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Audible Words, Pt. 2: 'Updating the State of Critical Writing in Game Sound'
One of the main failings of academic enquiry regarding interactive media is that the industry climate changes so quickly and is so diverse from company to company, that theoretical notions which become accepted texts are practically out of date as soon as they are printed. The critical state-of-the-art for game production does not occur in academic institutions, but in the actual industry itself, creating a situation where academic work has to constantly play catch-up with the industry. This raises difficult questions in both areas. In one of the only key texts to emerge within the last few years on interactive music and sound to receive an academic platform: ‘Harnessing The Power of Music and Sound Design in Interactive Media’ (1), Stephen Deutsch offers some enticing historical imagery with regards to comparing interactive music and sound to film sound historicisation. The piece also serves to illustrate how attitudes have changed in game production since it was written in the year 2000, several of it’s major issues with game sound are now worthy of revisiting from an industry perspective. “[on use of sound in games] The model is of a "filmic’ reality (which many people mistake for actual reality), a reality which seems appropriate to the user…” (1) If written now and by examining the breadth of genres of game available and the plethora of different ways in which listener perspective is defined and manipulated, (first-person shooters, third-person RPG, variable listener perspectives) all contribute to a ‘reality’ whose scope is beyond the ‘defined’ relationship of the audience / listener in film. “…But the use of sound here [in games] is often too literal, sound effects rather than sound design - a pale imitation of the sound design used in film” (1) This statement does reflect a time in game development where little care or concern was given to sound. Around ten years ago, the sound department for a game development company would invariably be one person, someone who didn’t specialise in one particular element of sound production, but rather was ‘jack of all trades’, composing, creating sound effects, mastering, mixing, recording and directing dialogue. Film sound production relies as much, if not more, on commercial sound effects libraries (sound effects) than in the current climate of interactive media. Budgets and particularly development time now allotted to sound design in games often surpasses that of film in terms of bespoke effects and unique methods of implementation and recording. Games such as EA’s Medal of Honor series take care to record every sound effect in the game, the level of self-criticism and dedication of those who work within the industry has forced audio to take this route, and such attention to detail has paid off.
More recently notable film sound designers such as Dane Davis and Randy Thom have now become engaged with game audio, most notably with Thom’s recent involvement in Scarface: The World is Yours. The only difference between game audio and film audio for these high-profile sound designers are technical differences, mainly relating to sample rates. These sound designers think of sound design for games from a storytelling viewpoint, in exactly the same way they do for developing sound design for a movie. |
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