Sound in Computer Games

Within most games there are different types of sounds, the main kinds of sounds you’ll hear in games are; dialogue, music and effects.

There are two main types of dialogue. The first type is narration; narration is an off screen and out of scene piece of dialogue relating to the scene. The main purpose of narration is to tell a story which can’t be fully explained though visuals. In Gears of War narration is used to great effect at the end of the games when the Queen of the Locust talks and shares her side of the fight, something which wouldn’t have been obtainable by following the main protagonists due to the fact that they never see the Queen. The second type of dialogue is script dialogue, for this example I’ll stick to referencing Gears of War because there are many cut scenes throughout the Gears of War games in which the Characters talk to each other as well as a lot of scripted interaction throughout actual game play.

Within Dialogue there is also diegetic and non-diabetic dialogue. Non-diegetic dialogue is out of scene sounds so things like narration. Diegetic sounds however is any sounds which are in the scene, even if the sounds are radio sounds. If the character can hear it, it’s diegetic. If the Character can’t hear it and only the player can hear it, it’s non-diegetic.

Foley sounds are the types of sounds you hear every day. Things like footsteps and rustles of trees are Foley. Foley is incredibly hard to pull off well for video games because you hear them during everyday life so they need to sound almost identical. Recording these sounds is usually the best way to successfully recreate Foley sounds for video games. A footstep sound might also be layered with something else in a multi-track manner in order to get the exact sound required.

Music within games is becoming more frequently present with time because games are becoming more and more immersive. Music in retro titles was simple due to hardware limitations although they still gave a sense of atmosphere within the game. In an action packed part of a game the music will normally pick up in pace and fit with the action packed scene to stimulate excitement from the player.

Theory of sound

The wavelength is the length between 2 points on a sound wave. A sound wave is a change in air pressure which the ear receives and the brain interprets as sound. The longer the length of the wave and lower the peak is, the lower pitch the sound produced will be.

If the peak of the sound wave is taller and the length of the wave is narrower, the pitch of the sound will be higher. A humans hearing range is from 20 Hz to 20 KHz

How sound is used in video games

Games all use sound differently. For instance ‘The Impossible Game’, a simple arcade style game based around navigating a square through an obstacle course made of triangles and squares uses a single sound track for each level which is just to give the player a beat to play the game to. Through playing this game myself I noticed how the beat and melody of the song matches the actions the square you control makes. The melody helps you get through the game because you can follow the song to ensure you’re jumping at the right time to complete the course. However, I’ve also noticed that as you progress through the level and the level becomes more difficult the song picks up in pace. The song becomes a distraction to the player due to the increased tempo and pressure to keep up. The effect of this is that the player feels more under pressure and becomes tense. This is something I noticed more when I played the game with no sound as I actually got further as I could just keep a steady beat by tapping my foot. 

Starcraft uses sound in a very different way; the game does have background music although that’s really all it is… background noise… Something to flesh out the sound of the game in order to keep the player immersed in the experience.

Most of the appeal in the audio from Starcraft, being a real time strategy game, comes from the in game sound effects. Most of the sound effects come from the player making an action and the game giving the player audio feedback for their actions. Whenever an in game unit is created it will say a scripted line of some sort to make the player aware that they have another in game unit to use. Other sound effects include alerts on the mini map when a player is being attacked, confirmation that a building has reached completion, sound effects when units fight each other. Marines shoot rifles, zerglings attack using melee and stalkers shoot lasers, to name just a few of the sounds effects that are present in the game.

Notable audio alerts in Starcraft are useful to the player, because keeping track of the multiple commands can be a difficult task, and the scripted audio prompts can make gameplay easier, as it reminds the player what they need to do. If you’re trying to create units but don’t have enough minerals you will hear a voice tell you that ‘you require more minerals’ or when you need more supply a voice will tell you to ‘spawn more overlords’ or their race equivalents. 

I'll admit my fear. Amnesia is horrifying, easily the most unsettling game I’ve ever played. A door swinging open could possibly be a clue to where you’re supposed to proceed; doors however could fly open as an indication that a monster is charging through. I literally couldn’t stop fidgeting while playing this game. Amnesias sound design is incredible. Cleverly used subtleties reinforce the horror extremely well. The main immersive subtlety I noticed was the character's breathing: you hear your characters breathe at most point and as you become more afraid your breath becomes more heavy and unsettled. The Character you play as sounds really terrified, he sometimes screams or moans when he's particularly freaked out. When a monster appears though is where the sound design gets slightly more clever. Scary things come and go in games and conventionally when the scary thing is gone the music will stop to give you an indication. In Amnesia, the unsettling music doesn’t end until you leave your hiding place and ensure the monster has left. It’s super effective — even if you’re hiding in a relatively safe spot. Because of this, you feel like you’re in constant danger until you find out if the monster is gone or not.

My examples all contrast heavily although they all use sounds in different ways to force the playing into feeling a certain way. In the impossible game the music makes the gamer feel tense and under pressure. In Starcraft the sound gives the player awareness and makes them feel more in control of what’s happening within the game because they’re being given constant in formation via audio notifications of what’s happening within the game. In Amnesia the player is forced into feeling terrified due to a clever use of eerie and unsettling sound effects. Overall I feel that the important thing that sound does within video games is force emotions from the player and help them play the game. These 3 games all utilize sound very well.