Sound Design Principle: Information

Pac-Man (Science Museum Blog)

One of the main responsibilities of sound design in the video games world is information.

Sinclair (2020) notes that information can be summarised is a very simple equation: “Data + Context = Information”.

For example, a basic arcade game with limited lives can communicate to the player that they are close to a game over by switching to a rapid up-tempo backtracking similar to that of a heartbeat. As a result, the music provides the user with helpful feedback as to what is happening in the game in terms of the life mechanic. Aside from lives or a threatening game over, there are many other ways sound can be used to convey information.

Geometry/Environment

  1. Is the environment indoors or outdoors?
  2. What is the size of the room?
  3. What structures are there?
  4. Can we see the source of the sound? Partially see it?

Distance: energy from reverb signals decay slower than dry signals. Therefore:

  1. Reverb
    1. The further away, the more reverb
    2. The closer, the dryer
  2. Air absorption: temperature, humidity and distance
    1. The higher it is, the more it sounds like a low pass filter makes it sound like it’s through a wall; further away

Location

  1. Interaural time difference (ITD): the time difference between one ear to the other
  2. Interaural intensity difference (IID) or interaural level difference (ILD): difference in amplitude in the left and right ear
  3. The precedence effect: Direction of the source of sound in a closed space

User Feedback and Game Mechanics

  1. The “Chime Vs Buzzer Principle”: A chime notes whether a task or quest has been completed or not. A universal sound—associated with a positive sentiment A buzzer is noisy and is often a negatively viewed, maybe a task that has failed.
  2. Audio mixing: the balance between music, dialogue and sound effects can attract the attention of the user and allows it to focus on a specific aspect of the game.