Informative sound design in video games

Abstract

The importance of sound is quite well known in video games. Although frequently in the past sound was simply used to increase the immersion of the player. Now there is a growing interest in using sound as a means for providing the player with additional information. While the use of sound for displaying information has been a topic of research for a number of years, research into the area of informative sound design for games hasn't been widely investigated as such. As a result proper guidelines for game developers to follow when attempting to design informative sound for a game haven't been broadly established. In addition, there has been almost no work done in considering specific genres such as Real Time Strategy and First-Person Shooter games and how sounds can be best used to provide players with information in these types of games. In this work we review previous approaches to sound design including the use of patterns. We then review these approaches in relation to sound design for both FPS and RTS games. Finally we present some key design patterns in relation to these genres.