This evening GAB offers a "double feature" of talks that examine the relationship between sound and game-play. Tag-teaming the topics of sound design and music will be Oscar Coen and Eric Hamel, respectively. When discussing sound design, we usually focus on things like immersion and aesthetics. It's easy to forget that sound can have a much more drastic effect on game-play, making the game easier, or even harder! So how can we approach sound design with game-play at the front of our minds? Can this also be true for game music? We'll also look at some of the experimental ideas of designing the system of a musical score to drive game-play. Using the design of the game soundtracks for W&M's A Matter of Murder and Austen Translation, we'll explore how music can also provide the attentive player an advantage during play.

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Oscar Coen is a Sound Designer based in the Greater Boston Area who makes sounds all day. He is currently working at the MIT Media Lab on several projects as part of the Fluid Interfaces group, as a TA at MIT, and as a freelance sound designer for games.

Eric Hamel is a freelance sound designer and composer as well as audio director at Boston-based indie studio Worthing & Moncrieff. As a graduate of both the Boston Conservatory and the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University, Eric continues to explore interactive storytelling in the digital arts.