A recent patent from Electronic Arts is apparently intended to help make mood-fitting music in games depending on player behavior. Considering how important music is for the mood in many forms of media, including video games, the patent’s own background points out the importance of this sort of thing.
Video games come in a variety of genres with a variety of soundtracks. Music for each video game enhances the gaming experience for players and makes it more memorable. As a result, many games are closely associated with their music, and the music becomes iconic as well.
With so many different games having iconic music for some of their most iconic moments, it’s not really all that surprising that just as music should influence emotions, the opposite should also apply, as the patent goes on to explain.
For example, the original music score may have an original tone of sad. Based on the received predicted player emotion, the tone of the music may be changed to angry.
A sad moment, for instance, may cause a player to react with anger over the death of a beloved character or the loss of a treasured location such as a central base or similar location due to the actions of the game’s antagonist. With this patent, the game could read various attributes that the players exhibit, and change the music’s tone, such as these.
The in-game attributes may include speed of gameplay, damage taken, number of enemies defeated, whether the player is escaping, etc.
Doing so, and dictating how to change the music depending on player behavior, involves making use of Deep Learning, training the game to react depending on certain things, such as the various attributes said above. It’s an ambitious task, but considering the leaps and strides that video game technology is making it might be possible.
