Dr Richard Stevens, Course Director

Dr Richard Stevens

Course Director

Dr Richard Stevens is Course Director for the postgraduate programmes in music and sound at Leeds Beckett University and has published and presented widely on the topic of Game Audio and Game Audio Education.

Richard has been awarded the position of University Teacher Fellow in recognition of his innovative pedagogical work, and co-authored the first practical text book in the field, The Game Audio Tutorial (Focal Press, 2011). Along with a second volume, Game Audio Implementation (CRC Press, 2015), numerous conference presentations and workshops, and his work as chair of the Interactive Audio Special Interest group, his work over the last decade has informed teaching curricula in the subject throughout the world. More information can be found on the Game Audio Implementation webpage.

Richard is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Sound and Music in Games, and coordinates the Game Audio Symposium. The Game Audio Symposium is an annual conference that examines the process and practice of creating audio for video games, bringing together industry practitioners, academics, and aspiring audio designers in a one-day symposium that aims to inform, develop, and inspire the next generation.

 

Current Teaching

Richard leads the MSc. in Sound and Music for Interactive Games and teaches Game Audio and Music for Film and Television at undergraduate level.

Research Interests

Richard’s most recent research investigates how we might apply our understanding of natural acoustic ecologies to game audio systems, and following a presentation of this work at the Game Audio Conference Norway he, and his colleague Dave Raybould have been invited to present their work to the audio Team at the games company Frontier. He retains close links to game audio professionals and the game industry, collaborating with Senior Audio Director at EA DICE, Ben Minto, for the Soundtrack Journal paper The reality paradox: Authenticity, fidelity and the real in Battlefield 4.

Richard's PhD brought psychological research methods to bear on developing an understanding of the impact of interactive music systems on the video game player experience. It examined how dissonances between the ludic and narrative functions of music in games might be resolved through a more integrated design approach – where game events may consider musical timings as an input to decision making processes. These ideas are summarised in his contribution to the Oxford Handbook of Interactive Audio, Designing a game for music: Integrated design approaches for ludic music and interactivity.

Richard is also working alongside composers and sound artists to investigate how video games engines might provide opportunities as a platform for the composition and performance of, and medium for, spatial music and sound art.

Dr Richard Stevens, Course Director

Ask Me About

  1. Interactive Music
  2. Sound Design
  3. Video Games
  4. Computing
  5. Creative technologies
  6. Design
  7. Education
  8. Film
  9. Games
  10. Music
  11. Sound

Selected Outputs

  • Stevens RC (2021) The inherent conflicts of musical interactivity in video games. In: Fritsch M; Summers T ed. The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 74-93.

  • Stevens RC; Raybould D (2014) Designing a Game for Music: Integrated Design Approaches for Ludic Music & Interactivity. In: Collins K; Kapralos B; Tessler H ed. The Oxford Handbook of Interactive Audio. Oxford: Oxford University Press,

  • Stevens RC (2018) Going nowhere: Stasis, ambiguity, and the infinite riser in video game music. In: Ludomusicology Conference, 13 April 2018 - 16 April 2018, Liepzig University.

  • Stevens RC; Raybould D; McDermott D (2015) Extreme Ninjas use windows not doors: Addressing video game fidelity through Ludo-Narrative music in the stealth genre.

  • Summers T; Cook J; Famer W; Raffafaella Ferre E; Harrison L; Hemming R; Ivanescu A; Reed L; Roberts F; Tatlow S (2021) Music and Sound in Virtual/Augmented Realities—Questions, Challenges and Approaches. Journal of Sound and Music in Games, 2 (2), pp. 63-83.

    https://doi.org/10.1525/jsmg.2021.2.2.63

  • Stevens RC; Raybould D (2015) The reality paradox: Authenticity, fidelity, and the real in Battlefield 4. The Soundtrack, 8 (1-2), pp. 57-75.

    https://doi.org/10.1386/st.8.1-2.57_1

  • Collins K; Felton K; Fuller B; Hankinson T; Harwood S; Heiden K; Horowitz S; Javelosa D; Kazandjian R; Rippie J (2011) Game Audio Curriculum Guidelines [Online]. Interactive Audio Special Interest Group. MIDI Manufacturers Association, La Habra, U.S.A..

    Available from: https://docplayer.net/8620341-Game-audio-curriculum-guideline.html

  • Stevens RC; Raybould D (2015) Game Audio Implementation. Burlington, MA: Focal Press.

  • Stevens RC; Raybould D (2011) The Game Audio Tutorial: A practical guide to the implementation of sound and music within the UDK engine. Focal Press.