sound/music in all games?

[gypsysnail]

Hey guys,
I'm wondering if all games are or need to have sound effects/music/dialogue voice/sound? As most of you will know, me being deaf means that I don't know exactly if all games need to have audio or if its an option? I'm preparing for the future of my games - both freeware to begin with then commercial games. What are your opinions? I feel most of you will say many will prefer sound lol and if thats the case thats good, if anyone is willing to in the future to help me with sound that would be marvellous!!! You will be credited at the top of the rolling credits for the freeware games, AND paid for the commercial ones.

[Spike4072]

Voice seems to be a bonus feature not not really needed for these types of games but getting into the commercial side it does make them more professional.

Pretty much every game I have played here has had some kind of background music. Not all of them have sound effects but again sound and music adds to the professionalism.

So I would say for freeware type stuff it isn't that important but it will really help if you want to do commercial stuff.

[TerranRich]

If a game has a speech add-on, I always spend the extra time downloading it. I love voice-overs... they're not necessary, but in games like Quest for Glory IV, it's a definite bonus. I couldn't imagine playing it without voices. But games that don't have voices, like the QFG2 VGA remake, it doesn't bother me one bit.

As for sound and music, they are definitely pluses in a game, and pretty much the standard in commercial games.

[gypsysnail]

Thanks for the positive feedback!! I will be asking some to help me choose background music that best suits the themes of the games as I am completely clueless to music at this stage lol. And I will probably ask people to do voice overs for the dialogue speechs in commercial games (and they will be paid for their voices and hard work when the games make the sales)

[Nikolas]

Hi!

Here's a few thoughts, some positive and some not, I'm afraid.

First of all.

I do think that games need music and sound effects. I personally don't mind voice acting but it does add. Problem to all of these is that you need good quality of those, otherwise it shows extremely bad (especially in commercial games). Making sfx AND voice acting is not as easy as it seems to most people and you do need someone with experience.

That said, voice acting (especially in low budget games) is not immesnly useful really!

Now, you being deaf will give you a bit of a hard time, since you won't be able to check yourself what's going on with hte quality and with your games! If you are the coder you will have a hard time, I think, putting the music in the game and the sfx as well! If not, then things might be easier. Still you will need someone you can trust and rely on completely in order to do those things. Someone who you will trust with your money (in the commercial games) and let him be the judge of the quality of what comes to you and will be used in your games.

Now, your thread is somewhat unclear. I'm not sure but I get the impression that you are asking for help! Especially since you are mentioning credits and fees, etc. If this is the case, it might be useful to make a more 'proper' way of putting the 'ad' out here:

Put some screens from your games, advertise to the people who will work with you. They will want to know how good you are (and although I do know you, you can never be sure who do know you). Then mention the kind of fee you have in mind. I get the feeling you're talking about %, right? If so, maybe a tiny bit of discussion about this should also take place. And don't forget to look for composers/musicians/people to help out in other places as well. There are many music related forums, that I could mention and in there there are a lot of people who would be glad to help paid or not paid (although paid is always a big plus actually).

That's all from me. I hope you know that I do music, but I'm unable to help anyone (and this is part of the reason I dissappeared) until my studies are done.

Good luck.

[gypsysnail]

Hey Nik,
Thanks for your advice. Yes this deafness is a royal pain and in the way I agree, I also believe that I can overcome these obstacles. I mean most of you guys are pretty trustworthy, arent you? lol . Yes I would get you to do it Nik when you are ready. Studies come first! I know what thats like studying myself. I cant post screenshots and I have not started one of my freeware games yet, just the story side and rough sketchs.

When I asked the music question, I really was thinking ahead, preparing myself as you know, being a deaf person I worry a lot about the sound side, and I'm trying to get an idea of what I should expect in sound and if anyone here would be happy in the future to do it. If you do know anyone who would do it professionally, let me know as I don't quite have a contacts list yet or know where to look. I'm a bit relieved that you say "That said, voice acting (especially in low budget games) is not immesnly useful really!" which does kind of take the pressure off this side of making games, but I also feel when my games become more commerical I think I will get voice acting done by a few people. I do have a hearing friend who will be doing the scripting while I do the graphics, I think she will do really well in the sound side too so I will ask her to be involved with the sound/music as well. A group of different people for different voices would be a good quality to add I reckon.

When we start the first proper freeware game, I will be placing in the games in progress thread, the screenshots and % of each section done dont worry . Thanks again for the great advice.

[Nikolas]

Glad I could help!

About voice acting, think about it or a second:

If you want to make some kind of 'proper' team you need:

1 person for coding
1 person for graphics (BGs and characters? only BGs?)
2nd person for graphics (characters and animation, animation?)
1 person for the general audio (music AND sfx. Usually they go together, especially in small-ish teams)

So you have a team of 4 people, yourself included, who could, potentially be doing the job of the graphics people, leaving a team of 3 in total, yourself included.

If you think about adding voice acting, depending on the script of course, you might need an extra 3-4 people minimum!

Which means that;
no voice acting: 3 people team
voice acting: 7 people or more

Budget wise it doesn't make any huge difference, because most roles will be tiny. You could offer a tiny ammount and deal with them. And you could have someone making 2-3 non main characters.

But time wise and organising wise, which is a nightmare in freeware games, it will be an overkill! not 100%, but really it could end up poblematic really.

As for searching, I do have many contacts. PM me when yóu're ready and I'll send you links to... everywhere, plus information about members potentially...

[gypsysnail]

Thanks a million Nik!! and also for the list of team members I may need for the future. Yes you are right it will be nightmarish organising team members to do the audio but I think that can organised without too much stress I hope. I will definitely PM you when the time comes for contacts, that will be a great help and no doubt you will be placed in the credits for your help and input. I also had an idea of getting students from an animation course that I am part of at the moment, to do voice acting as I reckon it will benefit them in the future for their portfolios and credibilities, and perhaps help them in getting known out there. The thought came to me today when I got a student to do some voice acting for one of my short films I managed to finish almost today!!

[mkennedy]

Sounds are nice, but they shouldn't be necessary to play the game. This was a real problem for me in return to zork as I did not have a sound card when I rented the game. Personally I prefer games WITHOUT speech as they tend to vastly increase file size, as for other sound effects I would suggest putting the them in an optional file that can be downloaded separately. Another idea would be to have sound effects represented on the screen with words like Clank, Bang, Bonk, Snap, and other words, (can't remember the name for those words that are named for what they sound like).

[paolo]

Sounds are nice, but they shouldn't be necessary to play the game. This was a real problem for me in return to zork as I did not have a sound card when I rented the game. Personally I prefer games WITHOUT speech as they tend to vastly increase file size, as for other sound effects I would suggest putting the them in an optional file that can be downloaded separately. Another idea would be to have sound effects represented on the screen with words like Clank, Bang, Bonk, Snap, and other words, (can't remember the name for those words that are named for what they sound like).

I quite agree with all of these points. When I play these games at work (in my lunch hour or after hours), I generally have the sound off. Our machines don't have speakers, and those of us who need audio use headphones. So when I was playing Ben Jordan 7, it was only by chance that

Spoiler

I picked up the phone in Ben's bedroom as there was no indication that it was ringing other than the sound.

[close]

That game had great voice acting in it but it made the download huge - to his credit, though, Grundislav did provide a link to a download without the voices when people asked for it.

If you've played Trance-Pacific, you'll know that it is completely silent (I had trouble getting sound effects to work at the time) but includes a couple of places where sound plays an essential role,

Spoiler

in particular, the pipe in the corridor.

[close]

The sounds are represented by onomatopoeias (I think that's the word you were looking for, mkennedy) or by a character drawing attention to them. That said, it would have been nice to put sound in, but there was not time.

So sound in a game definitely adds to the playing experience but, in my opinion, game-makers need to remember that not everyone will be able to hear sound in the game. A puzzle that relies on sound alone can be an unfair one to some players.

[SSH]

I often play games with the sound off and only later realise that it would have been handy to have the sound on...

Each one of us is only a matter of an accident, illness or, say, 50 years of aging away from having deafness ourselves. Or any other disability, for that matter. Therefore I think it is vital to bear disabilities in mind when creating games. It would be very hard to cater for all disabilities, but similarly its very easy to cater for some... take the colour-blind version of Colourwise or the batman-style sound effects described in this thread as an example...

[LeChuck]

For me, music is a must. It has the power to take a boring game and making it into an extraordinary game. If a game doesn't have music it's not worth playing IMO. I bet part of the reason people thought Doom 3 was so lousy compared to the two previous games is because it only had a boring ambient sound instead of real music. Shadow of the Colossus was also a game that benefitted tremendously from having really, really good combat music. There wasn't much music when riding around on the plains on the hunt for colossi, but when you finally found one and started climbing it, damn you felt badass.

I'm starting to ramble here, so I'll make it short: music is a must while sound effects are a huge plus. Even for adventure games.

[mkennedy]

The sounds are represented by onomatopoeias (I think that's the word you were looking for, mkennedy) or by a character drawing attention to them. That said, it would have been nice to put sound in, but there was not time.

Yeah, thats the word. I had a vague idea of what it was, but no idea as to how to spell it. Thanks for the help.