Jake Harrison

In addition to composing the music for an upcoming AR game being developed by RTI (discussed in this post), I also designed the character voices and performed some of the voice-overs for the game. This article will describe the design thinking process I went through while designing the voices and voice over. 

 Empathize:

The main story in the game is told through a series of digital comic books, but to make the game more accessible to players that may be non-reading we decided to add voice-overs as well. With accessibility and a young audience in mind, I went into designing the voices to be fun and cartoon-ey, but not at the sacrifice of intelligibility. 

 Define:

As stated in the empathize section, the problem addressed by voicing the characters in the game is that players that aren’t able to read the comic books wouldn’t be able to experience the game. Above that, good voices can enhance the play experience for all players. 

 Ideate: 

The beginning of the voice creation process began by meeting with the team and looking at character art and discussing what voices we could imagine each character having. From that discussion, I created some demos of basic character voices and sent a recording to the team.

When those voices got basic approval, I created a voice-over demo of the script of the first comic book and got feedback from the group. The feedback here was focused on how to keep the performance from veering into being too serious for kids and the team discussed other works that deal with darker subject matter, but without the melodrama that may be over the top. 

Prototype: 

Prototyping was done in Propellerhead Reason. Many vocal effects rely heavily on formant and pitch processing, although some of the more intense effects use distortion, compression, and auto-tuning. I did the voice acting for the prototypes, but other team members will contribute performances for the final product.

Test: 

The voice design and voice acting will be tested when user testing for the complete game begins. I’m curious to see which voices are the most liked and which contribute the most to the story of the game.

I’m currently working as the composer for an AR game in development by Lab 58. The game is unreleased, but in this article, I’ll share my insights about how design thinking impacted my composition.

 Empathize:

In the empathize phase, I considered who would be the user of the AR app, and how music could improve their experience while playing. The overall aesthetic for the game is adventuring, space, and heroics, so those were kept in mind as key anchor points for the work. The target audience is younger kids, so I wanted the music to be fun and exciting, but not too intense or dark – even in the most dramatic moments of the gameplay.

 Define:

The team was a fantastic help in the define phase where I was sent dozens of inspirational tracks to pull from. Lots of the inspiration music was classic early chiptune gaming soundtracks. Songs from Megaman, Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Zelda, and more were referenced and the team discussed which parts would be good fits for the game. From these conversations I built the following lists of must-haves for each game level type:

Boss Fight:

• Intense, energetic
• Two phases of intensity, speed up for the final section of the fight

Action Level:

• Synth-bass driven
• Emphasis on arpeggiated synths
• Separate layer that can be faded in for heavier sections

Exploration Level:

• Lower energy
• Mysterious, ambiguous

Lobby:

• Calm but not sleepy
• A longer melody so as to not be too repetitive on loop

 Ideate: 

Drafts of each song were shared, discussed, and revised for feedback. Some songs were started over from scratch if they didn’t fit the aesthetic of the game, but most were tweaked to incorporate revisions. On more complex songs like the boss fight, a basic version of the song was shared with the team, then once that was approved the more complex sections were added.

Prototype: 

Prototypes of the songs were made using Propellerhead Reason and sketches of how songs may be implemented were made in Google Slides. Below are the prototypes of each track along with implementation graphics.

Test: 

The soundtrack will be tested as the game enters user testing in the future. I’m interested to see how testers respond to the overall intensity of the music, especially the younger players. The boss fight and the action level themes are definitely pushing against what I thought would be acceptable for the target audience.

One project I was tasked with during my internship at Lab 58 was the creation of a series of infographics to be displayed in conjunction with a selection of technologies showcasing past projects completed by the lab. Between the infographics and the technology, basically, all of which is available to pick up and interact with, the end product should approximate a self-guided tour. Some of the infographics were specific to the project being displayed, while others gave more general information about how the technology has advanced and how different technologies relate to each other. 

Here’s an example of an infographic that provides information about depth-sensing cameras and how they’ve advanced over the past decade. Below, I’ll explain each step of the design thinking process as I understood it while going through the process. 

 Empathize

In the empathize stage, I thought about who would be viewing the infographics and technologies, why they would be in the space, and what they could gain by better understanding the technologies.

The audience is limited to professionals that work within RTI and their guests. The workers within RTI come from incredibly diverse fields and work in many different subject areas, but share that they are largely well-educated, interested in science, and curious about new things. The area that the tour is hosted in is a large common room surrounded with smaller meeting rooms but doesn’t have any main walkways through the space, so viewers here are likely in the space because they’re on a short break or waiting for a meeting to begin.

From those insights I was able to give myself a few design parameters:

• Information can be more in-depth for a science-savvy crowd, but shouldn’t assume previous field-specific knowledge
• Exhibits should work standalone and as a group. One person will likely not explore the whole table at once but will have many small chances to revisit it.
• Infographics should be inviting and provoke curiosity enough to pull someone over to the display table. Resources need to compete for attention from phones and the desire to scroll social media or send one more email while waiting. 

If done well and people learn about the new tech and lab projects, it could be very impactful to RTI and the Lab. RTI has many different specialized groups working on their own projects, so they may not always be looking out for new technologies that are emerging that may eventually disrupt their field or technologies that could be incredibly powerful and relevant to a project they are working on. By showcasing technologies and inviting people to have conversations with those of us in the lab, hopefully, we can stoke some inter-disciplinary innovation. 

 Define

For as long as I’ve been there, the lab has always had some sort of tech display up in the large common room that I typically work in. I’ve observed that the largest problem with how people interact with the tech, is that a huge majority of people simply don’t. Professionals aren’t typically the type to pick up something in their office that they don’t know who it belongs to and start playing with it to start figuring it out. They need to be told what the tech is and why it’s set up. They need to be invited to check it out, pick it up, and see what it does.  

 Ideate

While developing the resources for the table, I maintained many back-and-forth conversations with the rest of the lab team to be sure content on the infographics was correct and easily understandable. I shared completed drafts of infographics with the team to get feedback and then would make edits accordingly. Edits ranged from basic re-wordings, to improving diagrams, trying different color palettes, or altering the layout for better readability.

Prototype

Prototype images were created in Adobe Illustrator and were then printed out and placed in basic plastic standees on the table. Final versions of infographics may be more professionally printed, but the prototype versions are cheap and effective placeholders while we gather more information about their effectiveness. 

Test

Unfortunately, COVID has thrown a wrench into the test portion of this project. With no one in the RTI offices, we’ve currently paused the project but will continue once people are back to work. In the testing phase, I hope to learn which elements of the infographics are most effective and which should best be revised. I’m anxious to see whether the infographics can increase engagement with the display table and build enthusiasm about the lab and projects.