Sound in Games

Sound is a very important aspect in games and is often a rather overlooked part of video games. It has many purposes from increasing the immersion and realism of the game, to inducing emotions in the player. When playing a game you are constantly hearing different sounds, things like footsteps, explosions, dialogue and many more. All these sounds are important to the environment of a game, it makes the game more realistic and makes the player feel more in the action. Sound is also used for events, to induce emotions in the player. One example of this could be in a horror game. There are often creepy sounds coming from unseen places, that without would make the game much less scary and tense.

As well as the sound coming from the game environment itself, there is also often music that accompanies them. Music in games is very important and can be used in many different ways. It can induce emotions in the player and also set the mood of the location or event in a game. An example of music being used to induce emotions could be at a sad moment within a game, there will more than likely be sad music playing at the same time. Music is also used as an extension of the visual aspects and locations of the game, so if there was a scene set in a foreign land, the music will often sound foreign too.

In order to put sounds into a game, first they have to be recorded, that is the job of a Foley artist. In order to create these sounds, the Foley artist will often record or recreate the event itself, however they will also have to come up with quite creative ways of gaining some sounds. One example of this is the sound of feet treading in the snow. Snow isn't always available, so the sound has to be simulated using something else. One common way of creating this sound is by crushing corn starch within a leather pouch. The event it is representing is rather different to how the sound was obtained, however when playing the sound over a video of the event happening, it would be very hard to hear the difference. Sometimes the original sounds recorded will sound nothing like the event it is intended for and will be manipulated using computer software.