Hey, Listen - The Importance of Sound Design in Games

Sight and hearing, these are the two primary ways in which we observe the world around us and as such both of these aspects have become integral parts of all games today. A lot of discussion about visuals has come to the forefront of gaming in recent years with people asking if a game will be 1080p or 60 fps, whether the art style will be realistic or more stylized. Sound design however sees a lot less attention, this can largely be attributed to the fact that visuals are more in your face than sounds and so are much easier to notice. This can be a testament to how well a games sound is designed since if it fits the setting perfectly it will blend into the immersive experience and become much less stand out in comparison to bad sound design. Sound design however is just as important as visual design given that listening to a game can actually help you play it and give you an advantage you cannot achieve simply by watching.

A distinction to make here is that when I talk about sound design I am not merely talking about a game's soundtrack, I'm also including sound effects and even dialogue, be it the sound of a helicopter flying overhead or the moan of a zombie coming around the corner. These small but important details add to the atmosphere of a game and can affect the way you feel whilst playing them, most people remember entering a room in Resident Evil and hearing a zombie shuffling about outside of view giving them a sense of uneasiness that makes them know that the room is not safe, then entering a save room and hearing the calming music letting them know that they have a moment to breath in between the moments of frantically dodging zombies. The fixed camera angle of Resident Evil also helps demonstrate the usefulness of these sound effects, since there are a great deal of occasions where the zombies will be off screen and so being able to hear them coming allows you to prepare for an encounter as opposed to running headfirst into a zombie, or worse a hunter, who's lurking just around the corner. Survival horror is not the only genre in which these occasions arise, FPS also exhibits this behaviour as you may hear an enemy call out to his comrades clueing you in to where they are, thus giving you the opportunity to reposition if they're coming in to flank you or catch them off guard before they have the chance to attack. Sound effects do not exclusively apply to enemies either, in a number of games collectible items are given a discrete chime letting you know that it is nearby without giving you the exact location, in this era of stereo sound this is even more useful as it will let you know the direction to head for the collectible thus narrowing down its location even more.

The music of a game, whilst not as directly helpful to gameplay as sound effects, is also a highly important factor of a game experience. The background music in an area is crucial to creating an immersive atmosphere, this doesn't mean that the music has to stand out necessarily but it should blend well with every other aspect that it is being placed around, in a way if the music fits correctly in context you are probably likely to notice it less than a piece of music which is completely out of place. These atmospheric pieces of background music are usually slower, more calmer tracks however this is not the only type of music which exists within games, I speak of course of the infamous boss battle music. These tracks are some of the best, most important pieces of music within a game as it is in these moments when you need that fast, upbeat, frantic music to give you that boost to pump you up and make you feel like "Yes, I can take down this guy". I've lost track of the number of times where I've been struggling with a boss fight then I focus in on the music and it gives me the motivation I need to keep going and come back from the brink of defeat.

Let's not forget that the lack of music can be just as effective as well, if the game suddenly becomes dead silent this immediately cues you in to something not being quite right about the situation the response to which can be immediate fear or panic as something in your gut makes you feel like something bad is about to happen. The dynamic nature of sound and music allows you to read the situation you are in better, hearing the music change as you are wandering around the environment allows you to instantly recognize there are enemies nearby or you are approaching a new area that you have not previously explored. A good example of the dynamic nature of music is from Shadow of the Colossus, during your fights with the titular Colossi the music will build as you progress through the fight and come closer to success or equally fall along with Wander as he plummets from the head of a mighty Colossus. Having the music change along with your progress gives you the sense that you are slowly succeeding against a seemingly insurmountable enemy, thus giving you the push to keep going as you now know that victory is within your grasp.

At the beginning of this article I mentioned how visual design is often focused on a lot more than sound design, this is not to say however that one is more important than the other, both are needed in order to make a game experience enjoyable and memorable. The purpose of this article was to demonstrate that there are a lot of nuances to the sound design in games that often gets overlooked or goes unappreciated. Never forget it is important to use all of your senses at your disposal, in doing so you may gain a useful advantage over your adversaries or find something you may have missed otherwise. As Obi-Wan Kenobi once said "Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them." Don't let what you are seeing exclusively guide your actions, listen closely and a whole new world will be made available to you.