Audio Exploration: Sound in Games Research
Notable Uses in Games
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Hellblade is a third person game that uses binaural audio to convey the character’s mental illness as she journeys to save her husband’s soul. Developed by a team of 20 developers at Ninja Theory (released 2017) it has quickly risen to media attention for its portrayal of mental health and its use of technology to do this.
Senua’s journey is as much about her physical journey through the carefully crafted world as it is about her journey to overcome her grief and guilt over her husband’s death whilst suffering from what the developers have called psychosis. Her psychosis involves auditory hallucinations that intrude her thoughts and tell her what she should do or shouldn’t do, often contradicting each other. They are amplified through the use of binaural audio, which when played especially using headphones, puts the player in her perspective as they hear the voices as she would. It has been critically acclaimed for its sensitivity and accuracy regarding the mental health portrayal, having heavily researched the conditions and spoken to sufferers of the conditions and even having a mental health advisor on the development team.
Being able to be put into the position of someone suffering from psychosis accurately is an experience that hadn’t been achieved brilliantly until Hellblade was released, it adds to the fear and the tension, some players having had to take breaks from play to overcome how intrusive the thoughts become. Games being able to offer this experience can start conversations surrounding mental health that haven’t been had and can help lead to understanding and tolerance for those that suffer from the conditions. Games are a unique opportunity that forces the player to interact and be involved in the world and having the ability to encourage education around areas that heavily impact people’s lives is an incredible experience to provide.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a first-person survival horror game released in 2010. Developed by Frictional Games, the game is known for its detailed sound design as the player controls a character called Daniel who suffers from amnesia as he wakes up in a desolate castle.
The game takes advantage of a technique in sound design called Non-Linear Sound to create a psychological effect on the player. This is explored in depth later in the research, but Non-Linear sound takes advantage of non-natural sounds from instruments and distress calls from animals to create a sense of fear. Its soundtrack has been specifically designed to create an atmosphere of fear and its increase in tempo can create an increase in panic and suspense as the player waits to see what is waiting for them at the end of the build-up in music. This is notably shown in the track ‘Panic and Paranoia’.
A video had been produced alongside the making of the game to show how the sounds had been created, the digging sound was created by dropping bits of rubble and ceramic onto the floor. The thunder was recorded from a storm. Doors creaking were recorded and edited to sound eerier. The torture wheel rotating was a wooden frame being shook on a wooden floor. Raining was water being poured on a floor. Footsteps were recorded in a river with wellies. Bones were twigs being snapped whilst stepped on. A saw was recorded for sawing through animals. Monsters diving was a watering can being submerged slightly in water to create bubbles. Monsters walking was metal being grinded against another sheet.
Sound plays an important role in unnerving the player, they can frequently hear their own breathing, from gulps to hyperventilations to teeth grinding, they all unnerve and discomfort the player by providing a direct link to the protagonist’s state of mind.
Stifled
Stifled is a virtual reality survival horror game released in 2017 by Gattai Games. It uses a very simple art style consisting of lines to allow the player to explore the world, each sound adding to the lines to build a better picture of the world the player is in. Sound illuminates the environment. Players can use their voice to illuminate the environment too, but using sound can be dangerous, as you are being chased by monsters.
The developers have said it was a student project they had worked on, inspired by an animation (can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qCbiCxBd2M ) which shows a young blind girl exploring the world around her using touch and sound. They developed it as a puzzle solving prototype, but the mechanics lead it to work for a horror style game. The art style, the simple black and white with minimal visibility also lends itself to the genre.
The game is only playable due to the fact it uses sound, if there was no sound made in the game the player would not be able to interact with their surroundings. Whether this is by walking and their footsteps creating sound, picking up items and throwing them to create sound or by speaking into the microphone they all make the world around them accessible. If the player does not have access to a microphone, they can use the space bar to create a pulse in lieu of the microphone. Interestingly, when the player encounters danger, the lines change from white to red to signal danger, a visual cue instead of an audio cue. However, you can hear the monsters shriek with the change in colour. The red intensifies more the closer to danger the player is. If the player hits the monster with an item such as a rock, the lines become multi-coloured and glitch like to signal the player has hit a monster. The monster outline can be seen once identified.
Psychology Behind Sound Design
Pentatonics
Sound designers have used the pentatonic scales to effect player’s psychologically and was one of the earliest ways this was done. They have frequently used the major pentatonic scale to give a positive sound when the player does something positive in game such as levelling up or collecting an item. It provides non-verbal (and so universally understood) positive feedback to the player.
Examples include: Legend of Zelda’s ‘Take This’, Super Mario Bros ‘Level Complete’ and Sonic the Hedgehog’s ‘Ring Collect’.
Non-Linear Sound
Sounds can be classed as non-linear when they have exceeded what is accepted as the normal range for an instrument or of vocal chords. They can be produced in many different ways but often are produced by frequency changes in acoustic instruments. Or, animal distress calls can have this effect. They are frequently used in horror games as they sound unnatural, and in the case of the animals it signals distress.
Examples include: Amnesia: The Dark Descent’s ‘Panic and Paranoia’, Silent Hill’s ‘Butterflies’ and the Resident Evil Soundtrack.
Adaptive Music
Adaptive Music is often used to warn the player of change. For example, the danger of an approaching fight. It is most commonly used in stealth games, usually by shifts in tempo to show a change in game pacing. It also frequently used in action role playing games, where the player can be exploring an area peacefully but an enemy is approaching them. It serves a purpose mechanically but can also help with immersion and overall experience, the sound being interwoven into the action on screen.
Examples include: Morrowind’s ‘Bright Spears, Dark Blood’, Legend of Dungeon’s ‘Dynamic Randomised Music’ and Metal Gear Solid’s ‘Alert Phase’.
Resources Used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwGrDlv5wok
https://www.wired.com/story/hellblade-game-review/
https://www.polygon.com/2017/8/9/16120082/hellblade-binaural-audio-psychosis
http://store.steampowered.com/app/57300/Amnesia_The_Dark_Descent/?l=japanese
https://theaudiospotlight.com/making-of-amnesia-sound-design/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/514830/Stifled/
https://uploadvr.com/stifled-horror-game-vr-sound/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSXLXzgRZSU
http://www.amplifon.ie/resources/playing-with-your-mind/
