Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games

Game Title World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK)

Provide detailed descriptions from chosen examples that establish… Clearly state what production technique(s) you think have been used to create specific soundtrack elements

Setting

The setting that the sound itself sets feels like the action is happening somewhere on a frozen wasteland (the occasional winds and ‘freeze breaks’) – 0:50, this therefore indicates that the action is happening somewhere where it is very cold and it is probably a wasteland which can lead us to further clues as to the mood that would be set and the game genre that such terrain could be used in. Further indication to that is when we hear steps of a character that are kind of dulled out, possibly by the snow that he is walking on (0:40 to 0:50) – the additional winds also show us that he must be somewhere high, possibly on a mountain and therefore there might be snow there because of the low temperatures that happen on high altitudes. At about 2:13 in the video we can hear something smashing against something that sounds like ice, and very hard at that. This furthermore suggests that we might be on icy wasteland tundra.

The sounds that are created for the setting are quiet easy to make, just go out on a windy day (possibly in the winter) and record about an hour of ambience and then edit it out, ice is even easier, put some ice in a bucket and crush it with your fist to create the ice walking effect. The walking on the snow can be done in a similar fashion. Additional editing can yield great results and a very possible improve in quality.

Mood

The mood is set on a very dark and dramatic one but epic at that throughout the clip. In the soundtrack, we can hear various vocals that create a very dramatic tune albeit a very good one and epic at that, this adds tension and therefore creates a mood of uncertainty and a feeling that something wrong is happening. At the end, the music takes a particular dark turn and we can really hear a lot of dark ambience. This suggests that whatever is happening is big but very dark and perhaps evil. This sets the moods nicely and ironically towards what the narrator is saying.

The music is a simple work of art on something like the reaper, it was probably done by an artist for the sake of this cinematic and therefore nothing can be really said about it, he probably used various small sound files and combined them together to make sense. Additionally, the artist would probably require the voice of a professional opera singer since the soundtrack in this requires it. (Can be heard in 1:10)

Game genre

There isn’t a lot of indication as to what game genre this is, judging by the things that we heard before, i.e. the sounds of wind etc. we can say it might be a survival game, but also, later on, at about 1:20 in the video, we can clearly hear a sword being pulled out of its sheath. And at the end of the video we can hear a very loud, dragon like scream and then many smaller screams afterwards. This suggests that we are more in a fantasy setting with medieval elements.

The sound of the sword could be very easily replicated by sliding a sharp knife across a smooth but hard surface several times and then editing it and making it more viable in a sound recording environment. The screams could be very easily done with things like, recorded squeaking door

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games

and then editing that to sound like a scream. Narrative

A good narrative runs throughout the clip, from the very beginning to the very end. The narrator seems like the father of the character he is speaking about by saying lines like: My son at 0:14 gives a clear indication of the relationship of the character and the narrator, i.e. the father and the son, the narrator gives us a lot of details towards his son as well as his place of origin, from 0:16 he said, the day you were born the very forests of Lordaeron (giving us the location and thus more information) whispered name Arthas (the name of the character), later on the father talk about how he saw Arthas grow into a strong man and ‘into a weapon of righteousness’ suggesting that the story is set somewhere in a fantasy world (light vs dark etc.) (1:15) after that the narrator states: ‘our line has always ruled with wisdom and strength’ indicating that the son and the father as well as their family in general have come from a royal family, possibly rulers of the mentioned earlier Lordaeron. Then he talks about ‘showing restraints when exercising his great power’, which supports the idea of Arthas being a great ruler/king of the land mentioned earlier, Lordaeron. Because of all of this, we can get a very good idea of what has happened, that the narrator is the dead father speaking about his son and how the father is amazed by how his son has grown. The last line that the narrator (father) says is quite important: (2:38) ‘But the truest victory my son, is stirring the hearts of your people’ which indicates that there might be a big challenge awaiting Arthas.

There isn’t really anything to be said here, the voice actor simply read out the text that was given to him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nr3ootvuks