I'm getting to the point in my current game where I need to start thinking about sound effects. I've decided to stop and take a look around first. What do you folks think about the sounds in my previous games? Did they add to the games, detract from them, or have no real effect? Some of the better games in this genre don't have sounds. How would you feel if I stopped putting them in my games?

I'm interested in both votes and commentary, so feel free to do either or both.

Thanks,
Tlaero

tlaero wrote:I'm getting to the point in my current game where I need to start thinking about sound effects. I've decided to stop and take a look around first. What do you folks think about the sounds in my previous games? Did they add to the games, detract from them, or have no real effect? Some of the better games in this genre don't have sounds. How would you feel if I stopped putting them in my games?

I'm interested in both votes and commentary, so feel free to do either or both.

Thanks,
Tlaero

For me it's important to have sound in video games. If not they're hollow.
Continue with your work, both you and Mortze make excellent games.

Hi Tlaero

In my eyes, sounds enrich the games, as we have more than only the visual sense, it adds to the climate and impact of the game. Of course it can be overdone and it would be a pity if too much work is put into great sounds and the writing of a game or other things suffer therefore. I am slightly sceptical about all the background music, even if it is nice, sometimes listening to the same tune during a game can get annoying (a slider to reduce the Level or completely switch it off would often help). Furthermore if the music has the same Level as the sounds, it swallows noises, which also reduces the fun on a game.
Having sounds like an astonished expression, a sigh or a laughter or a moaning, in my eyes really add to the game.

I like what is going on with all you folks creating those great games, cannot name all here because I would surely forget someone but I really admire and appreciate your efforts and enthusiasm working mostly for free or small donations. Thanks a lot to all once again creating games and looking forward to what is in the works for next year!

All the best for 2016, hoping you all have fun going on with that also in the next year!

BR
Max

I would rather not have sound, especially in a game not fully voiced. i like to put on music in a different tab during text only games. I also feel it might be jarring and take you out of the story if a sound effect suddenly appears. It's an immersion break. I also disagree about sound in games, this isn't a triple A shooter, it's a visual novel. You don't need sound when you read a book, it's more pleasurable to imagine sound and voices yourself.

Something like BBBen's games are the exception because they're fully voiced and always have background music. Not sound at only certain moments. No immersion break. Obviously, this is tough to pull off and having text only or text and picture only is perfectly acceptable.

Personally i play a lot of games (specially the sexually orientated ones) mostly without sound on. Still i feel sound can break or make games and in your repertoire i heard some great environmental sound that sets the mood.

From my point of view the story is the most important part of a game. It should be sexy AND believable. Some of the best erotic games I played had no sound and I didn't miss it. But well placed sound effects, voice and music definitely add to the erotic atmosphere and the game as a whole.
Thanks for your games and thanks Mortze too!

Sound effects - They add to the immersion if done well, but as you say plenty of great games with no sound at all.
Background music - Only if it can be turned off, not everyone has the same musical tastes & it gets monotonous.
Voice overs - Fortunately rarely attempted in this genre, as they're invariably awful in these no-budget games.

Voice-acting - I'll echo the above and just say no, no, no
Moaning/etc during sex scenes - Preferably not, or at least an option to turn it off
Background music - Can be pleasant if done well, but not necessary. I can always provide my own background music.
Sound effects - Will be jarring if there are no other sounds in the game, otherwise no preference.

This time I think I'm allowed to vote and state my mind since I believe this is about sounds in general games and not in ours specifically.
My opinion is that all the games I played made by Tlaero that had sounds in it (including DwE) I didn't enjoyed the sounds. Not that I didn't liked them, the thing is I really didn't enjoyed them because in my browser the sounds seem not to work. So I heard none. I had to try a diferent browser to even know Coffee for Keisha had sounds.

That didn't made me enjoying playing the games less. So I believe the sound to be optional here.
More so, I do think that it is best to have no sound at all than to have bad sound. I find very anoying to have a lovely and beautiful girl presented in a game and see that the voice chosen for her somehow doesn't fit well.
One thing is ambient sounds, like a bar ambient, a crowd, steps, an engine starting, a tense music, but for characters voices I prefer not.

I remember watching those great old Warner Brothers cartoons when I was a kid. I'm talking about Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, et al. The animation of those cartoons was outstanding. A number of years later it became too expensive to produce cartoons of that quality, so production moved offshore, for much less money, and the quality of the animation suffered greatly. Think about chase scenes where the same background flashes past the screen again and again every two seconds. After two or three times it becomes boring and annoying. The same thing is true in these games. If I see the same visual over and over, 40 or 50 times in the same game, then the game is going to suffer. That's why you use different locations, different angles, different lighting, and so on, to keep the game visually interesting.

For sound, the same thing is true. First, sound effects must vary somewhat, and they must match the scene. Imagine a forest setting and hearing ocean sounds. No good, right? Also, if I hear the same woman moaning exactly the same way in every sex scene in a game, I'd really rather there weren't any sounds at all. It's boring, annoying, and unbelievable.

Voice acting is typically pretty bad, because in games like these, the producers are usually not using professional actors. Also, if you're going to voice one line in the game, then you have to voice absolutely every line in the game. And, you have to voice every character as well. Otherwise, I'm bringing up the next line of dialog, and waiting for the voice that's not coming. Now I'm thinking, did they forget? Were they just too cheap to voice the whole game? Again, not good.

Sound effects, voice acting, and music, like great visuals, can greatly enhance a game IF they are done well. And done really well usually means expensive, in one way or another. If done poorly, they can turn an otherwise good game into a miserable experience.

But -- all great games, like all great movies, always begin with a great story. I think that's why the absence of sound in a really good game is not missed.

By the way -- I did not vote in the survey. None of the choices matched the way I feel about this subject.

Sounds are cool and necessary, but they only make sense if it is not one type of sound repeating all through the game for one type of action. Eg. the same female voice moaning thru several different female characters having sex... I mean, at least these things, sounds of people having sex are easy to find everywhere. So if you decide to put sounds in, make it sound natural and tailored different for each scene.

Personally, I appreciate the desire to make the games more immersive or whatever but I play all games like this with the sound off. I'm not sure I could even tell you what the sound in any of your earlier games (which are great, by the way) sounds like, though I have vague memories of being startled and slightly irritated by whichever one of the Keeley games you first did sound in.

I uhh, mute them... feel bad, certainly when people like BBben goes to the trouble of getting voice acting in his games, but yeah... never been a fan of any kind of sound.

I feel like there should be sounds as long as you have the option to turn them off when you want to. The same goes for music, honestly. Sometimes you want a little background sound of some form or another to help pull you in to the story. But, on the other hand, I have been known to play with the sound off too. At the end of the day it really comes down to what you want to spend time adding to the game. You know we'll all play it either way. lol

Thank you for the feedback, folks. The way things are trending, 70% of you wouldn't mind if I left sounds out of the next game. That's good to know.

Tlaero