A Game without Sound is a Story Told with No Emotion

It is common among writers, story tellers and even the audience/game players to believe that visuals alone can tell a story well. While visuals can bring life to the story and connect to the audience actively, sound can connect to the audience passively and most unobtrusively. This is what makes sound - a combination of music, dialogues and sound effects - very important in story telling & enhancing realism in game play. Visuals without complimenting sound is like a story told with no emotions. Varun Nair, a Sound Designer at Blue Forg, gives sound an importance rating of 15 on a scale of 10 and believes the effect sound has on a player at the subconscious level cannot be substituted by any other sensory medium. Sound is one of the key emotional drivers in an audio-visual media piece across all formats – be it a game, a commercial or a feature film.

Saltmarch Media spoke to Varun about the importance of sound in enhancing realism in game play, the technology are essential for you when you are creating game audio and the state of the game sound design industry in India among others. He also shares his thoughts on the negatives and positives of working in a high-end game development studio and freelancing, games that have inspired him and  tips for startup game development companies.

Q. Please introduce yourself to our readership and tell us how your earlier work in the music industry and post production for commercials and feature films helped you in game sound development?
 
I work at Blue Frog Studios in Mumbai where we have four state of the art studios that cater to a variety of sound industries and we also have a production house that helps produce sound for various media. My job primarily is of a sound designer and I work on creating sounds, mixing music, recording and editing dialogues for commercials, games and feature films. I have had quite a few years of experience in the post-production industry while working mainly on commercials for television. It is this collective experience that helps me understand sound on both the creative and technical levels, how it affects the audience or a player or a listener and how it helps form a connect with them and therefore act as a form of communication to get the right information out at the right time. For example, making game play a lot more enjoyable.
 
Q. Your talk at India Game Developer Summit revoles around quality asset creation and sound. What would you like to tell the game developer about sound and using it to enhancing realism in game play?
 
Sound to a lot of people is an after thought. It is generally used to just fill up space. But if properly planned and thought over, sound can play an important role as far as story telling is concerned. Sound along with visuals is a strong sensory tool. As humans we use sound every day at both conscious and subconscious levels, to understand the environment around us and also to learn how the environment affects us. This is what I am stressing on at India GDS.

If sound is understood and implemented well in a game it can make game play more enjoyable and interesting, thereby allowing for better user experience. It is usually not about having sounds that "sound cool" but more about getting in the right sound in the right context at the right time. That is what ultimately makes a game enjoyable and it is this interplay between visuals and sound that can make or break a game.
 
Q. On a scale of 10, how critical is the aspect of sound in terms of enriching the gaming experience? And what is the 2.5 rule?
 
I will say 15. But it actually depends on the genre of the game, such as if it is RPG or casual game. Some games require sound to play a key role and help extend game play whereas some games require sound to be some sort of feedback for the player to understand things in the environment. But sound does play a very important role because it ultimately communicates to the player on a completely different level. Visuals help to see what’s happening but sound can affect a player on a subconscious level and therefore communicate on a completely different dimension altogether.

The 2.5 rule concerns linear media formats like film and television. It was thought out by a famous sound designer and film editor – he is in fact one of the fathers of sound design – Walter Murch. He has worked on some brilliant films like Apocalypse Now and The Conversation – films that were groundbreaking as far as sound being used as a story telling tool.

The 2.5 rule basically states that the human brain can pay attention to 2.5 themes at one given point in time. An example of this would be – say you are watching a film that contains an intense argument between two characters. The first theme that would occupy us would be what we see, like body language and emotions. The second theme would be the dialogues that gives you an idea of what is happening; that is, the characters' words and tone of voice give you an idea of what the argument is about. So a majority of our thinking would be used in understanding the visuals and the dialogues. The last half theme would be the background score which might be a very strong emotional tool and might push you to feel compassion for one of the characters or even sadness, depending on what the scene requires. And this is as as our brain would be able to process.

Other sounds, like the ambience or footsteps, would easily be disregarded by the brain and therefore we won’t be able to pay attention to it. Putting all of this together in post production or as far as gaming is concerned, it is important to understand what is important for the scene and what is important at that moment in time, so that the right ques are sent out at the right time to the player and they understand efficiently what is happening in the game.

Q. Do you feel sound is given as much importance as it deserves during the game development process?
 
Some developers pay a lot of attention to sound. They bring the sound team early on, sometimes even before the development of the game. There is an ideating process that happens and they figure out how sound can be used as an efficient story telling tool.

On the other side, there are other developers in this country who bring in sound at the last stage, like a month or a month and a half before game release which is really not enough time because you spend all that time in getting your assets together and you spend very little time in a creative process of finding out ways in which you could do things better or maybe ways in which you could use particular assets to get the story across in a better fashion. Ultimately time-crunch doesn’t really help.

So I don’t believe sound is given as much as importance and if game developers can spend a few weeks extra thinking about sound and working with the sound team it can end up creating a holistic experience for the gamer.
 
Q. What pieces of technology are essential for you when you are creating game audio?
 
Creativity is more important than technology for a sound designer or game developer. You can have the best tools and equipment but without putting in the right approach and the right thinking behind what you are doing you could end up with a product that doesn’t work.

For me the first tool would be to understanding the game, understanding the intent behind the game, the character, the action and what is happening and then it would be about thinking about the possible sounds. It is all about having a sound that works -- sounds that push a gamer to think, sounds that give him clues about where he is, what he is doing and what is happening. After that I would think about the technology and about what microphones I use to record, the software, the synths and the samplers I use. These are not as important to me as the thought and intent behind what I am doing.
 
Q. What would you say are the negatives and positives of working in a high-end game development studio and freelancing?
 
Working in a high end game development studio would mean security because you are probably working for a company that’s producing several regular titles every year. What you might also have is freedom in terms of what technology and the level of involvement in the game. as a freelancer you may be called in just for a very specific purpose so the involvement might not be that high. On the other hand, as a freelancer, you may have the option to choose what you work on and to take breaks when you want to. This is important but you also have to spend a lot time networking and trying to get as much work in.
 
Q. Can you name a few games released in the past year that have inspired you?
 
I am inspired by every form of media and I am inspired right from the very early games. One of my favorite background music pieces is the theme for Mario. To think of what was done with the technology available at that time is mind blowing. The amount of work put in to make the game so much more enjoyable and we know the result of that – it is a huge game even today. I am a big fan of racing and sport games and I was blown by the sound on Need for Speed Shift. That was some amazing work done by EA and their team of sound designers. Basically I am a fan of sound in any form that is applied right.
 
Q. How mature is the game sound design industry in India right now? And where would you like to see it go in the next five years?
 
I would say it is largely non-existent because there are very few people actively involved in gaming as far as sound is concerned. There are only a few who understand the process behind it. At Blue Frog I believe we are at the forefront of this because we not only have our advertising and postproduction experience behind us in understanding sound but we also have a great network of voice over and dialogue artists, actors, a range of music composers and directors -- from freshers to big names in the industry. We also have amazing studios where we make sure to give the highest quality sound possible. It is still a nascent industry and I would like to see it grow over the next five years and turn into a more active process as far as game designing is concerned.
 
Q. Do you have any words of wisdom for startup game development companies?
 
Spend more time trying to understand the player and the intent behind your actions as far as designing a game is concerned. As a sound designer I will say that my peers should pay more attention to sound. I can give you examples of where sound has worked wonders in delivering what’s needed. All said, I don’t mean they should pay all their attention to sound and ignore visuals -- there needs to be a balance between the two and that is where we come in because we are professionals and we know what we do.
 
Q. What, in your opinion, are the main skills Indian game sound engineers should equip themselves with to gain a sizable share of the global game development work?
 
It would be to understand what is out there. Understanding what you are playing against and understand the competition. Learn from the masters, play a variety of games, watch a lot of movies, watch any form of audio-visual media where sound plays a key role and understand not only the technological process of arriving at sounds and tweaking sounds but also how to put them all together, how to edit dialogues, how to ensure they sound right. Behind all of that you need to understand the creative intent of these sounds. There is a reason why a car sounds the way it does in a particular game because ultimately it affects game play. It is important for game developers and designers to understand that its not only a technological process but a creative process that goes behind the technology.