Learn to hack interactive music with free tools

The hypnotic warbling munches and sierens of PAC-MAN, the impossibly-catchy tunes in Mario Bros. and Zelda, the cries of the animals in Angry Birds, and the ominous cues in Left 4 Dead -- music and sound effects are part of the emotions of games. But while film composers carefully tailor their scores to each frame and gesture of a movie, the intricate logic of gameplay is too often accompanied by mindless looping sound, wallpaper and noise that lacks impact.

Here, we let game designers play with music in a new way, even if they've nev worked with sound before. Taking some classic game design interfaces, we will see how parameters in gameplay can "play" sound and music. We'll hack and deconstruct these games, even if you're new to programming. And we'll make use of a free and open source library, libpd, which right now is powering some popular iOS titles and can be used in nearly any desktop or mobile environment, free, opening up new collaboration with artists in sound and music.

Required: a laptop, pair of headphones Free software: Processing, Pd Vanilla Installation instructions at libpd.cc -- works on Mac, Windows, Linux.