作者：Edge Staff

听过的东西很难被遗忘。因夜间车祸而惊醒并迷失方向，在陌生且浓雾重重的小镇中遇见手持刀具的小孩，周围有收音机沙沙作响的声音。随后你意识到，这种寂静意味着《寂静岭》中噩梦般的敌人正在步步逼近。尽管这只是游戏丰富的音频内容的一部分，但是其产生的效果不亚于《Pyramid Head》。不仅如此，它是Konami系列作品中必不可少的工具，使该公司成为行业中的佼佼者。那种透露着不祥之感的沙沙声是游戏体验的关键成分。

自PlayStation时代开始起，音效设计已经有了极大的发展。数字环绕音效的出现增加了内存和预算损耗，开发者制作出的游戏中有着饱满和充满活力的高保真音景。尽管有些音频技术师只是单纯地给其他人的对象添加音效，但是音效设计师可用的技术的进步使得专注这个领域的先驱者获得了探索音频同游戏可玩性之间关系的新机会。正如视觉效果艺术师已经找到新方法来在屏幕上呈现信息那样（游戏邦注：比如《死亡空间》无缝整合HUD或将以往的生命条替换为受伤或残疾角色模型），音效设计师也在同玩家交流有效信息的过程中扮演着日益重要的角色。

Stefan_Strandberg(左)Chris_Sweetman(右)

Splash Damage音效总监Chris Sweetman正在制作即将面世的团队射击游戏《Brink》，他很相信音效能够提升游戏的可玩性。他解释道：“有些游戏为不同类型的角色配上不同的子弹音效。比如。如果你在玩的是款多人游戏，其中有个狙击手，那么狙击手子弹在你身边飞过的音效就不同于其他向你开火的人。这便是音效能够有效驱动可玩性的方面，因为许多情况下，视觉效果不一定能够显示出差异，但是听到特殊的声响你就知道附近有狙击手。”

Sweetman还指出战地上非明显音效信号的重要性，比如通过倾听脚步声、武器声甚至衣服摩擦声来辨别正在靠近你的是何种敌人的能力。在狂乱的生死竞赛中，必须在几毫秒的时间内做出决定，因而这种分辨的能力变得很关键。当然，音效设计师在游戏中还需要频繁引发不同的反应。有时他们并非想用音效来促使你逃离危险境地，开发者有时希望你能够欣赏环境细节。在《死亡空间》和《死亡空间2》中，Visceral Games的音效总监Andrew Boyd实现了这个目标，使游戏氛围得以提升。

死亡空间(from next-gen)

Boyd解释道：“在《死亡空间2》的某个场景中，你进入了一栋刚刚被necromorph洗劫过的公寓大楼。当你在过道中行走时，你听到某间公寓中发出声响。有些门是锁着的，有些并没有，但是当你走在过道中时，这种幽灵般的声响总是萦绕在你的耳边。如果你循声穿过一扇门，你会在拐角处发现这具烧焦的尸体瘫坐在沙发上看自己的婚礼视频，其中有个牧师正吟诵这典礼的祈祷文。这种情景令你感到毛骨悚然，这便是《死亡空间》传达信息的方式。”

虽然此类偶遇创造出的紧张感能够提升玩家的情感体验，但是这些事件不只是为了炫耀而已。玩家每必要非去探索这种场景，但是追踪这种恐怖的声响可能会获得奖励，或许是个能够提升力量的东西。但是，Boyd所采用的不可见追踪并非只存在于恐怖游戏中。

Jason_Graves(左)Jerry_Ibottson(右）

《死亡空间》系列作曲者Jason Graves说道：“我确实很喜欢《神秘海域2》中能够帮助并指引你的音频。当如进入房间或洞穴时，我可以很清楚地意识到，而且当我到达新地点时新音效的介入或者音乐的淡入确实是个很棒的设计，这让我知道自己正朝着正确的方向行进！我确信他们如此设计的目标并非针对像我这样在游戏中笨手笨脚的人，但是在许多关卡中确实产生了作用，这便是为何我觉得该设计如此有效的原因。”如果玩家将音效同某种特别的含义联系起来，那么识别就变得很容易，但是其中有种微妙的平衡。Platinum Games在《Bayonetta》中让这种通过音效识别显得简单，游戏设计精巧，敌人攻击之前的音频信号是一致的，因而在混乱的画面中可以很清晰地识别出需要躲避攻击的时刻。这种一致性确保无论游戏画面多么繁忙，你总是会觉得自己可以控制整个节奏，它有效地鼓励你继续前行。尽管在最后时刻躲开敌人攻击或通过武器音效来分辨敌人都显得非常棒，但是如果处理不当的话，那么音效变化的缺乏便会很快显现出来，游戏就像是在不断播放摇滚质感的音频。DICE音效总监Stefan Strandberg对这个问题很重视。

战地：叛逆连队(from next-gen)

他解释道：“我们一边要顾及音效重复的问题，一边又要创造带有标示性的音效统一，这让我们左右为难。比如在《叛逆连队》中，你可以意识到有个狙击手正瞄准你，因为我们在此处添加了标示性音效作为暗示。尽管只是很细微的做法，但是仍然是音景中非常重要的部分，它必须融入整个游戏世界。我们一直在提的问题是，音效是否融入到游戏世界中。重点在于，你要保持某些部分具有标示性，同时将特别的东西融入整个画面中，然后尝试引导玩家进入音景。创造性对音效设计师而言是很有价值的东西，因为我们能够尽情发挥我们的才能。”

Jerry Ibbotson是专注于为视频游戏和动画创作音效的音频制作公司Media Mill的创始人，他详述道：“在《机车风暴：极地先锋》中，你驾驶着各种交通工具驰骋在北极的荒原上，经常会感到疲惫。正因为此，一旦你调到第5档，数秒之后引擎的音效便会上升到第6档，随后是第7档，从理论上来说会不断地随机往上调档。玩家不用坐在那边数着目前的档数。屏幕上甚至没有档位指示器，只有音效能够给你带来车辆正在不断加速的感觉。有些或许会告诉你正在发生的事情的东西并不一定能够产生作用，而音效设计师和游戏设计师想让你做的是自己意识到正在发生的事情，最终使得游戏更具趣味性。”

当然，也可以通过对比吵杂和安静的时刻来避免重复性。游戏《死亡空间》在动作于真空状态中发生时便采用这种技术来塑造异乎寻常和令人震惊的效果。在玩家已经构建起necromorph的音效意识之后，移动到某个敌人可以悄然接近你的区域会发现音效的节奏有很大的改变，强迫玩家在游戏中要更加小心。

但是，能够影响玩家行为的不只是音效。Sweetman回想起在《荒野大镖客》中首次跨越墨西哥边境时的感受，说道：“Rockstar对音乐的运用的确出神入化。当José González的乐曲播放时，令玩家产生惊奇的感觉。或许全世界只有一两个开发者有足够的胆量采用这种做法。在《荒野大镖客》中，他们在将游戏暂停了5到10分钟。你没有同任何对立方进行互动，游戏就像是在说‘那便是你应该去的地方，赶快行动吧。’”

荒野大镖客(from next-gen)

Graves补充道：“我认为，音乐对玩家影响最大的层面在于互动元素。在《死亡空间》中，我们有所谓的‘恐惧标志’，就像我们在谷歌地图上放置的标签那样，我们可以将恐惧标志放在游戏中的任何东西上，包括移动的生物、静止的门或者正在逐渐靠近你的宇宙飞船。你与这些恐惧标志的接近程度便是音乐如何播放的决定条件。举个典型的例子，比如玩家走向一道门，打开门之后有一半的可能性会出现某些攻击你的东西，而一半的可能性什么都没有。但是许多玩家在走向门时听到音乐响起时，他们会就会选择其他的路，因为他们不想遇到音乐所告诉他们的门后面的东西，那种东西必然很可怕！这是我们用来戏弄玩家的另一个小型互动心理设计。”

Visceral的恐惧标志系统展示了音频部分与游戏其他部分的交融，因而它的使用需要不断与其他团队进行交流。这也指明了某个更大的趋势，那就是明智的工作室将会赋予作曲师和音效设计师更大的发挥空间。DICE便属于此类开发商，委托Strandberg及其团队来控制镜头震动和移动音效的制作。

Strandberg解释道：“在我们获得镜头的控制权之前，我们在DICE的工作人员表示，坦克上的加农炮声音不够响亮。随后，我们在开炮后座上加入镜头震动，人们认为声音过大。在这种情况下，事实上我们本可以将音效降回原本的水准，因为当这些东西同步发生时，当你听到坦克的移动隆隆声、镜头震动和猛烈的跑跻身，你可能会觉得这些声音太大了。但是事实上并没有那么大声，只是让你产生了更逼真的感觉而已。就像当你身处行将倒塌的建筑中时，整栋建筑物在倒塌前会发出声响，这样你相当于得到了必须逃离的暗示。但是当我们只呈现音效时，这种信号不是足够明显。然而，如果搭配上音效、移动隆隆声和镜头震动，那种感觉确实棒极了。我们同特效师紧密配合，根据需要调整镜头。”

并非每个产品都如此重视最终产品中音频的重要性，而且与我们交谈过的所有人都表示，对多数注重音效的开发商而言，音频专家也不会在项目初期就介入开发工作。

Sweetman说道：“以Splash Damage为例，我从项目的概念阶段就进入了团队。在早期阶段便考虑到音频人员能够为项目带来好处，因为你可以刚开始便制定音频计划，获得所有这些绝妙的想法。这便是许多开发商需要做的事情。”

尽管音频团队的地位与美工和程序员相比仍落于下风，但是很显然已经有越来越多的开发商正逐渐意识到绝妙的音效不仅能够提升游戏质量，还能够带来非同一般的游戏体验。如今已有先进的技术，音效设计师不用在面对那些他们曾经遭遇的局限性，他们有足够的能力为高预算游戏做出贡献。

Boyd沉思道：“作为音效总监我感到很沮丧，因为我总是希望自己能够有更多的帮手来做出很棒的东西来。但是当我回顾过去18年的状况，现在的情况绝对是最好的，我们正处在黄金时代。”

游戏邦注：本文发稿于2011年4月15日，所涉时间、事件和数据均以此为准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

How Sound Influences The Way We Play

Once heard, it’s difficult to forget. Still reeling from a night-time car accident and disorientated by an encounter with knife-wielding children in an unfamiliar – and intensely foggy – town, the radio begins to crackle. That static, you subsequently learn, heralds the approach of Silent Hill’s nightmarish enemies. But while it’s just one part of the game’s rich audio tapestry, it’s no less iconic than a puppet nurse or Pyramid Head. More than that, it’s an indispensable tool throughout Konami’s series, its functionality lifting it above the industrial cacophony. That foreboding crackle is nothing less than a key part of the play experience.

Sound design has a come a long way since PlayStation’s reign. The advent of digital surround sound, increased memory and soaring budgets have seen developers producing games that provide rich and reactive high-fidelity soundscapes. While “sound attachers” – audio technicians who simply attach sounds to other people’s objects – certainly exist, it’s clear that the widening palette available to sound designers is yielding new opportunities for dedicated pioneers to explore audio’s relationship to gameplay. Just as visual artists have found new ways to represent information on screen (think of Dead Space’s seamlessly integrated HUD or the fashionable replacement of health bars with a wounded or limping character model), audio designers are playing an increasingly vital role in communicating useful information to the player.

Splash Damage audio director, Chris Sweetman, who’s currently working on upcoming team shooter Brink (you might also like to read our recent interview with Splash Damage lead designer Neil Alphonso and creative director Richard Ham), is a passionate believer in audio’s ability to enhance gameplay. “Some games look at doing different bullet-bys for different types of character,” he explains. “For instance, if you’re playing a multiplayer game and there’s a sniper, when a sniper bullet comes past you it sounds different to another guy shooting at you. That’s effectively the audio driving the gameplay, because a lot of the time the visual effect won’t necessarily be any different – but you’ll know a sniper fired that bullet.”

Sweetman also points out the importance of less obvious sound cues on the battlefield, such as the ability to discern what type of enemy is about to round a corner simply by listening to the sound of their footsteps, the clink of their weaponry and even the distinctive rustle of their clothing. In a frenetic deathmatch, where decisions must be made in milliseconds, any such tell becomes significant. Of course, sound designers frequently need to elicit very different reactions. Instead of flushing you out of a dangerous situation, there may be an environmental detail the developer wants you to appreciate. With Dead Space and Dead Space 2, Visceral Games’ audio director Andrew Boyd accomplished this in a manner that enhances their atmospheres.

“At one point [in Dead Space 2], you’re in an apartment building that’s recently been run through by the necromorphs,” explains Boyd. “As you walk down the hall, you hear a bunch of sounds coming out of the apartments; some of the doors are locked, some aren’t, but there’s this ghostly little voice just at the edge of hearing if you’re walking in the hallway. If you follow it through the door and around the corner, you find this burned-out corpse sitting collapsed on a couch watching a broken loop of his wedding video, on which a Unitologist priest intones the prayer of the ceremony. That kind of creepy thing sets you up – that’s the Dead Space way of doing things.”

Although the tension created by such an encounter enhances a player’s emotional experience, these events aren’t just for show. There’s no real need to explore that part of the Sprawl, but travelling off the beaten path at the behest of the eerie siren call results in a reward – perhaps a power node that might otherwise have been missed. However, Boyd’s invisible breadcrumb trails are not only relevant to claustrophobic horror games.

“I really like the way that audio was implemented in Uncharted 2 to help and guide you,” says Jason Graves, who composed the soundtracks for both Dead Space games. “I can easily get turned around if I’m in a room or a cave, and it’s always nice when a little new sound-design thing comes in or the music fades in when I reach a new point – I know I’m heading in the right direction! I’m sure they didn’t do that for people like me, fumbling around the game, but it works on many levels, which is why I think it’s so effective.” If a player is to associate a sound with a particular meaning, it must be easily recognisable – but there’s a delicate balance to strike. Platinum Games made it seem easy in Bayonetta: the game’s subtle, chiming audio cue prior to an enemy’s strike cuts through the chaos onscreen and clearly identifies the moment to dodge attacks. Its consistency ensures that no matter how busy the screen gets, you always feel in control – it actively encourages you to wade in. While avoiding enemies at the last minute or distinguishing an enemy by the sound of their weapon is all very well, if handled badly any lack of variation quickly becomes apparent – just like a section of repeating rock texture you can’t help but notice. DICE audio director Stefan Strandberg is keenly aware of the problem.

“These two things are tearing us apart: we’re working in one direction to counteract repetition, and then in another to create iconic sounds,” he explains. “For example, with Bad Company, you can tell a sniper is aiming at you because we kept one iconic sound there to be the cue – although it’s subtle, and still very much part of the soundscape, it has to be part of the same world. We always ask if a sound is part of the same world, the same palette. It’s like being the Beatles: you get four chords, but you can make amazing songs with them! It’s important to keep some parts iconic, while also keeping a palette that’s true to the overall picture – then try to lead the player there within that soundscape. Creative boundaries are very good for sound designers to have, because we can do anything.”

“In MotorStorm: Arctic Edge, you’re racing over this Arctic tundra in all manner of vehicles, and you’ll very often be flat out,” recounts Jerry Ibbotson, founder of Media Mill – an audio production company that specialises in producing sound for video games and animation. “Because of this, once you get to fifth gear, after a few seconds [the engine sound] will change up to sixth, then seventh, and in theory it could keep changing up a gear at random times indefinitely. Players aren’t sitting there counting up and thinking, ‘Hang on, now he’s in tenth!’ There isn’t even a gear indicator onscreen – [the sound is] literally to give you the sense that the vehicle’s constantly accelerating. Something that might appear to be telling you what’s going on isn’t necessarily doing so; it might be telling you what the sound designers and game designers want you to think is going on, ultimately to make it a lot more fun.”

Of course, repetition can also be avoided by contrasting loud moments with quiet ones – a technique that the Dead Space games use to fantastic, startling effect when the action takes place in the vacuum of space. Having built up an awareness of the necromorphs’ skittering cues, moving into an area in which they can silently approach you is a terrifying change of pace, and forces players to adapt to a more cautious style of play.

However, it’s not only sound effects – or their absence – that can be used to influence player behaviour: “[Rockstar’s] use of music was absolutely fascinating,” says Sweetman, recalling the moment you first cross the Mexican border in Red Dead Redemption. “When that José González song kicks in, it’s just amazing. There are probably only one or two developers in the world who are brave enough to do that. In the case of Red Dead, they effectively turned off the gameplay for that five or ten minutes. You didn’t come into contact with any bad guys, it was just like, ‘This is where you have to get to: off you go.’”

“I think the biggest way music really affects and influences the player is when it comes down to the interactive element,” adds Graves. “With Dead Space, we have what are called ‘fear markers,’ which are like dropping a pin in Google Maps – we can drop a fear marker on anything in the game that we want to, whether it’s a creature that’s moving, a door that’s not moving, a spaceship that’s coming closer to you. Your proximity to these fear markers is what determines how the music is playing. A great example is just walking up to a doorway – half of the time, you open the door and there’s something there that attacks you, and the other half of the time there’s nothing there. But a lot of players will start walking towards it, the music builds up and they’ll go the other way, because they don’t want to have whatever the music’s telling them is coming up – it’s too scary! It’s just another little interactive psychological thing that we use to poke ’em.”

Visceral’s fear-marker system demonstrates how closely entwined the audio department is with every other aspect of the game, its use necessitating constant communication with other teams. It also points to a wider trend in which savvy studios are empowering composers and sound designers in areas of development that might be considered outside of their traditional remit. DICE is one such developer, having entrusted Strandberg and his team with control over camera shake and pad rumble.

“Before we had control of the camera, we had guys at DICE saying that the cannon on the tank wasn’t loud enough,” explains Strandberg. “Then we added camera shake on the recoil, and people went, ‘It’s too loud!’ At that point, we could actually lower the sound back to its initial level, because when those things are in sync, when you get a rumble in the pad, a camera shake and you get the bang, you go, ‘Fuck, that’s loud!’ But actually, it wasn’t that loud – it’s just working with more of your senses. It’s like when you’re inside of a building that’s going to collapse, the whole building is moaning and creaking before it happens, so you get this subtle cue that you’d better leave. But when we just had the sound there, the cue wasn’t clear enough. With sound, rumble and shake playing together, though, it’s awesome. We actually work very closely with the effects artists and tweak cameras together with them.”

Not every production is as acutely aware of the importance of audio to the final product, and everyone we speak to agrees that even the majority of those that do often fail to involve audio experts in the project early enough.

“In the case of Splash Damage,” says Sweetman, “I’m in from the very beginning on everything from concept work, game design and all of that kind of stuff. It helps to have someone from audio involved at that early stage because you can plan ahead and get all these cool ideas about stuff. That’s what more developers need to be doing – it’s not the sound people you need to persuade, it’s effectively your development directors, producers, and so on.”

While audio teams used to toil away in the shadow of artists and programmers, it’s clear that more and more developers are realising that great sound can not only enhance their games, but also drive distinct play experiences. With today’s technological advances, sound designers no longer face the crippling restrictions they once did, instead wrestling with the – arguably preferable – problem of finding the time and manpower to create the assets needed for a big-budget title.

“It’s very, very frustrating as an audio director, day to day,” muses Boyd, “as I always wish I had more guys working on something. But if I take a step back and look back at the past 18 years that I’ve been doing this stuff, it’s never been like this before. We’re in a golden age.” (Source: Edge)