Institute of Art Design + Technology
Dún Laoghaire
On Show 2020
Eoin McDonald-Kelly

The objective of this project was to establish if compositional choices based on the route to immersion affect a players experience. A state of immersion can not be achieved without one of 3 stages: Engagement, Engrossment and Total Immersion. Each stage has multiple barriers, which act as stepping stones to reach the next stage. The music composed for each game is based around selected barriers with the goal that the compositions guide a player to a state of total immersion. These barriers were: Initial Emotional Response, Time Perception, Compelling Plot, Strong Visuals and Empathy. Each video game chosen for the project was tested and assigned a barrier which acts as the foundation for the composition choices. There was a total of 4 small games and one cutscene that music was composed for. These games were tested on a small number of participants to
establish whether the composition choices had an affect on a players route to immersion. Although the results were positive, further studies would benefit future projects.