Foundations of Video Game Sound: Gameplay through the context

of it’s Audio Framework by Marco Frisina

Abstract

This paper will discuss how audio is used in video games as a means of delineating meaningful experiences

for the player and the effects on gameplay mechanics. To understand the gameplay’s form and significance,

the paper will discuss the importance in understanding video game’s contextual pieces through the context

of it’s audio framework.

Keywords: sound, audio, semiotics, awareness, diegetic sounds, visual impairment, spatial reasoning,

kinesthetics

Introduction

Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska suggest that the majority of gameplay is motivated simply by the search

for “the quality of graphical resolution alone.” (King & Krzywinska, 2006 : 130) But I argue that audio is the

most important sensory motivator that folds the video game’s component forms together. Audio is of

tremendous importance, a video game is built upon an entire parliament of disciplines overlapping each other

and their meaningful experiences are delineated through it’s audio framework.

Video Games and their Audio Framework

Audio and games have a complex and diverse relationship; as a first step to investigate this, a framework

was devised in an attempt to see how video games relate to their audio. The IEZA framework is a 2

dimensional framework defining “four conceptual domains of communication of game audio” (Huiberts & van

Tol, 2008), dividing the game audio domains into “diegetic” and “non­diegetic” audio parts (Huiberts & van

Tol, 2008). Diegetic sounds are sounds with on­screen visuals, where non­diegetic sounds are neither visible

or present on­screen. The terminology emanates from Stockburger’s (2003) unifier of sound types,

supporting a study that “the majority of games are audio­visual artifacts.” (Stockburger, 2003) It is relevant to

this enquiry since it is an attempt to define the structure of game audio, not only to understand and

conceptualise game audio, but also into how audio manifests itself as the primary component of digital

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games. It is crucial in understanding audio’s role in game mechanics; in an attempt to understand how all

four major domains of the framework are appropriate to video games, I have summarised their features with

relevant examples of how video games have incorporated each framework feature to their game design.

Figure 1. The IEZA framework (Huiberts & van Tol, 2008)

Diegetic - Zone

Zone domain sound objects are connected to locations in the game environment, diegetic zonal sound

emphasises the video game’s aesthetics and its “visual form” (Heskett, 1980 : 7). In the opening sequence

of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (KCEJ, 2001) for example, the opening level is characterised with

sounds of rain and thunder. This strongly separates that particular level environment from other parts of the

game by implementing energetic diegetic sounds with it’s visuals. “Good sound design can ground you in an

environment and, even more importantly, let you know what’s going on around you.” (Hoggins, 2013) Zonal

diegetics endorses good sound design by distinctly separating different game environments.

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Figure 2. Illustrating diegetic zonal sounds through the first level environment in Metal Gear Solid 2

(Videogamer.com, 2012)

In the underwater levels of Donkey Kong Country (Rare, 1994) the game plays a calming musical score

which immerses the player into their underwater surrounding, as a consequence, the level also distinguishes

itself from all other traditional levels of the game by adding authentication to the underwater experience.

Figure 3. Donkey Kong Country underwater level (The Gameological Society, 2013)

Diegetic - Effect

Diegetic effect sounds are connected to visual physical objects in the game environment; this part of the

framework is closely associated with all visual objects that are part of the game environment. This symbolic

audio with visual communication can express the video game’s activity. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA

Digital Illusions CE, 2010) incorporated a sophisticated design feature which gave the player the ability to

destruct almost anything on screen. Game audio director Stefan Strandberg built a sophisticated setup of

diegetic “tormented building” (Designingsound.org, 2010) sounds when a house was about to fall down and

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collapse. This is an example in how effect­sounds intertwine with “symbolic and visual communication”

design (Buchanan, 1990 : 9) and audibly communicates to the player anticipable game events which are

about to unfold.

Non-Diegetic - Interface

Interface sounds express what is happening in the game. Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (Nintendo EAD, 1998)

gives a clear example of how the game incorporates interface sounds to navigate the player. The game

plays a “secret chime” clip when the player uncovers a secret and in game character Navi also exclaims

“Hey, Listen!” or “Watch out!” whenever Navi targets something to prompt the player that there is additional

information / assistance in to a certain part of the game.

Figure 4. Navi providing Link combat assistance in The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Videogam.in, 2011)

In the arcade game Breakout (Atari, 1976), to maintain “rhythmic alignment” (Salem & Zimmerman, 2006 :

564) with what appeared on screen and the interface, the game played recurrent bleeps to bridge this

technical limitation. These interface beeps audibly increased and decreased in pace according to the tempo

of the game.

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Non-Diegetic - Affect

Affect sounds expresses the setting of the game by (i) reflecting the emotional status of the game and (ii)

anticipating upcoming in­game events. Affect sounds “enlarge social, cultural and emotional references to a

game.” (Huiberts & van Tol, 2008)

In survival horror game Outlast (Red Barrels, 2013) for example, each sound has been designed to instill

anxiety into the player. The lead character’s every breath is intensified and his exhalations reacts according

to the on­screen setting. Throughout Mirror’s Edge (EA Digital Illusions CE, 2008), the player is guided via

an off­screen male voice who directs the lead character (Faith) to navigate to specific in­game locations.

This use of emotional and event audio are key in assigning the player specific roles in the game without the

ordinary use of visual representations.

Balancing Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Sounds

The IEZA framework provides a strong context to suggest that video games are under the control of their

audio design. However, non­diegetic audio composition must be executed in harmony and one of the earliest

examples of sound being employed for psychological effect has been through the use of harmonic

configurations. Digital games have achieved this by playing steady rhythms over traditional harmonies.

Super Mario Bros (Nintendo R&D4, 1985) is a great example of this. Two­chord progressive cadences are

prevalent throughout it’s gameplay and the game’s audio substitutes chords for more traditional dominant

chords. Figure 5. is a C major cadence found throughout the majority of Super Mario Bros. games. The

motion of bVI leading to bVII is in cadential motion since bVII is heard as a dominant chord retaining “the

motion from scale degree four to scale degree three in a bVII­I progression.” (Brame, 2009).

Figure 5. A musical C Major cadence found throughout Super Mario Bros (8 Bit Analysis, 2011)

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The famous Super Mario Bros. “Ground Theme” (Losdoggies.com, 2010) also begins with the cadence

outlined in Figure 2. The case in point is that Super Mario Bros. is made entirely in C major and all other

sound effects, including “Jump”, “1­up Melody” and “Coin” (Losdoggies.com, 2010), are game state changes

which initiate musical changes in the game, all are in key and ascertain concomitantly in harmony.

Figure 6. Super Mario Bros. “Ground Theme” (Losdoggies.com, 2010)

Execution of non-diegetic Sounds

Pentatonics

Major pentatonic scales are also prevalent in video games and can affect gameplay sentiment. Pentatonic

scales have been used as audible reward / penalty cues helping to determine the positive / negative

perspective to certain items in the game world.

In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo EAD, 1998), Link has the option to play a “Sun Song”

(Elroy, 2008) with his harmonica. This melody finishes on an upward pentatonic scale, however when Link

plays the “Song of Storm” (Elroy, 2008) the musical piece finishes in a downward scale.

Figure 7. Transcription of the piece “Sun Song” In Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Cruise Elroy, 2008)

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Figure 8. Transcription of the piece “Song of Storm” In Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Cruise Elroy, 2008)

Adaptive Music

Non­diegetic effects that changes dynamically in response to different game states can be built through

adaptive music, this is where the audio follows and “anticipates unpredictable situations.” (Adams, 2010 :

232) Through audio layering, games can incorporate seamless shifts to their audio soundtrack by

simultaneously “mixing them together at different levels of volume.” (Adams, 2010 : 232) The feature is

commonplace in stealth games like Metal Gear Solid (KCEJ, 1998), where shifts in audio tempo determine

the pace of the game. One of the core features in a game such as Proteus (Key, E. & Kanaga, D, 2013) is

the game’s shift in soundtrack relative to it’s gameplay. The Stanley Parable (Wreden, W, 2013) also

heavily employs this non­diegetic feature by building a strong and dynamic player narrative specifically

according to the player’s in game actions.

Figure 9. presents a game score graph for Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo EAD, 1998), outlining all the

areas of the game where the majority of gameplay exploration takes place. Research conducted by Jason

Brame (Brame, 2011) identified that harmonious musical layers tie all the location objects by audibly

interchanging to one or more modes of the game. The musical components are in solidarity and help to form

the interactive exchange by keeping the aesthetic symbolism in tune throughout its musical discourse.

There is a commonality with all musical objects to all parts of the game, which harnesses the game

environment and this fundamentally builds the game’s meaning for the player.

Figure 9. Simplified game score graph of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Brame, 2011)

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Semiotics Video game fundamentally immerses players in an environment that is spatial and acoustic. Through this

immersion, players are encouraged to interact, but to comprehend it’s narrative, digital games implement a

number of audio styles to give it’s narrative meaning. This juxtapositions audio with semiotics. Semiotician

Charles Sanders formulated the “Triadic Model” (Dahistron & Somavayaji, 2003) and argued that meaning is

mediated through the interaction between the “representamen, interpretant, and object.” (Dahistron &

Somavayaji, 2003)

Figure 10. Charles Sanders Triadic Model (Dahistron & Somavayaji, 2003)

Pierce defined a sign as “something that stands for something to somebody, in some respect or capacity”

(Wiener, 1958 : 37) and video games use signs to “denote action and outcome, two components of

meaningful play” (Salem & Zimmerman, 2004 : 43). Signs take the form of sounds, objects, text and

interactions, but in order to have intrinsic meaning, it must be invested with meaning.

Within Peirce’s triadic model of the sign, non­diegetic affect (representamen), diegetic zone (the

interpretant) and diegetic effect (the object), sophisticated audio design through these core disciplines

outlined in the audio framework can give video games their symbolic value and meaning to comprehend it’s

full narrative.

The Tetris Defense

Since audio delineates meaningful experiences for the player semiotically, by harnessing the video game

narrative through diegetic and non­diegetic audio forms, to fully satisfy both series of notions that video

game experiences are delineated audibly, can audio delineate meaningful experiences in a game like Tetris

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(Pajitnov, 1989) which possesses very limited representational qualities? Murray argues that “every game,

electronic, or otherwise, can be experienced as a symbolic drama.” (Murray, 1997 : 142), however this

notion is strongly challenged by Eskelinen who believes the game does “not convey or carry or

communicate stories.” (Eskelinen, 2001) The core structural features of gameplay however, such as “goals,

rules and manipulable elements” (Dovey & Kennedy, 2006 : 88), are omnipresent in Tetris (Pajitnov, 1989)

and all three facets of gameplay have been built with sound. If we were to stand by Murray’s definition of

games as “symbolic dramas” (Murray, 1997 : 142) this would also apply to traditional board games such as

chess, backgammon. However, in the context of digital video games, when these types of games are

emulated “to equal or excel” (King & Krywinska, 2002 : 130) into a digital interactive media form, every

action must make a recognisable emulated sound. Visuals can only be emulated once their recognisable

sounds have also been emulated, Time journalist Evan Narcisse reported how a blind video game player was

still more than capable of playing video games by mapping out every sound to navigate through the game’s

environment (Narcisse, 2011), supporting the notion that a video game’s audio framework is the primary

requirement to excel in video game emulation.

However, abstract games when played with sound still have physiological consequences for players ­

regardless of their limited representational qualities. Players who played abstract game Osmos with sound

had “significantly higher heart rate and a slightly higher respiration rate” (Usher, 2012) compared to playing

the game with no sound.

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Figure 11. Heart rate comparison of groups playing Osmos with and without audio (Usher, 2012)

Further Empirical Research

There is considerable evidence to support that people cognitively process audio at a much faster pace than

visuals. Scientific research indicates that males and females possess faster reaction times for auditory

stimuli compared to visual stimuli (Shelton and Kumar, 2010 : 30­32). Tests results visualised in Figure 12.

show the mean visual reaction time of 331 milliseconds as opposed to auditory reaction time of 284

milliseconds.

Figure 12 ­ Graph showing faster simple reaction time for auditory stimulus compared to visual stimulus (Kumar &

Shelton, 2010)

Further investigations have been carried out with finger response time to visual, auditory and tactile modality

stimuli in the context of “man­machine­interface” (Ng & Chan, 2012), tests concluded that the response time

for visual stimuli was “5% and 34% longer than that for auditory and tactile stimuli respectively.

Conway et al. (Conway Kronenberger & Pisoni, 2010) have proposed that auditory deprivation can result in a

“disturbance to cognitive sequencing abilities.” Tactile, visual and auditory sequences used in Conway &

Christiansen (2005) investigated differences in sequential learning. The investigation revealed that auditory

learning was much greater than either tactile or visual learning, and that auditory by far excels in “encoding

and processing temporal and sequential relations in the environment” (Conway Kronenberger & Pisoni,

2010). As noted by Wolf & Perron, games are commonly built as learning instruments for “solving puzzles or

overcoming obstacles” (Wolf & Perron, 2003 : 28). By design, one can draw the analogy that the video

game’s conceptual framework is built to teach, and therefore, if games can be used to communicate more

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complex and imaginary experiences, the findings support the notion that players will better grasp the

game’s interactivity with items in the game world through it’s audible context.

Spatial Awareness

It has been proposed that the structure of conceptual thought is bounded by “conceptual metaphors”

(Gackenbach, 2012 : 148) and it’s structure “becomes meaningful because abstract spatial metaphor are

embodied kinesthetically.” (Gackenbach, 2012 : 148). However, from a physical perspective there are some

considerations which limit a player’s embodiment of kinesthetics. Kinaesthetically, players are “immobile in

terms of physical location” (King & Krywinska, 2002 : 86) and are limited to how they may authentically act

in the moment without “adversely affecting player performance.” (King & Krywinska, 2002 : 86) The structure

of conceptual thought, while a player is playing a video game, is bounded by spacial awareness. Game

designer Chris Cawford has argued that video games have been fundamentally about “spatial reasoning”

(Parkin, 2013) Jesper Juuls also backs this sentiment that computer games are “almost exclusively set in a

space.” (Juuls, 1999 : 46) confirming game worlds are made up of fabricated spaces.

Spatial reasoning is a function processed in the right hemisphere of the brain where sounds are also

processed. Sounds significantly affect spatial reasoning since the brain mimics “the same pathways

neurons undergo when we attempt to concentrate and focus.” (Heath, 2009) Sounds therefore have both a

psychological and physiological effect on the player. Crawford argues that in order for the video game

medium to move forward, video games must integrate “social reasoning” (Parkin, 2013) to tell a better story.

Henri Lefebvre noted that rhythmic play gives “spatial simultaneity” (Lefebvre, 2004 : 31) and is the

fundamental representation in determining social aesthetics. Through social reasoning, the player’s time is

structured “in accordance with form or the rhythmic play.” (Kirkpatrick, 2011 : 138) It can be argued that

incorporating dynamic non­diegetic sounds to the game’s design will organically build­in rhythmic play to the

game and in effect, broaden conceptual thought and delimit the players kinesthetics. Games such as The

Stanley Parable (Wreden, W, 2013) and Proteus (Key, E. & Kanaga, D, 2013) are great examples of games

where the game is delineated through diegetic and non­diegetic sound and rhythmic play is prevalent

throughout its gameplay. The Stanley Parable game coerces the player to move through audible

commentary, comparable to the intrixible tie between music and dance.

Audio and Game Design Mechanics The technical implementation of audio is paramount to good game design since audio has a significant

effect on what players do in reaction to in­game events. This paper has argued that game audio has a

profound psychological, semantical and physiological effect on players. Diegetic and non­diegetic sounds in

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games can “coerce players towards ideal behaviour without impinging on their feeling of freedom.” (Schell,

2008 : 293) Games achieve this coercion once the game is completely balanced through interactivity,

immersion and engagement. Blindside (Rasmussen, A. & Astolfi, M, 2012) is a survival horror video game

with an entirely audio environment composed of “over 1000 sounds.” (Henderen, 2013) The objective of the

game is to navigate the environment using diegetic and non­diegetic audio cues. The game and play are

subsets to it’s audio and is testament to the fact that it’s gameplay coercion “with no visual stimulus can be

just as engrossing for players who can see as for those who cannot.” (Parker, 2013) It is prime example

where a video game can be a subset of it’s audio and all gameplay mechanics have been built audibly.

Figure 13. Blindside’s relationship between game and audio

Conclusion

In conclusion, I have argued that game mechanics resonate through their sounds and that sound is

paramount in delineating and harnessing contextual components of video games. It is widely assumed that

players are motivated by visual pleasures; but distinct objects, spacial awareness and environment are fully

defined by sound and sound gives these contextual pieces the ability to communicate their meaning in full.

However, games can be played with no sound and it cannot be argued that games cannot delineate

meaningful experiences without sound. However, given the empirical research which supports audio invoking

physiological effects to players and, given these invocations are prevalent with limited representational

qualities such as Tetris and Osmos, games without sound are semiotically limited.

2013 marked an exceptional year in gaming with a compendium of independent releases, titles such as The

Stanley Parable are emphasised through traditional values of story and theme as opposed to visual special

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effects. Video game designer Tadhg Kelly labeled 2013 as the “year of not doing” (Kelly, 2013) with a

number of titles focusing on the player receiving output as opposed to player input. It is a sign that games

are continuing to focus and innovate on the interactive. However, exceptional execution is achieved through

subtle spontaneity and sophistication, and this can only be achieved by designing the game’s contextual

pieces through it’s audio framework. This focus is also slowly shifting to the mainstream industry, with

upcoming games like Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly, 2014). “To design is to create meaning” (Salem &

Zimmerman, 2006 : 46) and sound is paramount in building the parameters to communicate affective

meaning in video games.

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