Sound - Game Design Essentials - page 196

As Beaumont works with the sound, he does so with dual-playback systems.
One is very high end, allowing him to hear all the nuances of the sound. The
other one is a consumer-grade speaker system. As he listens to the sounds, he
searches for the sweet spot in between, where the sound works best. He does
so because, as most game designers are aware, home audio systems can vary
dramatically.

editing software and File Formats

The majority of editors work with the digital audio workstation Pro Tools, which
is a multitrack system. Other favorite systems are Logic from Apple Studios,
Sound Forge, GarageBand, and WaveLab.
File formats can vary, of course, but most audio for games is delivered as
MP3s, which are lossy audio files. A lossy file is compressed, which helps keep
overall file sizes down for the game. One of the things a game maker wants to
avoid is letting the size of the game get too large, and audio files tend to really
add up, size-wise. For example, one second of audio from a compact disc uses
about the same amount of space as 15,000 words of ASCII text (that is, about a
60-page topic).
Many games also use the Waveform Audio File Format (WAV or WAVE), which
is common with more expansive projects. A WAV is native to the PC, and its
unique feature is that this format stores sound in what are known as chunks .
Most WAV files contain only two chunks: the format chunk and the data chunk.
WAV files can support compressed data, like MP3s; however, they can also con-
tain uncompressed audio.
An excellent website to visit is www.designingsound.org , which provides back-
ground information on creating, recording, and manipulating sound. In addition,
there are forums where visitors can ask questions of a special guest each month.
Another good site to visit for learning resources is www.gamessound.com .

Mp3 audio files get
their name from
the company that
created them, the
Moving picture
experts Group. this
file type compresses
well and is standard
for most home play-
back systems.

two organizations
that focus on audio
are the Game Audio
network Guild
(GAnG, www
.audiogang.org )
and the interactive
Audio Special
interest Group
(iASiG,
www.iasig.org ).

sound effects

Building elaborate scores and immersive ambient sounds is indeed a major
component of designing audio for games. When your game is in development
and then production, audio work is going on all the time. Along with music
and ambient sound, special effects need to be created for explosions, weapons,