Beginning Game Audio Programming [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

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Beginning Game Audio Programming [Electronic resources] - نسخه متنی

Mason McCuskey

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SOUND EFFECTS

Sure, you can play a WAV file in response to a user action, but what WAV file should you play? That's where this section comes in. Here, you'll learn some techniques for getting high-quality sound effects into your game.


Determining When Sound Effects Should Occur


One of the things I see most often in independent game development is games with what I like to call "lopsided sound effects." Lopsided sound effects occur when your game has all sorts of sound effects for things that really don't matter, but is missing key sound effects that do. For example, consider a fantasy action game with a sword-wielding hero and several angry imps. Believe it or not, I've seen some amateur games that have several different imp grunt, imp hurt, and imp die sound effects, but no sword swinging, player hurt, or sword hit sounds!

You can avoid the horror of lopsided sound effects by following some basic sound effects principles. For starters, realize that sound effects are first and foremost a way to communicate to the player that something has happened. They feed information back to the user aurally. Once they fulfill that role, they can work on their second goal, which is to create emotion and immersion in a game.

A good rule is to make sure there are sound effects for everything your player can do in the game. Another good rule is to say that a person standing where they can't see the monitor can tell whether the player is actually doing things in the game.


Sound Effects Collections


So, you've determined what sound effects you need in your game and when they should occur. You stare at your list, wondering how in the world you're going to create all of these sound effects.

That's when it hits you—you don't have to! Just as there are many CD-ROMs full of clip art for use in printed publications and Web sites, there are tons of "sound effect clip-art collections" you can buy and use, royalty free, in your own applications. Most of these collections provide highquality stereo WAVs that you can downsample and convert to mono for use in your game.

You'll find that the cost of these collections varies wildly. Professional collections, designed for professional movies or broadcasts, can get fairly expensive; however, some sound effects collections can be picked up for the cost of a video game (or even the cost of a game from the bargain bin!).

As an added bonus, some of these sound effect collections also include royalty-free snippets of music, perfect for a game-over screen or options screen where all you need is a quick little tune.

Included in the links on your CD are several links to companies that sell sound effects collections.


Making Your Own Sound Effects


You've looked at the sound effects collections and just can't seem to find the right sound effect for that squeaky gate or snoring goblin. Here are some tips for recording your own sound effects.

Minimize background noise. This is a given, but if you can, move your microphone away from the computer and its noisy fans, or consider using a portable recorder. Also, try to pick a room with good acoustics. Sometimes bathrooms work well because their tiled walls bounce sound waves better.

Remember that you can manipulate your sound after you record it. There's no rule that says you can't lower the pitch of someone snoring to create a good ogre snore effect! Play around with the manipulation features of your sound software—try reversing the sound, changing its pitch, applying a flange or filter, and so on.

Think backwards. Don't say, "Okay, I need a squeaky gate sound effect, so I'm going to go find an object that sounds like a squeaky gate." Instead, find some random object, close your eyes, and think "does this sound like a squeaky gate, or maybe could be made into a squeaky gate?" Your ingame visual connotations will do a lot to create the sense of realism of a sound effect. Sure, it might be a cat meowing in real life, but when your game plays it in response to your player opening the squeaky gate, it'll sound a lot more like a squeaky gate. As long as the sound effect isn't immediately recognizable on its own, you'll be fine.

Solicit the help and input of others. Going on "sound effects hunts" can sometimes be a lot of fun—the guise of "finding sound effects" can be a great excuse for you to do fun stuff you wouldn't ordinarily do. Sometimes the only way to get a good "walking through snow" effect is to go up to the mountains and record someone walking through snow. Enlist some friends and go exploring!


Downloading Sound Effects from the Web


In a word: don't. Downloading sound effects may seem like an easy way to do things, but it's also very risky. The vast majority of WAV files you can get from the Web for free have been sampled from movies, television shows, or other video games. This means that using them is just as illegal as using a hit song without paying for it. Even if you modify the sound superficially, you still don't have a legal right to redistribute that sound without permission from its creator.

Also, there's no way to tell whether a sound effect that came from the Web is actually free. Sure, the Web site says it's free, but if it sounds suspiciously like Homer's "D'oh!" from The Simpsons, then it probably is. The last thing you want after you finally release your game is a letter from the FOX Legal Team wanting to know why their character's voice is in your game!

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