Tag Archives: infrasound

Composing video game music to build suspense, part 4: drones of dread

Posted by Winifred Phillips on

Winifred Phillips, video game music composer, at work in her studio on the music of the original God of War.

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Welcome to the fourth installment of my five-part article series discussing music composition techniques that heighten tension and suspense for video game projects.  These articles are based on the presentation I gave at this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, entitled Homefront to God of War: Using Music to Build Suspense.  If you haven’t read the previous three articles, you’ll find them here:

Before we move on to the next music composition technique in our suspense-building arsenal, I’d like to briefly revisit a video game project we discussed in our last article; the popular Dragon Front VR game for the Oculus Rift, developed by High Voltage Software.

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Can Game Music and Sound Combat VR Sickness?

Posted by Winifred Phillips on

dizzyVirtual Reality Sickness: the nightmare of VR developers everywhere.  We all know the symptoms.  Nausea.  Headache.  Sweating. Pallor.  Disorientation. All together, these symptoms are a perfect recipe for disaster. No one wants their game to make players feel like they’ve been spinning on a demon-possessed merry-go-round.  So, how do we keep this affliction from destroying the brand new, awesome VR industry before it even gets a chance to get off the ground?

In response to this possible VR apocalypse, the top manufacturers have taken big steps to improve their popular devices.  Oculus improved the display on its famous Rift device, Valve introduced a motion-tracking system that helps us orient ourselves and not get nauseous when wearing the Vive, and PlayStation VR incorporated a wider field of view designed to make players feel more comfortable. Even with these efforts, players are still reporting motion sickness symptoms, and the creators of the VR systems have responded by pointing the finger of blame at game developers.  So, if the developers of VR games have to solve the problem, then how can the music and sound folks help? Can game music and sound combat VR sickness?

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