An examination of the player's experience of sound in video games and the many ways that players interact with the sonic elements in games.In Playing with Sound, Karen Collins examines video game sound from the player's perspective. She explores the many ways that players interact with a game's sonic aspects—which include not only music but also sound effects, ambient sound, dialogue, and interface sounds—both within and outside of the game. She investigat...

An introduction to the concepts and principles of sound design practice, with more than 175 exercises that teach readers to put theory into practice.This book offers an introduction to the principles and concepts of sound design practice, from technical aspects of sound effects to the creative use of sound in storytelling. Most books on sound design focus on sound for the moving image. Studying Sound is unique in its exploration of sound on its own as a me...

An examination of the many complex aspects of game audio, from the perspectives of both sound design and music composition.A distinguishing feature of video games is their interactivity, and sound plays an important role in this: a player's actions can trigger dialogue, sound effects, ambient sound, and music. And yet game sound has been neglected in the growing literature on game studies. This book fills that gap, introducing readers to the many complex aspects of...

The science behind sound’s influence on user perception and emotion—and how to design, evaluate, and enhance sound-driven experiences across diverse products and interfaces.Most user experience (UX) research prioritizes what users see and touch—but what about what they hear? Sound is a powerful, often overlooked layer of user experience, shaping perception, emotion, and behavior in ways users may not even realize. In Sonic UX, KC Collins offers UX...

From basketball hoops to cricket bats, the role community sports play in our cities and how crucial they are to diversity and inclusion.“The virus exposed how we live and work. It also revealed how we play, and what we lose when we have to stop.” For every kid who makes it to the NBA, thousands more seek out the pleasure and camaraderie of pick-up basketball in their local community centre or neighbourhood park. It’s a story that plays out in sport after sport – te...

Here is groundbreaking, dazzling debut fiction from one of Canada's most exciting and admired writers.Canisia Lubrin's debut fiction is that rare work of art—a brilliant, startlingly original book that combines immense literary and political force. Its structure is deceptively simple: it departs from the infamous real-life “Code Noir,” a set of historical decrees originally passed in 1685 by King Louis XIV of France defining the conditions of slavery in the French ...

Meet the six men of the PERSONAL series.In Making It Personal, Blake Davis, in-the-closet CEO of Trinity Publishing, celebrates his thirtieth birthday by hiring an escort – only to have him turn up the next day to be interviewed as Blake’s PA. It’s about to get a lot hotter in Blake’s office…Personal Changes is the story of Rick, who decides he’s had enough of being casual – he’s looking for love – and he finds it in the shape of Angelo. Unfortunately, Angelo’s traditional ...

***SHORTLISTED FOR THE AMAZON CANADA FIRST NOVEL AWARD**SHORTLISTED FOR THE RAKUTEN KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE (SPECULATIVE FICTION)*“Audacious, breathtaking, and inspiring.” —GEORGE SAUNDERS“Madcap, delirious, exhilaratingly good.” —KELLY LINK“A delightfully bizarre and unabashedly queer revelation.” —TEGAN and SARA QUIN“A beautifully brilliant, hilariously sad stunner of a debut that never forgets about the heart.” —NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAHW...

Winner, 2023 Governor General's Literary AwardWinner, 2023 Writers Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2+ Emerging WritersShortlisted for the 2024 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer PrizeLonglisted for the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for FictionGenre-blending stories of transformation and belonging that centre women of colour and explore queerness, family, and community.A couple in a crumbling marriage faces divine intervention. ...

WINNER OF THE 2025 WHITING AWARD FOR FICTIONPEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD FINALIST • ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE LONGLISTAs wrenching and luminous as Omar El Akkad’s What Strange Paradise and Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, a searing exploration of the global migration crisis that moves from Nigeria to Libya to Italy, from an exciting new literary voice.Able God works for low pay at a four-star hotel where he must ...

The Meaning of Video Games takes a textual studies approach to an increasingly important form of expression in today’s culture. It begins by assuming that video games are meaningful–not just as sociological or economic or cultural evidence, but in their own right, as cultural expressions worthy of scholarly attention. In this way, this book makes a contribution to the study of video games, but it also aims to enrich textual studies.Early video game studies scholars were qu...

The greatest trick the videogame industry ever pulled was convincing the world that videogames were games rather than a medium for making metagames. Elegantly defined as “games about games,” metagames implicate a diverse range of practices that stray outside the boundaries and bend the rules: from technical glitches and forbidden strategies to Renaissance painting, algorithmic trading, professional sports, and the War on Terror. In Metagaming, Stephanie Boluk and Patrick LeMieux d...