5. Audio design

Activities

Introduction (20 mins)

1. Tell teams that they will begin creating the audio elements of their games.
2. Explain that audio game elements are one of the ‘game assets’ that each team creates for their game, along with visual assets.
   
   

   Teacher tip: a ‘game asset’ refers to a useful or valuable thing within the game.

3. Tell teams they will have to think about two types of audio assets: sound effects and soundtracks. Write these on the board for reference.
4. Ask teams what these terms might refer to in a game and write examples on the board.
   
   

   Teacher tip: Sound effects are sounds that occur when something happens in the game, while soundtracks are background sounds, like music, that occur throughout the game.

5. Ask teams for examples of well-known video game sound effects or soundtracks.
6. Discuss what these sounds add to the experience of playing the games.
   • Do the sound effects add to the characters in the game?
   • Does the music add a feeling of fun or adventure, or is it tense and dramatic?
7. Tell teams to use the Game Planner from lesson 3, if they recorded ideas for sound effects or soundtracks during this lesson.
8. Explain to teams that they will follow a known design-thinking routine (Tim Brown’s 3 phases of design thinking) to create the audio design of their games.

Phase 1 – Inspiration

1. Set teams up with pencils and paper for note taking.
2. Play 6 different sounds effects to the class.
   1. For each sound effect, ask teams to write down what a character in a game might be doing to make the sound.
   2. Discuss the results as a class, focusing on the sound effects that gave similar responses and the sound effects that prompted different responses.

Phase 2 – Brainstorming

1. Ask each team to record their ideas for the audio design for their game on the Audio Asset list worksheet. They need to record ideas for both sound effects and soundtrack.
   
   

   Teacher tip: Advise teams that they can write the sounds down using onomatopoeia – words that mirror the sounds they describe, such as ‘cuckoo’ and ‘sizzle’.

1. Remind teams that this brainstorming session doesn’t have to result in completed designs, but they need to generate some ideas that will guide them in the next phase (implementation).

Main Activity(35 mins)

Phase 3 – Implementation

1. Explain that there are many things to think about when designing sound for a video game, but that, today, teams will need to think about three central design elements: Frequency, Character and Mood. Discuss the meaning of each design term and show these on the board for reference.
   • Frequency: How many times should each sound effect be heard? Will it be more effective if players don’t hear it very often? For soundtracks, should there be music all the time or only sometimes, say, for certain situations?
   • Character: For sound effects, choose sounds that express the characters of your game. For example, if a main character is silly, think about some silly sound effects.
   • Mood: This is especially important for background soundtracks. Think about the overall mood that the soundtrack creates. For instance, if a game is tense and stressful, consider tense or unusual music.
2. Tell each team they will now take their design brainstorms to their devices and begin to add their game sound assets. This will involve making design decisions about the sound effects and soundtracks for their game.
3. Show teams several ways to create assets in Scratch.
   
   

   Teacher tip: Whether the asset will be used as a sound effect or an ongoing soundtrack, the process is the same. You may like to show these steps on the board or print them out for future reference.

Creating sound assets

• All sound assets are first created using the Sounds tab in the top left of screen:
  
  
• Once this tab is selected, teams need to hover their mouse over the Add sounds button:
  
   located at the bottom left of screen. This will bring up a list of options which teams then select from: ‘Choose a sound’, ‘Record’, ‘Upload sound’ (the ‘Surprise’ option is not advisable for this project as it takes away the team’s choice in the sound selection).
• Selecting ‘Choose a sound’ will give teams access to the sound library. Sounds that are suitable for use as background soundtracks or music can be identified by selecting Loops button:
  
   amongst the options at the top of the page in the sound library.
• Selecting ‘Record’ allows teams to use the microphone in their devices to record sounds into the Scratch program directly, such as their voices or their own sound effects.
• If teams wish to create and record their own sounds, provide quiet locations for teams to record in.
• Any recorded or selected sound can then be edited in the sound tab.
• Show teams this 4-minute instructional video to consolidate their learning.

Editing sound assets

1. Once the sound is created, it will appear as an asset under the Code tab:
   
   
2. The sound assets can be assembled in sequence like any other asset under the Code tab.
3. Long sounds can be turned into ongoing loops for soundtracks by placing them inside a ‘forever’ block, like this:
   
   
4. Audio Asset Concert – ask teams to share one sound effect and/or their soundtracks.

Reflection/sharing tasks (5 mins)

1. As a class, discuss any problems teams had with creating sound assets. Ask teams to share successful strategies.
2. Tell teams that once their audio assets have been created (and edited into their games), they need to write down a description of these assets into the GDD.

Additional resources

• A TED talk from Tim Brown about his 3 stages of Design Thinking can be found here. 

• A series of guides on how to create and edit different types of sounds in Scratch can be found here.