Musical Automation in the Australian Games Industry: Current Perspectives

<p dir="ltr">This report summarises stakeholder and industry research undertaken as part of a broader research project titled ‘Musical Automation in the Australian Games Industry’, the outputs, publications and documentation of which are available at <a href="https://metamiditoolkit.com/" target="_blank">https://metamiditoolkit.com/</a>. This project was funded by Creative Australia and APRA AMCOS through the <i>Digital Futures</i> initiative, and allowed the research team to not only pursue the industry research discussed within this report, but to produce the following project outcomes:</p><p dir="ltr"><a href="" target="_blank">• <b>Open-source Toolkit </b>– The MetaMIDI Toolkit has been released as open source (under the MIT license), and so it can be used and extended further in your own projects.</a></p><p dir="ltr">• <b>Life (Re)Sounding </b>– Demonstrating the capabilities of our MetaMIDI Toolkit, using Unreal Engine’s ‘MetaSounds’ real-time synthesis technologies, this narrative game has multiple levels and plays like an interactive 5-track album.</p><p dir="ltr">• <b>Video Documentary </b>– Including background, interviews, and ‘behind-the-scenes’ footage of the project’s development.</p><p dir="ltr">Alongside these outcomes, this research report was produced in collaboration and with the input of industry research participants to provide insights into how games professionals are engaging with these new technologies.</p><p dir="ltr"><a href="" target="_blank">This involved interviewing key workers and stakeholders</a> within the Australian games audio sector regarding their perceptions, understandings and experiences of generative artificial intelligence–driven programs and software (GenAI), as well as non-AI forms of automation, and the impact of these on their workflows and processes. This report introduces the topic of musical automation in the Australian games industry, provides an overview of the project’s research design and methodology, and discusses the findings of our research, which are presented in themed findings chapters. The report concludes with a discussion of the project’s limitations and suggestions for further areas of research.</p>