Dynamic game soundtrack generation in response to a continously varying emotional trajectory

Williams, D., Kirke, A., Eaton, J., Miranda, E., Daly, I., Hallowell, J., Roesch, E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8913-4173, Hwang, F. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3243-3869 and Nasuto, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9414-9049 (2015) Dynamic game soundtrack generation in response to a continously varying emotional trajectory. In: 56th International Conference: Audio for Games, 11-13 Feb 2015, London, England.

Abstract/Summary

Dynamic soundtracking presents various practical and aesthetic challenges to composers working with games. This paper presents an implementation of a system addressing some of these challenges with an affectively-driven music generation algorithm based on a second order Markov-model. The system can respond in real-time to emotional trajectories derived from 2-dimensions of affect on the circumplex model (arousal and valence), which are mapped to five musical parameters. A transition matrix is employed to vary the generated output in continuous response to the affective state intended by the gameplay.