Winning with AudioBy Selcuk Bor

I promise to make this quick!

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Given up on life

Asleep

People Awake

Today's Shenanigans!• Audio's Role in our Lives

• Your Visuals as your blueprints

• Execution of Vision

• Working with us Audio guys.

Defining Maximum Potential

When code, art, audio, and writing all tag team together to create the perfect experience, we can say that game has reached it's maximum potential. Consequently this also means it has also reached it's maximum potential value.

What does it mean?

Audio's Role in our livesEvery day, every moment we are bombarded with audio cues.

These cues define how we expect things to sound like both in real life and during play.

I'm going to play two clips for you now, and I want you to imagine the kind of setting and kind of game you'd find these two tracks in.

Time to play a little game!Yay! +15% wake audience achieved!

So what did you see in your minds when you heard those tracks?

Chances are you saw a jungle/tribal themed game, and a retro arcade game respectively.

without so much as seeing a single picture or touching a single control and based only on what we grew up hearing these points are made clear to us.

Audio's Role in our lives

Ever had goosebumps while listening to your favorite music? Or during an intense emotional scene that had the saddest music ever?

This reaction is a lot more important to your players then you'd think. For it is a strong motivational force behind their opinions on a project.

Audio's Role in our lives

Audio's Role in our livesThe people who are playing your games grow up with expectations based on the games they played and have learned to expect some varient of the same in future titles they play.

This is exactly why poorly chosen/created music can kill a game because your audience becomes somewhat distant (and sometimes frustrated) from the game.

Your visuals are your blueprintsSo how do you dissect what you should be looking for in your project to

find/create audio that is most appropriate? The art in your project as a collective will tell you. For example, imagine you are making a match 3 game. Imagine it is a jungle theme, so that gives us a direction, pay attention to the objects the player interacts with most for those will be landmarks.

• If the pieces are crude/unrefined, enforces the jungle image, more rhythmic stuff

• If the pieces are shiny and jewels-esque, leaning more towards adventurous tones. Think Indiana Jones

• If the pieces are mystical/magical, consider a more fantasy vibe.

Time to watch some puppies!

Time to play another game!

Execution of VisionKnowing what will work is a great step but it's not the whole story. Small teams who can't bring on a sound designer to prepare their files for them, reach out for stock sounds which when used sparingly is fine.

When you put more and more of these sounds in the same game, it starts to become more and more disconnected with each other. Oddly enough adding more content serves only to harm your game's potential value this way.

So what do D:?Here are a few tips to ensure maximum coherence and quality of your sounds.

- First, clarity. Does it have it? Background hisses or warbly low quality sounds is deadly to quality.

- Volume appropriate is step two. Footsteps should not be louder then gun shots. Music should not overwhelm the sounds and vice versa.

These are just a few basic things that help keep a cohesive sound scape.

So what if you have an audio guy?Fantastic! You've got help and now you've got to think about how you want to work with them.

Like most creatives, if you want your audio guy to follow your vision you need to speak their language. You don't need to know music theory and psuedo write the music for them but ensure consistency in the big picture with descriptive phrasing focusing on mood and offer reference clips where possible. 2-3 tops as too many different references creates confusion and contradiction. Here is a short form for you to go through to help provide meaningful instruction.

Points to consider Length of track (roughly how long you

envision it being)

Looping?

Have 2-3 reference clips?

Specify time regions most relevant?

What emotion or thought do you want the player to have when they play the game/listen to the track.

Preferred instruments/sounds?

Screenshots of game/concept art?

You can download this checklist on the FGS or our site with more details on

what they mean and why they're helpful.

Are we done yet :C?Yes we have reached the end of today's adventure. Each one of these points we touched upon today can be in of themselves an entire presentation. However those are details and while these were all basic concepts they are important ones which I am hoping gives you all a new understanding regarding audio and are one step closer to unleashing that perfect storm.

Thank you!You've successfully put up with my ramblings for over 10 minutes. You have achieved something truly legendary this day.

selcuk@symphonyofspecters.com

http://www.symphonyofspecters.com