Why Sound Is Important

As you develop a game, there are three senses you can use to involve a game player: touch, sight, and sound. Until computers start emitting odors and flavors, those are all we have to work with. The visuals (sight) and the control (touch) of a game tend to get a lot of attention during game design and development. In this chapter we focus our attention on the odd sense out, hearing. Sounds used in a game can be any of the following:

Songs Full-length musical compositions created or licensed for your game. Songs can play in the background during the game or be triggered to play after something happens (for example, winning the game).

Music loops Short pieces of music that play repeatedly. A music loop can range from about 1 second to several seconds, and have a file size that is a fraction of that of a full song.

Sound effects Sounds triggered by the result of an action, or synchronized with a visual event.

Voice Spoken-language clips recorded or licensed for your game. Voice can be used in animations before a game, throughout the game to show characters talking, or as a sound effect (for example, a person yelling "Ouch!" when struck by a sword).

Music and voice are not always necessary in your games, but sound effects definitely are. Here are the top three reasons why you should not neglect sound in your games:

1. Sounds can encourage the player to feel a certain way. This is usually achieved through songs or music loops. For instance, in a murder mystery, eerie music would help most people get into the spirit of the game. If instead of eerie music, carnival music were playing, then the mood would be decidedly different. For a racing game you would probably choose upbeat music something that makes the players feel that they need to react quickly. Adding music is one major step in getting someone immersed in the game.

2. Sounds can evoke immediate emotional responses such as surprise, fear, and laughter. To use the murder mystery example again, imagine you are sleuthing in a dark room when suddenly a chandelier falls to the floor next to you. Unless you have your speakers turned off, this loud crash will probably startle you a response intended by the game developer. Another, smaller-scale example of this is collecting coins in a typical side-scrolling adventure game like Super Mario Brothers. You may not jump for joy every time you collect a coin, but somehow that "ding" gives you a good feeling.

3. Sounds can convey information. A sound can let you know that your character has just been hurt or that a secret door has been opened. Two of the most common uses of sound to convey information are to let you know that your character has just collected an item, and to give you an idea of how far away something is (depth).

Sometimes, if you play your cards right (so to speak), sounds can achieve two or more of these goals at the same time. For example, let's say you're playing a game in which you must solve a puzzle somewhere in a house. When you do, you get to open a locked door to another room, and a short, cheerful tune is played. The sound conveys the information that "hey, you did something right!" as well as helps to create or elicit an emotional response of satisfaction or excitement.

After playing a good game, I rarely find myself thinking, "Wow, the sounds in this game are great!" This isn't because of bad sound; if the sounds are doing their job, then they will most likely not stand out. It's often the same in movies. There are many scenes in which the frantic music enhances the suspense or action. You probably don't notice how much of an effect the sound has. If someone doesn't really notice the sound in your game, then the sound is most likely doing its job properly. More often than not, sounds that stand out are sounds that do not belong.

In the rest of this chapter we will talk about how to use and create sound effects and loops, and how to use ActionScript with sound files to create effects.