Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Example of an Audio Assets List from the
Game
Kinderbach
, produced by Zephyr
Games
Pro Tip
We can't stress enough the
importance of a well-thought-
out asset list and i le naming
convention in game audio design.
Without it, hundreds or thousands
of assets (or more) will have no
version control or description
as to their function within the
game. Imagine editing hundreds
of nifty sound ef ects and calling
them all SFX_01, SFX_02 and
on and on. This is easy and quick
to do, but when this gets over
to the programmer or integrator
who's tasked with putting these
sounds into the game, without
an asset list, they will have no
idea how these sounds function
or when they are to be called. In
some cases, they'll have no way
to move forward, and in others,
they will have to listen to every
one of them and try and i gure
out their function and rename
them, and they will
not
be happy.
So, getting together with the
producer and programmer ahead
of time, and settling on a coherent
i le naming convention and asset
tracking system in advance is a
very smart thing to do!
An example of a basic Sound Asset document, usually found in spreadsheet form. Get used to
seeing a lot of these! For really large game they may even use a database to organize sounds.
Credit:
Zephyr Games.
In this example, the i lename of the asset is listed in the fourth column.
You can organize your list by whatever criteria you want. In this case, the
creators of this game thought game location was the most important
category, followed by the trigger of the sound (a button, an object in
game, and so forth), the description (or category) of the sound, the i le
name, and, i nally, a comment, which acts more like a description here.
Where do Sounds Come From?
Sounds come from many sources, some natural and some not so natural.
The sources of sounds depend on the needs and requirements of the
game.
Once upon a time, the only way to get sound for production was to
create it yourself. If you needed the sound of a gentle stream l owing
through a meadow, you went out to i nd a stream and record it. If
you needed footsteps for a video, you created them yourself. For a
science i ction feature, you might create the sound from scratch with
a synthesizer. Shortly after the CD attained signii cant popularity, i lm
companies and engineers began creating vast libraries of sound ef ects
and making these libraries available to other designers for purchase. The
practice continues today, but the Internet has changed the dynamics.
