Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 4.23
A rising point scale for collecting fruit in
Horse vs Planes
.
Sound as Texture
Sound can also be used as texture. In
Dig-Dug
(1982), a little tune plays whenever the player is
moving, digging through the dirt. The tune stops as soon as the player stops moving, giving
way to silence and the sound of prowling monsters. In
Dig-Dug
, the player is hunting monsters,
building passageways to try to goad them into the range of her weapon. If the player isn't mov-
ing, it's because she's waiting for a monster to come into range so that she can attack it. But the
proximity of a monster is also a dangerous opportunity for that monster to catch
the player. The
sudden silence, the interruption of the little digging tune, builds the tension. Something similar
is done in
Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars
, also a game where the player alternates between
chasing antagonists and lying in wait for them. A little melody plays when the Spider-Queen is
moving and goes silent when she's not.
In
Knytt
(discussed in the next section), a soft scamper-
ing sound accompanies any of the protagonist's motions—her running, jumping, and climbing
across the strange caverns and crevices of an alien world. This little sound—a gentle rustle in
scenes that are otherwise silent save for the sound of wind—does a lot to emphasize the huge-
ness of the world, the smallness of the protagonist's intrusion upon it. When the player is still,
the sound goes away, and the austerity of the planet's near-silence is restored. This sound helps
to characterize the relationship between the player and the world.
(2006), the predecessor to
Knytt Stories
