auriona.

Aurion, then, is quite a dense mix of the mundane and the fantastical, all of it based on African lifestyle and mythology, whether directly or through allegory. But its vivid presentation and familiar action-RPG formula means that it's all made accessible. There's potential here for it to have global appeal. And, even if it doesn't succeed on that kind of scale (which it likely won't), it'll still make for a big step towards that. 

You can find out more about Aurion, Legacy of the Kori-Odan on its website.

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A new exhibit asks if we’re more than just the sum of our data

"Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command," says Ebenezer Scrooge near the end of Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol. That's exactly what Karl Toomey did for the Lifelogging exhibit at the Science Gallery Dublin. In a show concerned with "exploring new ways to track everything," the piece that has so far garnered the most attention is a gravestone belonging to the fictional Kurt Mark O'Neill.   

Born at the turn of the century and dead sixty five years later, O'Neill had 672 Twitter followers, 1, 673 Clubcard points, consumed 60,590,000 calories, had 92% positive feedback on eBay, 184 matches on Tinder, and jogged 76,928 kilometers before kicking the bucket. Each stands as a reminder of the disconnect between how our lives can be measured and what they ultimately mean. Jacob Marley spent death chained to the money he worshipped in life. O'Neill probably spends it haunted by all the Amazon rewards he never got around to using.

‘I log therefore I am’

In an interview with the Science Gallery, Karl Toomey points to the relationship between our data and our identities as one of the more interesting developments in the digital age, “‘I think therefore I am’ was a statement philosopher Rene Descartes affirmed in 1637,” he said. “Artist Barbara Kruger updated this to ‘I shop therefore I am’ hinting at the rising link between consumerism and our identities. Today though I think it could be moving towards ‘I log therefore I am’.”

While the future gravestone can seem like a stark reminder of our individual mortality, Toomey means for it to be playful. He actually thinks personal data can be extremely helpful. “If people can see the positive change lifelogging can have on someone’s life they are immediately interested,” he explains. “As I said, lifelogging can really empower people to make brilliant changes in their lives.”

And this belief is already firmly entrenched in the health industry, where data, software, and design companies are all trying to create apps that help gamify fitness and nutrition. The hope is that by allowing people to keep track of what they eat and how often they exercise, and compare that data with friends and family, it’ll create social incentives to compete against one another and stay on plan. People already dedicate so much time to competing and showing off in multiplayer videogames, the thinking goes, so why not harness that instinct and apply it to personal health and wellbeing?

As Toomey notes, at the very least, even if it can’t be used to manipulate people’s behaviors, the chance to review a numerical account of one’s life can lead to some much needed reflection. In Toomey’s case, this meant reviewing detailed bank records that gave him some “big, scary insights” into how and where he was spending his money.  Games like Bungie’s Destiny already have apps that track the total number of hours a player logs with the game, including the number of shots fired and enemies killed, tallies so high they can give even the most dedicated fan pause. Just imagine if your bank had a detailed “score card” of how much money you spent at bars or fast food joints every year.

You can see more of Karl Toomey's work from the exhibit here.

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