Summary
Although one of the first things gamers tend to notice about a game is its graphics quality, sound design is the glue that holds all of the art together. Countless layers of subtle sounds need to be present in a given space to achieve the all-important feeling of immersion in a lived-in world, and expert sound designers like Gary Miranda and his team at Injected Senses Audio play a crucial role in helping games likeFortniteandMarvel’s Spider-Man 2sound as good as they look.
In an interview with Game Rant, Miranda offered some insights into what he feels are some of the most important things for sound designers to consider when they’re working on a game. In particular, he feels that subtlety is crucial, as too many in-your-face sounds can be immersion-breaking at best and flat-out annoying at worst. He also spoke about how UI and UX sound design is a challenging process, and it’s important to gather as much feedback as possible to deliver a responsive and cohesive collection of beeps, clicks, and boops.
Good Game Sound Hinges On Subtlety and Attention to Detail
According to Miranda, subtlety is key. As games continue trending towardmassive open worlds, sound designers have to pay serious attention to hundreds of minute details to bring these sprawling worlds to life, mixing in countless individual sounds that gamers may only notice as part of a larger whole. If a player parks their character somewhere inMarvel’s Spider-Man 2’s New York City and simply listens, they’ll most likely catch a lot of sounds that aren’t in their face but are important to the composition. Subtle details like leaves rustling, birds chirping, and wind blowing are just as important as explosions, punches, and superpowered sound effects.
For me, I feel like it’s subtlety and detail. Especially with games, not trying to overdo it with sound or really push it in your face that this is what’s going on. It’s really about subtlety and finding all those little details.Spider-Man 2I feel was a great example of that. The amount of detail that they put into New York City and every little bit in there in that game. There was nothing in the game that was trying to shove itself down your throat as far as audio goes. It was just done very, very, very subtly. That’s the thing that stands out to me. If anything’s standing out where it’s jumping out at you constantly, that’s where I’m like, “Oh, my God, just stop.” I like to keep it nice and subtle and to the point.
Subtlety is also important in games due to their repetitive nature. The player is likely going to hear web-slinging sound effects thousands of times as theytraverse the city inSpider-Man 2, so it’s important not to irritate the player with a repetitive sound that is too up-front.
It’s Important To Work Closely With Developers on UI Sound
Another area where sound can make or break the experience is the game’s UI. Agood game UIshould be informative, responsive, and easy to navigate, and sound designers have an important role in supplying both accessibility and responsiveness. It’s another thing players may take for granted, but a simple click at the end of a “press to hold” input to indicate that the command was received is a helpful bit of feedback that an audio designer may have spent a surprising amount of time fine-tuning.
UI and UX sounds are fun, but they’re also challenging to me because I think of that subjectivity. A lot of times I could say, “Hey, this is this is a beep, this is a boop, and I feel like this fits,” you could get the audio director or the lead designer or the creative director and everybody’s got their idea of how that might evoke their emotions. They might say, “I feel this is too harsh,” or “I don’t feel like this is a satisfying click,” and I think there’s a lot of opportunity for someone to come in and give an outside opinion where they don’t like it.
Miranda says that when it comes to UI sound design, it’s important to gather as much feedback as possible from everyone involved in the game’s development. After all, one doesn’t have to be a highly trained audio specialist to point out that a particular beep is too harsh, or that certain sounds feel out of place. Injected Senses works closely with the developers atstudios like Insomniac Gamesto verify that every sound sits comfortably in the game’s mix.
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