Call for Papers:

“Sonic Practices in Virtual Worlds—Game Audio, Spatial Sound, and Experimental Music in Games”
Special Issue of Computer Music Journal
http://www.computermusicjournal.org/CallForSonicPracticesVirtualWorldsIssue.html

Guest Editors: Juan Carlos Vasquez, Assistant Professor, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (China)
Publisher: MIT Press

Deadline for submission of optional abstract: July 11, 2025
Deadline for submission of manuscript: November 15, 2025

OVERVIEW:

The role of audio and music in games and virtual environments has evolved dramatically over the last two decades (Collins, 2008; Summers, 2016). While visual and narrative aspects of interactive media have traditionally garnered the most scholarly attention, sound remains a deeply performative, spatial, and affective medium central to the immersive experience of digital worlds (Grimshaw & Garner, 2015; Ekman, 2014). Game audio is no longer simply background—it constitutes an active participant in gameplay, player identity, and worldbuilding (Cheng, 2014; Phillips, 2017).

This special issue of Computer Music Journal invites submissions that examine the expanding field of sonic practices in virtual worlds. We welcome work that investigates not only traditional sound design and implementation for games but also emerging artistic practices in spatial and procedural audio, interactive composition, and creative uses of real-time engines like Unity 3d and Unreal Engine for sonic expression. We seek interdisciplinary perspectives spanning music composition, psychoacoustics, sound art, critical theory, and software development. This issue aims to situate game audio as both a research frontier and a platform for radical sonic experimentation.

Topics of Interest Include (but are not limited to):

• Spatial and immersive audio design: Methods and impacts of simulating space and environment through sound
• Experimental and procedural sound practices: Generative, non-linear, and rule-based approaches to game audio
• Game audio as authorship: The role of sound in constructing narrative, identity, and agency
• Performative uses of virtual environments: Games as compositional tools and sites for audio-visual performance
• Speculative and critical design: Sound in games as a medium for political, ecological, or philosophical inquiry
• Middleware and toolchains: Innovations in Wwise, FMOD, and bespoke systems for real-time music and audio
• Pedagogy and accessibility: Teaching practices, curriculum design, and inclusive design in game audio education
• Sonic worldbuilding and environmental storytelling
• Real-time audio synthesis and generative systems in game engines
• Historical, theoretical, and ethnographic approaches to sound in interactive media

We encourage submissions that challenge disciplinary boundaries and foreground the creative and critical potential of game audio. Particularly welcome are studies that highlight the role of sound in reshaping notions of immersion, expression, and presence in virtual spaces.

Submissions should follow all CMJ author guidelines (https://direct.mit.edu/comj/pages/submission-guidelines) except that manuscripts should not be submitted online at cmjdb.com. Instead, submissions and queries should be addressed to guest editor Juan Carlos Vasquez (juan.vasquez@liverpool.ac.uk) with subject [CMJ | Sonic | Virtual Worlds].

TIMELINE:

11 July 2025: deadline for optional abstract submission to editors
15 November 2025: deadline for manuscript submission
6 January 2026: deadline for peer reviews
28 February 2026: deadline for authors’ final versions
Spring 2026: posting of initially edited versions at https://direct.mit.edu/comj/online-early
Fall 2026: publication of the issue

REFERENCES:

Cheng, W. (2014). Sound Play: Video Games and the Musical Imagination. Oxford University Press.

Collins, K. (2008). Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. MIT Press.

Ekman, I. (2014). A Cognitive Approach to the Emotional Function of Game Sound. In K. Collins, B. Kapralos, & H. Tessler (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Interactive Audio (pp. 196-212). Oxford University Press.

Grimshaw, M., & Garner, T. (2015). Sonic Virtuality: Sound as Emergent Perception. Oxford University Press.

Phillips, W. (2017). A Composer’s Guide to Game Music. MIT Press.

Summers, T. (2016). Understanding Video Game Music. Cambridge University Press.