Filters:

Posted by: Caleb Welty at Jan. 21, 2011 6:58 am

One thing we've learned over the years about video game immersion is that quality sound effects are critical. We're no longer living in the age of midi tracks. Gamers expect 'movie quality' environmental sounds.

The problem with those expectations are that video games and movies are two completely different beasts. Movie directors have complete control over what sounds are played in any particular scene. But in video games (and in particular multiplayer action games) every shot, explosion, ricochet, scream, and recoil must have an accompanying sound...which tends to produce one giant mishmash of loud noise. This was one of Chris Sweetman's, the Audio Director at Splash Damage, primary concerns while he was developing the audio tracks for Brink. As he put it, "Having played many single player and multiplayer shooters, there was one thing that always concerned me - sonic space. In other words, how do you overcome the problem of having too many sounds all playing at the same time?"

Chris has posted a great blog on the Brink website detailing his efforts to solve this problem (and others) while providing top quality and innovative sound effects. It is a fascinating look at the effort that goes into an aspect of video gaming that often gets over looked by gamers. Which is probably a good thing. After all, when we notice a particular sound effect it tends to be for negative reasons.

Click here to read the blog post!

Source: Chris Sweetman's Blog Post

Filters: PC, PS3, X360, 3D

Tags: Brink, Bethesda Softworks