Sound & Communications

Creating a World of Magic: Bringing a Game to Life

by Jure Fiorillo

On Friday the 13th in October, the 8th floor of New York City's Millennium Hotel was transformed into Dominia, a magical world complete with castles, fog and wizards. Visitors to Dominia climbed bridges, hopped over stepping stones and scurried down rabbit holes, participating in a live, interactive model of trading card game Magic: The Gathering.

Produced by Washington-based game company Wizards of the Coast, the game has become something of a phenomenon, the new Dungeons & Dragons. In an age dominated by websites, computer games and virtual reality, Magic is a throwback: a game that is played with a deck of cards and encourages personal interaction between players. For the New York promotional extravaganza, Wizards of the Coast recruited neighboring companies Entros and AUDISEE to bring Magic to life. Entros was responsible for constructing the sets; AUDISEE provided the sound. Work was completed in Washington, sets and equipment were later transported by truck.

AUDISEE was particularly pleased with the outcome of Magic: The Gathering. The Seattle company works on about six trade shows a year, concentrating their efforts on event-based projects, projects that AUDISEE president Peter Lewis calls "entertisement." Says Lewis, "There's a wonderful future out there but it's not the way it used to be. What we chose to do four years ago was really dedicate ourselves to these entertainment niches, tradeshows, videowalls and the idea of immersing the audience in a soundtrack as opposed to blasting at them from a videowall."

Employing more than 100 different sound effects, AUDISEE created a smorgasbord for the ears. "The effects really give players that sensation of reality," explains Lewis. "The bulk of the material came from our library but then had to be tweaked to give it an unworldly sound," he says. Other sound effects were tailored specifically for Magic: the Gathering. Voices and pieces of dialogue also needed to be recorded for the event.

Sound permeates Dominia, marsh sounds, bells, voices and other twinkly magical effects greet visitors at every turn. Raised stepping stones provide pathways and are rigged to respond to footsteps with sound effects. To accomplish this, AUDISEE employed their own custom designed trigger interface module, the TIM 200. The system is very similar to one "using burglar pads that you would put in a convenience store to set off bells when people walk in," explains Lewis.

A generic trigger interface, the TIM 200 responds to just about anything, from an infrared bean to heat sensitive sensors, converting the incoming signal to a MIDI note. the MIDI note can then be transmitted to any MIDI device, such as a sampler or drum machine, resulting in the appropriately marsh-like and seemingly magical sounds of Dominia.

In designing the sound, AUDISEE worked closely with Entros. "The architecture is always crucial," says Lewis, who needed to drill holes into the stepping stones to fit them with the appropriate wires. Entros sets, wall and floor treatments were a boon to the audio requirements. "We worked closely with the set designers to hide everything. They were great." According to Lewis, "part of the magic for us is to not let the audience see where the sound is coming from. We were saved partly by the fog on the floor, the speakers were covered with cheesecloth to make them less easy to see. An odd-shaped grid at eight feet and comprised of one and a half inch pipe made it difficult to mount the higher speakers. Some old-fashioned technology solved this problem: tie wraps and a whole lot of gaffer's tape.

The effort to conceal the technology behind the sound, the wires, and hardware is not something new to AUDISEE. Nor, is this magic confined to Magic: the Gathering. Lewis confides that he had a great deal of fun working on Dominia, revels even more so in the enjoyment that others have derived from the event. "You have to have a passion for this," Lewis confesses. "What we're doing is touching people's hearts. And yes, you have to use amplifiers and equalizers and workstations to do that but to me it's what comes out of the speakers that matters much more than how many amplifier watts you use or how many equalizer channels it took to build it."