Week Eighteen

Sound is used in games in a number of different ways. Primarily its used to create atmosphere, to induce the player to feel some kind of emotional reaction. It can also be a cue to something happening, a change of area or that something is sneaking up on you or is around the corner in front of you. Its used to make game more immersive, more realistic. They add an extra dimension to characters and landscapes, making the whole experience more interesting and therefore more memorable. It can also create a brand or identity for a game or serious of games, or link a game back to a TV show or movie. Having a unique set of sounds is part of the process of establishing a game's identity, which could then be used for marketing. Popular games often spawn soundtracks, and become instantly recognisable if advertised on the TV, or now at movies (for reals. Saw it myself.)

The old games that a lot of people played as children had very different sound tracks, and many hours of accumulated screen time leaves quite an imprint from such a young age. I myself was more of a Sonic than a Mario fan as a child, and found out recently that I still recognise a lot of the older game soundtracks, despite not playing them for years. (I only had a Sega Megadrive :o). Is the music much different now? For sure. But I still recognise some of it.

http://filmsound.org/game-audio/
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/03/retro-game-samples-a-nostalgic-punch-to-the-face.ars
http://www.soundforgames.com/
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1130.asp
http://www.audiogames.net/pics/upload/gardenfors.pdf