Hurt My Feelings. Go on, do it.

Singularity is launching soon. I’ll write more in a bit about all that’s going on in the world of Raven Audio.

I hear a lot of hate for the FF games in this business. Maybe it’s just the people I surround myself with (I seem to have a knack for landing jobs with PC-centric, FPS-loving studios), but I usually feel like the odd man out for loving these games, and I really have trouble understanding where the hate comes from. I’ll admit, they’re not the deepest games ever made. Their stories are pretty linear, they don’t give you much choice, their art style tends to borrow a lot from the previous games and there’s LOTS of story, mostly told through cinematics. But I’m willing to forgive these elements. Why?

When I pick up a new, numbered Final Fantasy game (as opposed to the numerous spinoffs), there are a handful of things I can always count on:

An Amazing World
The FF games always have fantastic worlds. Beautiful, lush environments with lots of variety. Stunning visuals, amazing lighting and effects, a deep back story, creative architecture, wild character and creature designs and a general dislike of the mundane all make their worlds interesting places to explore. They’re not realistic, but who cares? I’m playing a video game. I don’t want realism.

Attention to Detail
The experience is always strong, and you can tell that the developers pore over every detail with a fine-toothed comb. Nothing is broken or alpha in a FF game. Everything gets its final polish. I’ve read that one of the big motivators for the removal of towns in FF13 was the concern that they didn’t have the time or resources to deliver them at the level of quality they wanted. So they cut them rather than ship something below par.

A Well-Written Story
The stories of Final Fantasy sometimes wander, but they always come together by the end. Despite the melodramatic dialogue, annoying characters (Squall ffs), weird plot turns and dead ends, they always deliver by the time the credits roll. There’s something to be said for this. Most games can’t manage to keep my interest for eight hours, but FF games can consistently hold me in their grasp for 40+ (and 120 in the case of FF12), and this is due in large part to an interesting story. And yes, there are those cinematics. Some gamers despise them, but I’ve never been bothered by them. I’m not a purist, my games don’t have to be ALL game and nothing else. I’m content to be passive for a while and watch, as long as what I’m watching is interesting.

Bang for Buck
As mentioned above, I spent 120 hours working my way through Final Fantasy 12. That was spread over two years, because I was quite busy with work. Generally they take 40-50 hours, but still, that’s a hell of a lot better than most games these days. Batman: Arkham Asylum was a solid eight hours, which comes out to $7.50 per hour. Final Fantasy games are generally in the $1 per hour range, and the gameplay and story are more interesting, at least to me, than the majority of AAA releases these days. I know they will deliver a game that’s going to entertain me for a long, long time.

Nostalgia
The Final Fantasy games know where they came from. They’re always full of fan service, and their fans appreciate it. Recurring characters, themes, types of environments… some accuse them of failing to innovate, but I disagree and point you to their battle systems for proof of innovation. There are always chocobos, summons and a guy named Cid. It’s nice to know that, despite being thrown into a new world with new characters, environments and systems, you can count on a few familiar faces to be there by your side.

Innovation
The FF games have always excelled at experimenting wildly within the confines of a formula they know works (and occasionally creeping outside the lines just a little bit). The draw system of FF8, the MMO-style gameplay of FF12, the broken as hell Materia system of FF7 and the job system of FF5 are all examples. While they’re all JRPGs and remain true to the style, they always bring something new to the table.

I wonder if the negativity aimed at this franchise by some western developers is truly a dislike of the game style, or simply envy. A Final Fantasy game is always a big budget affair with a mind-blowing level of polish and attention to detail, and their effort is rewarded in critical acclaim and sales. XIII currently has a GameRankings average of 82.9% (PS3 version), making it one of the lowest scores ever in the main franchise. Some devs may hate these games, but when 83% is your low point in a franchise that has spanned thirteen titles so far, I’d say you’re doing something very, very right.

Also, Singularity is making good progress. I’ve spent the last week addressing platform consistency issues. That should tell you how close we are. The mix is shaping up and I’m very excited about how the game has come along in recent months. I think everyone’s going to dig it.

No more for tonight. I’ll post some about GDC after I return.

In that time, two new games have been released that I had involvement. The biggest of the two is Forza Motorsport 3, the newest iteration of the acclaimed racing franchise from Turn 10. The game has done incredibly well since its release in late October, achieving an average of 93 on Metacritic. This is the highest rated game I’ve ever been involved with, and I am ecstatic about its reception.

The other recent release is Gearbox Software’s Borderlands, a hybrid role-playing/shooter with more than a hint of Diablo-style gameplay. It too has done well, floating around the 84% mark on GameRankings, and selling strongly. I spent some time on this project before I made the move to Raven.

There’s a demo available for Forza 3 on the Xbox Live Marketplace. No word on a demo for Borderlands yet.

In other news, I recently spoke to two groups of students from Flashpoint Academy in Chicago, discussing the basics of what game audio people do every day and how to get a job in this particular field (ProTip: hire a hitman, then apply for the mark’s job). I’ll be part of a panel of game audio professionals at the November 19th IGDA Madison chapter meeting (7PM at Roman Candle in Middleton), discussing some audio topic that is yet to be determined. So if you’re in the area, stop by!
I’ve also been spending a lot of time in Visual Studio lately. Programming is a new addition to my skill set, but I’m doing well so far. I’ve been able to add some interesting and useful audio functionality to the Unreal engine, and I’m learning and doing more amazing things every day.

That is all! I’ll try to update again before March!

I want you to practice cutting someone off verbally. Let them start a sentence and then talk over them half way through it. When you stomp on their sentence, listen carefully to how they react. They don’t stop talking immediately, if they even stop at all. Some people will keep right on going, happily ignoring your interruption. Most, however, will still get a word or two out after your interruption. The stop isn’t immediate. So why are we writing our scripts this way?

There are two steps to follow in order to solve this problem. First, write a complete line in the script, and use notation to indicate that the character is being cut off and where in the sentence he or she will be cut off. Then act out the scenes together. If you can get both characters in booths at the same session, great, but even if you can’t the voice director can fix this by playing the extra character. Make sure your actor knows that the line will be interrupted, but that they do not where in the line they will be cut off. Their copy of the script should be missing this notation. Instruct them to react as they normally would when being interrupted. Then have the other actor or the voice director cut them off by talking over them in their cue mix.

When you mix the results together in game, you’ll find that the transition plays out in a much more natural way.

A cousin of this problem is the cliché radio interference line. You’ve heard it in numerous games, and it often sounds unnatural. Why? Because the line, in the script, is often written as it is in the topic of this post. An actor trying to recreate this will not sound natural. Give them a complete line, let them read it, then make edits in post to distort or cover up the words you don’t want coming through. The result will, again, be far more natural.

These two issues are pet peeves because they’re simple to spot and simple to fix, yet games continue to get this wrong. It makes no sense to me. I’ve given you the solutions. Stop doing this. Please

Kismet is your friend. It can do amazing and wonderful things, especially with some of the more recent features like Sound Modes. One problem I’ve encountered when scripting audio behavior in Kismet is controlling when an event fires off. Sometimes you want to ensure that a sound event is only triggered once, but you want to attach it to something that fires off multiple times. An example might be firing off a music track the first time one of a handful of checkpoints are activated. However, as the player moves through your world, you don’t want to hit play on the music track again when they pass the NEXT check point. Or maybe you want to play a scary sound effect the third time a player tries to open a locked door.

Enter the Switch. This little object has a series of outputs (definable in the properties) that will fire off in sequence every time the input is hit. The secret is that, no matter how many outputs you define, the switch will continue moving sequentially down the list. The definition of outputs in the properties only controls how many outputs are VISIBLE in kismet, not how many actually exist (which is a large number I imagine). So if you want a sound to fire off once and only once, drop a switch in the path from your activating event and the input of your PlaySound/Play Music/whatever. Connect output 1 to the Play input, and any further attempts to trigger the event will do nothing because they’ll be firing off the other outputs, which aren’t visible or connected to anything.

To create the above example of firing off a sound the third time a player tries to open a locked door, do the same thing, only expose three outputs on the Switch and connect the third output to your PlaySound input. Only on the third time will the sound fire.

The same technique can be used to ensure that two (or more) different events occur before a sound event occurs. Just connect the output of the two required events to the input of the switch, connect the second output to your play sound and you’re in business. This is fantastic for hooking up a dialog line to play when the player has completed a handful of tasks.

More to come.

Both projects have shown up as nominees and winners of awards from various magazines and game sites. GamingExcellence has awarded both titles with Best FPS Game and Best Racing Game, respectively, and Singularity also tied for Best Multiplatform Game (with Alpha Protocol) and was a finalist for the Best of Show award.

GameTrailers, IGN and GameSpot all gave the nod to Forza Motorsport 3 as Best Racer of the year. The game is amazing and massive, and I can’t wait for it to be released.

2009 has been, so far, the best year of my games career. I’m excited about all the attention these games are receiving, I’m excited about where I work and what I’m working on, and I’m hoping the future will continue to be bright. Now, back to work!

Second, Rob Bridget has posted a great PDF on his site on Game Mixing Recommendations. This two page read is a quick and dirty look at room calibration, LFE and bass management and some general mix guidelines. Hopefully his prediction in the disclaimer is right and the IESD or some other organization will come forward with a proper standard. We need it. Badly.

In other news, I’ve been buried in work, but I’m finding little bits of time to post here. That’s good, right? I managed to get Unreal Tournament 3 installed on my home machine, so I’ll be posting some Unreal integration tidbits in the near future.