AGI Studio 1: Research 8

JUMBO! Is a 2020 platformer game by Khalifa Al-Kuwari. You play as a blob of purple slime, fighting off enemies to earn coins and then talking to human characters to exchange those coins for health. 

In JUMBO! The gameplay and sound design contrast in interesting ways. The score is placid and calming matching the surrounding forests and bright skies. The clouds and enemies both tend to move at a pace that matches the tempo of that music, while Jumbo the slime slips quickly and expertly around, contrasting it. Also contrasting it are the stark, quick mean sounding punch noises and the enemies attack screams. That said, with such intentionally sloppy mechanics, the responsive enemies sounds were very helpful and their harshness matched the severity of their hits. 

Jumbo’s main mechanic is jumping. you can avoid almost any conflict by expertly jumping up/slipping down out of the way and thus its jump sound needs to be effective but not exhausting. It’s quieter than a lot of other jump sounds in platformers by far. Which is clever. One small downfall to Jumbo’s sound design is the mismatched timing of the punch animation and the punch sound effect. I now have a much better sense of what effect a lag in sound can have on a player. 

Playing jumbo made me consider the timing and responsiveness of implementing sound effects into an interactive work. 

Nameless Cat is a 2020 platformer game by Yi Kwan Sze of Zkotoba Games. You play as a cat wandering an icey catacomb, slowly finding your way out by using magical gravestones which allow you to teleport. 

The piano score for this work is slow, gentle and slightly somber, The tempo matching the gentle fall of the snow in the backgrounds and the minor movements of NPS sprites. The sound design reminds me a lot of composer Joe Hisaishi’s work and the soundtrack of Earthbound (1995), both related to contemporary Japanese classical piano music. The sound effects match that same sound category. Slow and soft rather than punchy. The player, by contrast, moves quickly, but unlike in JUMBO!, this contrast feels narratively intentional. You are out of place in this Location, and as a player you move, act and sound out of place. This, along with your fast run speed and the threats of death from NPC’s lends a sense of immediacy to your escape. Things are sweet but sad in the capatambsand you are energetically trying to escape that. 

I took a number of things away from Nameless Cat,

• When music continues even when you die, it mellows you out and relieves the stress of having died slightly. 

• Not bad to listen to when not playing, just sitting on idle looking at my phone. 

• Generally in the games I’ve liked, the music tempo matches animation tempo 

• Maybe add tiny responsive noise when you crash into something. 

• Can only hear things on screen. Can only hear things the player can see. 

• A soft noise when running feels interactive. 

• in a calm game, even the death noises aren't unpleasant