Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
cluding sound effects and general soundscapes that sit right on the edge
of conscious perception) along with other VO such as you might hear in
an audio log.
Let's stick with the VO aspect for now and move on to other elements
after.
Ambient VO
is similar to systemic VO and may even work from the same
base of technology within a game, but whereas systemic lines are gener-
ally in reaction to player-initiated game events or resulting conditions, am-
bient lines are the ones that play just as a matter of course, assuming and
requiring no player-related triggering.
Walking down the street in a
Grand Theft Auto
game, you will notice
that if you just stand in place and listen for a while, you will hear a multi-
tude of different virtual people with different things to say. Muttering to
themselves, asking each other what the time is, commenting on the
weather, pushing as they tell each other to get out of the way … this is the
kind of VO that can help give the player the feeling that this world would
continue to do its thing whether or not the player were there (even if that's
not true, apart from persistent worlds such as those seen in MMOs).
Other ambient sounds in addition to VO can do much to fill out an en-
vironmental game space: a rumbling growl from across a dank, swampy
landscape; the sound of birds chirping as you approach an open window;
the groan of giant titanium beams reverberating through the hull of a
long-abandoned space freighter. These
diegetic
(in-world) sounds can im-
ply things that the player will never see—thus saving the time needed to
build them and allowing the player's imagination to fill in the blanks. Ambi-
ent sounds can be used to trick the player into feeling safe when he's
not—or vice versa. They can prepare the player for what he's about to
face—either physically or emotionally.
But ambients only work well when they're fully aligned with the shared
vision for that environment. As has been repeated throughout this topic, a
given team member's ability to enhance storytelling often relies heavily on
how well Narrative has communicated their full intent to related team
members. It's also true here that an audio designer tasked with creating
ambient VO and other sounds for a given game environment needs a lot
of up-front information about that place beforehand. An Environmental
Description Document, coupled with concept art, can go a long way to
creating a unified vision and ultimately a unified presentation of each
game location.
