Listening to Fear - Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments - page 206

structure my analysis of horror computer game
sounds around the concept of sound generators and
functions of game sound. Indeed, those notions are
best suited to describing the relationship between
the different instances of sound, in that there is
more in horror computer games than meets the ear.

character. After hearing the monster's footsteps
for the first time, the gamer's perceptual readiness
will augment regarding these sounds. However,
since the sounds emitted by the gamer's player
character are so similar to and blend with those of
the enemies, the movement of the player charac-
ter on the gooey surface might signal a potential
presence in the player character's surrounding
environment. The gamer will then be forced to
adopt a more careful approach and look around
more often than he would have normally done.
The flesh covered sections of the spaceship
also encouraged the designers to establish a similar
relationship, much more common to horror com-
puter games, between the sounds generated by the
enemies and the gameworld. The game environ-
ments are often designed to generate ambiences
that imitate the sounds generated by the threats
of the games. As mentioned by Kromand (2008):
“The [gamer]'s understanding of affordances can
help to perform better [...] as certain sounds pass
information regarding nearby opponents, but at the
same time these exact affordances are mimicked
by the ambiance.” ( Welcome to Rapture section,
para.4). Once again, this way of conceptualizing
sound in the game favours the creation of doubt
in the player regarding the real provenance of the
sounds. To get back to our Dead Space example,
the organic matter is sometimes surmounted by
excrescences which randomly squirt blood when
the player character passes by. The excretion sound
is also reminiscent of the sound made by enemies
and tends to mislead the gamer as to what generated
the sound. Similarly, other ambiance sounds, such
as the creaking of the ship's hull, the rumbling
of the machinery, and other metallic impacts are
used to simulate the prowling of a necromorph
in an air vent or in one of the ship's corridors. Of
course, Dead Space is not the only game that makes
use of such strategies. As Ekman and Lankoski
(2009) noted, in “ Silent Hill 2 and Fatal Frame ,
the whole gameworld breathes with life, suggest-
ing that somehow the environment itself is alive,
sentient, and capable of taking action against the

Ambiguity between
sound Generators

A study of the relations that exist between the
different categories of sound generators allows
me to put forward some of the sonic strategies
of horror computer games. One of the most basic
strategies of those games is to design sound in a
way that creates ambiguity between the different
sound generators of the game. Indeed, if two or
more generators manage to produce sounds of a
similar nature, it will directly affect the cognitive
process of the gamer, making it harder to localize
the sources but also harder to classify the cues as
more or less important regarding the game context.
For the most part, these ambiguities will concern
the spatio-temporal and preparatory functions of
sound and will generate fear through anticipation.
The first technique consists of blurring the
line between the sounds generated by the player
and those generated by enemies. If these two
generators manage to produce similar sound cues
through a common source, it is possible to believe
that, for example, the movements of the gamer's
player character through space might nourish the
suspense. I must admit that this technique is not
widespread in horror computer games but, see-
ing as the game Dead Space manages to create
such a doubt, it is worthy of being mentioned as
similar modus operandi might be exploited in
future horror games. Indeed, in Dead Space , the
sounds emitted by the player character's footsteps
on the viscous organic matter which often covers
the floors of the spaceship are very similar to the
sounds produced through the interaction of the
substance and the deformed limbs of the grotesque
monsters roaming with intent to kill the player