by yahoo » Tue, 16Feb09 13:01
I have yet to see a Visual Novel where sound is used well and adds to the game. I turn off sound for that precise reason. Oh and that I haven't really seen it executed well.
From the technical side, it's a pain to code, especially in HTML and the game usually ends up with precisely what was mentioned -- a moan here or there, maybe some laughter, which comes out more creepy and annoying that genuinely realistic.
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What I would imagine good sound would be is if it added actual immersion to the game and made sense in the game context. We learn a lot about the world around us from purely aural cues -- like howling in the window frames and tree leaves rustling outside my window tell me it's a windy day. Or the sound of dogs barking tells me somebody walked through the street. Or I hear a car stop by my house while I'm expecting a delivery. You catch my drift.
What would really be needed is a different approach to games. At the moment, it's show, don't tell, unless you can't show or unless it can be easily missed. What would be a better approach would be: show, play and don't tell.
Imagine a game that starts like this: all you get is a black screen and hear the alarm clock. Then you hear wind howling and simultaneously slowly open your eyes, realize what time it is (quick frame of the time, say it's 7 am), running off to the bathroom, just pressing the snooze button. At the same time, the player character is heard muttering: "Dammit, I'm almost late, I've got to be there at 8 o'clock." While in the bathroom, you wash quickly, run off to the kitchen and hear the alarm go off again. You again hear yourself muttering: "Crap, it's already ten past and it usually takes 40 minutes to drive there."
At the same time, the alarm is still going, you can hear the wind again (while in the bathroom, the sound was drowned out by the water running and then muffled by the towel), you catch a glimpse of the outside where it's grayish and the calendar still shows a Sunday (presumably the day before, clearly marked as being in January).
At that moment you realize that you have just 10 minutes to spare before having to leave. You get dressed quickly (game asks you to make a decision what to wear without telling you what the weather will be, you need to decide based on the cues that you got so far), grab the phone (no time to check the weather, no cheating ;-) ), put your shoes and coat on, (grab the umbrella?) and run to the car, start it (optionally: and hear it sputter and die, but let's suppose it doesn't).
You hear the motor running through the whole trip, the radio comes on and there you have another cue: what music does the character listen to which could later come back as: "I know she likes the same music that I do, so I ask her out to:...", and yes, why not, country & western could be one of the choices ;-)
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That's where sound makes sense: adding ambiance and giving certain clues, but none of which are conveyed by other means. The obvious problem with this approach is that this makes the game impossible to play without sound or by the deaf, but if you add sound to the game, it can't just come in (semi-) random moments, it needs to be there all the time, whether it's the news on the radio, sound motor running, office hum, sounds of a restaurant or a concert -- it only makes sense if the sound is there all the time. If it appears once in a while, it doesn't work -- you can't provide clues through it (since many people will just turn it off and miss it), you can easily startle someone, and the novelty quickly wears off.
Last edited by
yahoo on Mon, 16Mar21 12:09, edited 1 time in total.