99 Musical Games


Book Description

This collection of--you guessed it--99 music-themed games is an excellent resource for any classroom, ensemble or music club. From reproducible word scrambles and acrostics to action games like "Musical Dash" and "Kitchen Orchestra" to unique and fun tests of musicianship, these games are a great way to break the ice, assess musical skills or simply have a blast with a group of music-minded friends.







Understanding Video Game Music


Book Description

Understanding Video Game Music develops a musicology of video game music by providing methods and concepts for understanding music in this medium. From the practicalities of investigating the video game as a musical source to the critical perspectives on game music - using examples including Final Fantasy VII, Monkey Island 2, SSX Tricky and Silent Hill - these explorations not only illuminate aspects of game music, but also provide conceptual ideas valuable for future analysis. Music is not a redundant echo of other textual levels of the game, but central to the experience of interacting with video games. As the author likes to describe it, this book is about music for racing a rally car, music for evading zombies, music for dancing, music for solving puzzles, music for saving the Earth from aliens, music for managing a city, music for being a hero; in short, it is about music for playing.




101 Music Games for Children


Book Description

Music is wonderful for bringing out creativity and encouraging learning in kids. They love to sing and dance, and they love it when adults sing and dance along with them. Appropriate for families, teachers, day care providers, and camp leaders, this book presents lively music games that children and adults can play together. Using popular songs, easy rhythms, and musical recordings, the games in this book help children develop creative, personal, and social skills. They also learn about music and sound. The games are not competitive, they encourage and reward children for participating, not for winning.




Making Games


Book Description

An argument that production tools shape the aesthetics and political economy of games as an expressive medium. In Making Games, Stefan Werning considers the role of tools (primarily but not exclusively software), their design affordances, and the role they play as sociotechnical actors. Drawing on a wide variety of case studies, Werning argues that production tools shape the aesthetics and political economy of games as an expressive medium. He frames game-making as a (meta)game in itself and shows that tools, like games, have their own "procedural rhetoric" and should not always be conceived simply in terms of optimization and best practices.




The Essential Guide to Game Audio


Book Description

The Essential Guide to Game Audio: The Theory and Practice of Sound for Games is a first of its kind textbook and must-have reference guide for everything you ever wanted to know about sound for games. This book provides a basic overview of game audio, how it has developed over time, and how you can make a career in this industry. Each chapter gives you the background and context you will need to understand the unique workflow associated with interactive media. The practical, easy to understand interactive examples provide hands-on experience applying the concepts in real world situations.




The Inner Game of Music


Book Description

Suggests techniques for overcoming self-consciousness and improving musical performances, shares a variety of exercises, and includes advice on improving one's listening skills.




Video Game Audio


Book Description

From the one-bit beeps of Pong to the 3D audio of PlayStation 5, this book examines historical trends in video game sound and music. A range of game systems sold in North America, Europe and Japan are evaluated by their audio capabilities and industry competition. Technical fine points are explored, including synthesized v. sampled sound, pre-recorded v. dynamic audio, backward compatibility, discrete and multifunctional soundchips, storage media, audio programming documentation, and analog v. digital outputs. A timeline chronicles significant developments in video game sound for PC, NES, Dreamcast, Xbox, Wii, Game Boy, PSP, iOS and Android devices and many others.




Classroom Music Games and Activities


Book Description

This collection will help you teach music basics whether you have a music degree or no formal music training. Students will practice their listening skills, identify musical notation and terms, recognize instruments, and more! Reinforce lessons from other subjects with cross-curricular elements, or adapt the activities to include new material. Mix and match whole-class, group, and individual activities to give your students a variety of ways to learn music basics.