Joystick has a quick report from a GDC lecture presented by Jason Page and Michael Kelly from Sony, discussing the future of ‘next-generation audio’ on the PS3. What’s interesting about their take is that they believe that use of highly customized sample sets and MIDI can provide a much more interactive and adaptive approach to dynamic game scoring than the increasingly popular use of fully-orchestrated soundtracks. The Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (IASIG) has been working towards the same conclusions for several years, as they move towards completion of their Interactive XMF format specification. No doubt this is a topic that will come up more as the technology to deliver both high-quality sample sets AND highly adaptive scoring systems becomes ever-more available to developers.
Renowned Nintendo composer Koji Kondo also presented at this year’s GDC, and we’re on the lookout for reports. If you’ve got any, please pass them along.