A Framework for Game Audio Transgression

Abstract

This dissertation examines how game audio can operate transgressively in digital games by crossing established conventions and reshaping the player's experience. While game audio is often understood through its functional roles, such as feedback, usability, guidance, and immersion, this study argues that sound can also challenge conventions and reveal the boundaries that normally structure play. To address this, the dissertation develops a framework for game audio transgression based on three main dimensions: aesthetic, ludic, and socio-cultural. The framework also accounts for hybrid cases, where multiple dimensions operate together. It is first developed through theoretical research on game audio, conventions, player experience, and transgression theory, and is then applied in analysis through close readings of selected gameplay segments. The findings show that game audio transgression is often multidimensional and does not depend only on how a sound sounds in itself. It can also emerge through changes in sound function, role reassignment, unreliable audio cues, and the breakdown of auditory trust. The analysis further shows that transgression can be moment-based or structural, and that it may depend on both internal game conventions and broader genre, medium, or cultural expectations. The dissertation then refines the framework and explores its use as a heuristic tool for game creation. In doing so, it positions game audio transgression as both an analytical concept and a practical design approach. Overall, the dissertation contributes a model for understanding, analysing, and designing game audio that challenges conventions and expands the expressive possibilities of sound in digital games.