Board 8 > I feel like sound effects in games are underappreciated.

(+) Yeah! (+)

A good sound effect can mean the difference between enjoying using a move 100 times and getting bored of it after 20. In some games the sound effects can be more important then the music, but we never really talk about them.

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You are now imagining the sound of Mario jumping and Sonic spin dashing in your head.

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Said in the RE4 topic

Heads exploding in RE4 is so satisfying

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I was thinking about this the other day

I listened to the mushroom sound effects in Super Mario

someone came up with those with a keyboard or something

somebody created those

sound effects, sure, theres lots of public domain stuff like splatters and explosions, but they all came from somewhere


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XIII_rocks posted...

Said in the RE4 topic

Heads exploding in RE4 is so satisfying

Red9 firing sound effect is great. That's the real reason to use it over the alternatives.

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One of the biggest differences between Halo 1-3 and Reach vs. Halo 4-5 is the sound effects for the weapons.

From what I understand, Halo 4-5 used more "realistic" sounds but a lot of the weight feels gone.

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I totally agree with this and I'm glad to hear someone else notice it and bring it up - I think sound design in a game is an incredibly important factor in game feel. If a sound effect is off, it's noticeable, and you'll notice really quickly how much less satisfying things are if the sounds are turned off. Good sound design is what gives a lot of actions in games the 'oomph' they need to feel fun to do.

I really like the work Powerup Audio did in Crypt of the Necrodancer and Darkest Dungeon, for instance. I watched Kevin Regamey, the lead sound designer, work on some sounds for Necrodancer and it was really apparent how much care he put into all of them; there's a big difference between someone who just uses stock sounds for everything and someone who actually designs these sounds. I like in Necrodancer, for instance, that originally he had doors open up with this slow, creaking sound, but realized that didn't fit well with the game's rhythmic pacing - so he changed it to be this loud, staccato door slam effect to give it a nice thump, and it makes even a boring act like opening a door feel really good

Darkest Dungeon has some of the most impressive sound work I've ever seen - nearly every single attack or action in the entire game has a unique sound effect, and it sounds so good, so crisp, that I almost feel like I'm playing an action game when I play it despite the fact that it's just a turn-based RPG. When you click Crusader's Smite and it crits, it lands with such a resounding THUD that it somehow carries this kinetic energy through it.

Trophy popping in games is the best sound effect.

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Menji posted...

Trophy popping in games is the best sound effect.

I feel like that's more of a Pavlov thing

Although I guess you could say that for a lot of these

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I've watched one video of Darkest Dungeon and the biggest takeaway I had from it was that the sound design, from the effects to the narration, was fantastic.

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XIII_rocks posted...

I feel like that's more of a Pavlov thing

Although I guess you could say that for a lot of these

Some sound effects are pavloved due to association with a victory condition, but the truly good ones make you want to perform the same action simply to hear the sound effect again and not necessarily to achieve the victory condition.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYS0rPYjW28

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Reminds me of a video regarding some of the effort that went into creating fire sound effects for Guild Wars 2. It's pretty neat to see the techniques they used.

https://youtu.be/E5x2kO0Jq6A

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Those videos are fascinating. I kinda want that job now.

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I remember watching a video of Skywalker sounds doing the sound for Star Wars: Republic Commando

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This topic makes me happy! Good sound design is such a huge component in making truly exceptional games stand out but I feel like people barely pay it any mind most of the time.

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One thing I think about a lot is how good the sound effects in Overwatch are. And I don't mean stuff like the noises guns make or ambient sounds, but the how good they were at making sounds help give aural hints to make things smoother and more enjoyable.

Stuff like how when you get a headshot you hear a satisfying "dink" noise. How, when the objective is being captured, you can hear the sound effect building up as the progress fills to let you know how much time you have until it completes. How you can identify what characters are around without looking at them based on the individual sounds of their footsteps. It's obvious a lot of thought was put into sound effects that many games wouldn't think too much about, and how much it pays off by subtly giving you a lot of information in a very natural way.

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I kinda miss when certain companies had signature sound effects they would re-use in multiple games. Sunsoft probably did it more than anyone else but others did it too

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*lightsaber sound effect*

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Overwatch has amazing sound direction

Overwatch's sound design is absolutely top class, for all the reasons stated.

Leonhart4 posted...

*lightsaber sound effect*

This has to be the most famous sound effect in all of fiction, right?

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One of the most important parts of a shooter to me is how nice it sounds when you reload your weapons.

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KamikazePotato posted...

Overwatch's sound design is absolutely top class, for all the reasons stated.

This has to be the most famous sound effect in all of fiction, right?

If you're talking all of fiction, it's probably Mickey Mouse's laugh.

"ho-ho!"

Just because of the older generation. I could see lightsaber taking over in another 20-30 years though.

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I feel like that falls under voice acting

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Small voice clips that are repeated are basically sound effects, honestly.

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Like the Road Runner beep

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Quad Damage

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A personal favorite is the noise for Nero's Exceed mechanic in DMC. It feel so good to land several consecutively and the sound design is a large reason for that.

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Agreed.

Night in the Woods would still hold a special place in my heart even if its execution as a game was pretty generic, but it's the little details Scott and co. took the time to consider that really seal it as my favorite game. Sound effects are perhaps the most important among those, from the *hup* of Mae's triple jump to the whistle of the winds atop high buildings and near the one cliff in Possum Springs, as the music cuts out.

This also goes for the entire Dragon Quest series; in its case, I would argue a big portion of its cohesiveness as a series comes from iconic and satisfying sound effects, even for things like Zoom where there's no Pavlovian association to reinforce it.

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Obligatory video for this kind of discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf-xxGkkWPs

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I like the sound effects in Stardew Valley. Really satisfying sounds, and a lot of attention to detail.

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Pathfinder's signal beacon tone in Apex Legends is the most satisfying sfx in a video game ever

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