James Roskell
Computing and Digital Technologies (B&FC) | Year 3 | Degree: Software Development (Game Development) - BSc Hons Degree
The Impact of Sound on Player Progression
The purpose of the research is to investigate the players path through a game level when sound is implemented. This study will also consider the functions sound has within the game for example: Giving information to the player and ‘leading’ the player through a level (or away from elements in a game level) through sounds triggering emotional responses.
The method of collection of data for this research is by first designing and developing two video games, firstly a basic platformer and secondly a first-person shooter. Both of these games will be created with both a silent version, and a sound-scaped version. To collect data, a questionnaire will be developed which will question the player on their experiences and paths taken throughout their play-through of the level/game in question.
The expected outcome is that the games with sound enabled will allow the player to feel more immersed in the game world and overall lead to a better player experience, as the experience will more effectively represent realism within the game world, additionally it is expected that the player will follow a much more predictable path through the game with the sound active.
James Roskell
Computing and Digital Technologies (B&FC) | Year 3 | Degree: Software Development (Game Development) - BSc Hons Degree
The Impact of Sound on Player Progression
What is the importance of sound in video games?
What is sound design in video games?
Screenshot of FPS game used in the experiment
The research will also consider how audio provides information, feedback and rewards in the a video game.
The experiement is two genres of games first person shooter and platformer both with and without audio editions, then a questionaire is asked whether or not the player perferred the audio enabled and if this affected the progression within the level
Thank you to the tutors of Blackpool And the Fylde College Computing Department. Lee Dissertation Supervisior and Chris Dissertation Tutor
Problem Domain
The research will investigate whether the user is influenced by the sound effects, and how this affects the progression within the level of a game.
Research Question
The research aims to discover which the user prefers as the best experience when playing a game with audio or without.
Objectives
- To discover the importance of the editions of sound in video games, identifying which section of the game requires sound to improve the quality of the game for example opening theme music or the ambient music during the first levels of the game.
- Does the users prefer to have sound, background music in the game or do the users prefer silent games, for example the first person shooter games engages the user by using the sound effects as if they are actually on a battlefields. Gunfire sounds, reloading sounds,
- Analyse the role/function of audio in games.
- Examine responses from the player by asking questions for example if they feel stressed, relaxed, scared or nervous. The responses would be by a questionnaire on a 1 to 10 scale?. An example question would be "did the tense music in a dark scene or level did this make u anxious" if an enemy was nearby. How tense was this on scale 1 to 10.
- Examples of games in which have poor or good sound., for example early games such as pong had limited sound which complemented the game.
- Produce two games one with sound added another without sound.
This video goes through the types of sounds which are added into video games.
Thank you for reading my dissertation please ask any questions via Linkedin or email
References:
Bread (2014) The Importance of Sound in Video Games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zAuSW0Lv10
Grimshaw.M (2011) Available at: http://www.estgv.ipv.pt/paginaspessoais/valter/alves_roque_ch17_grimshaw.pdf Jorgenson (2009) Audio and Gameplay: An Analysis of PvP Battlegrounds in world of warcraft. Available at http://gamestudies.org/0802/articles/jorgensen (Accessed date: 2021) Riot Games (2018) Available at: https://youtu.be/KcorIwJscFA (Accessed date: 2021) Wired (2017) Classic Video Game Sounds Explained by Experts (1972-1998) | Part 1 | WIREDAvailable at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlLPbLdHAJ0
Linkedin Profile and contact available here >>https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesr1989computing/
The importance of sound is explained by Bread (2014) as providing various roles to immerse the player into the game.
Wired (2017)
Bread (2014)
Riot Games (2018)
Sound design refers to the proccess audio is implemented into video games as stated by Riot Games (2018), which provides gameplay cues enabling the player to make progress into the level.
Non diegetic sounds are referred to by Grimshaw (2011) as the background sounds for example the scores, reward elements of a game
Diegetic sounds are stated by Grimshaw (2011) as being the sounds in which the characters create for example footseps.
Advantage of sound in game
Jørgensen (2009) states that sound provides support for the gameplay which is achieved by providing the player with information. For example a health pick up, when an item is collected a jingle sounds notifiying the user item was collected.
CloseCanvas height (pixels)
Background colour
Background image (max: 2mb)
CloseEmail
Website address
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Profile image
Close
Slide 1 image (max 2mb)
Slide 1 video (YouTube/Vimeo embed code)
Image 1 Caption
Slide 2 image (max 2mb)
Slide 2 video (YouTube/Vimeo embed code)
Image 2 Caption
Slide 3 image (max 2mb)
Slide 3 video (YouTube/Vimeo embed code)
Image 3 Caption
Slide 4 image (max 2mb)
Slide 4 video (YouTube/Vimeo embed code)
Image 4 Caption
Slide 5 image (max 2mb)
Slide 5 video (YouTube/Vimeo embed code)
Image 5 Caption
Slide 6 image (max 2mb)
Slide 6 video (YouTube/Vimeo embed code)
Image 6 Caption
Slide 7 image (max 2mb)
Slide 7 video (YouTube/Vimeo embed code)
Image 7 Caption
Slide 8 image (max 2mb)
Slide 8 video (YouTube/Vimeo embed code)
Image 8 Caption
Slide 9 image (max 2mb)
Slide 9 video (YouTube/Vimeo embed code)
Image 9 Caption
Slide 10 image (max 2mb)
Slide 20 video (YouTube/Vimeo embed code)
Image 10 Caption
Caption font
Text
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)
CloseImage (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Image description/alt-tag
Image caption
Image link
Rollover Image (max size: 2mb)
Or drag a symbol into the upload area
Border colour
Rotate
Skew (x-axis)
Skew (y-axis)