作者：Antti Kananen

手机游戏中的声音设置真的很棘手。一方面你不可能创造出一款没有声音的游戏，声音是整体游戏体验的一部分，是除图像和游戏玩法以外的必要元素。另一方面，我们在玩手机游戏时经常不开声音，即使开了声音，手机上的扬声器也不能提供最佳音频体验。所以关于声音设计，手机游戏必须基于不同的方法，如此才能确保玩家可以听到全音域游戏。

关于游戏声音设计的一个基本原则便是你的声音必须与游戏视觉效果和感觉相匹配。让我们以《崩溃季节》为例，这是一款带有基于行动的游戏玩法与卡通图像的游戏。所以在《崩溃季节》中，声音设计需要具有卡通感，同时还要带有结实的“撞击”声。游戏中的基本敌人不会创造出这样的声音，因为玩家将在一个回合中遭遇大量这些敌人，如果他们重复发出这样的声音便会让玩家快速感到厌烦。另一方面，《崩溃季节》中的boss需要拥有声音，因为这能在他们离屏时告诉玩家他们的状态同时也能够创造与boss对抗的氛围。

游戏中的第一个boss是Lumberjack，它将在一台巨大的树木收割机上展开战斗。而收割机的声音是混合了剪草机的引擎，运行着的圆锯和拖拉机的声音。在战斗的第二阶段会出现伐木工boss，他将能够使用自己的电锯进行战斗。所以这里的声音将比之前的更具威胁性，因为boss变得更具攻击性，所以除了剪草机，圆锯和拖拉机外，这里还添加了一台50cc的摩托车引擎的声音。在电锯攻击间，伐木工boss将会出现疲惫状态并且玩家将能更轻松地对他发动攻击。从视觉上看这一切变化都很清楚，但游戏还需要为伐木工boss添加粗重的喘气声作为一种声音线索。游戏中的喘息声是来自我们的声音设计师，而音调的降低也能够反应出伐木工boss是个大块头的人。为了确保玩家能够通过收集的扬声器听到喘息声，我们添加了不同喘息声去呈现纹理。

就像之前所说的，尽管有些玩家会关静音，但手机游戏还是需要声音的。这些升级应该能够弥补游戏玩法，即意味着你必须添加高质量的声音，否则糟糕的声音和糟糕的游戏玩法一样都会破坏玩家的游戏体验。不管你的用户是使用耳机还是手机扬声器，作为声音设计师的你都应该努力去满足这两种情况的用户。

Spectrum(from gamasutra)

这里所存在的最大挑战是让玩家能够听到声谱低端的声音。一般手机扬声器很难传达低音，所以最终只会呈现出一个三倍低沉的声音。这是我们应该想办法避免的情况。其中一种方法便是利用饱和，即将更高频率的低音置于前方。这能让听者的耳朵意识到低音的存在，尽管他们仍不能清楚地听到这些声音。你必须想办法找到戴耳机的用户与使用手机扬声器的用户间的平衡。

结论

当你正在开发一款游戏时，你通常都是使用扬声器或高质量的耳机在计算机上执行这一工作，而你可能会使用有时候听起来还不错的沉重低音。但是这些声音在游戏中的播放与你所听到的情况可能是不同的。所以你在面向手机设备设计声音时必须记住这点。

找到你的游戏音频的合适频率并有效里利用它们。使用饱和方法去模仿较低频率在声音设计中的效果。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Making Good-sounding Audio for Mobile Games

by Antti Kananen

Sound in mobile games is a tricky issue. On one hand, you can’t have a game without sound, sound is part of the whole gaming experience, the much needed cherry on top of graphics and gameplay. On the other hand, mobile games are often played without sound and even when the sound is on, the speakers on mobile devices don’t really offer the best playback experience. Mobile games really have to have a different approach to sound design to actually make sure the player can hear the full range of your sounds.

One basic tenet of sound design for games is that your sounds have to match the visual look and feel of your game. In the case of Crashing Season, it would be a cartoony look with the gameplay consisting of action-filled “crashing”. So in Crashing Season, the sound design would have to sound cartoony, silly but also with meaty “thwack” sounds. Basic enemies in the game don’t make that much noise, since the sheer volume of these enemies on screen that can be achieved in a single session would make any repetitive sound they make very annoying, very quickly. On the other hand, the boss enemies of Crashing Season do need sounds, as indicators of their status when they’re off-screen as well as to set the mood for the boss fight.

The first boss of the game is the Lumberjack, who starts the fight in a gigantic tree harvester. For the harvester, the sound was a mix of a lawnmower engine, a running buzz saw and a tractor. The second stage of the fight has the lumberjack outside of his harvester, where he uses his personal chainsaw. The sounds for this need to be even more threatening since the boss is more aggressive on foot, so in addition to the lawnmower, buzz saw and tractor, the sound of a 50cc motorbike engine was included for added texture. In between chainsaw attacks, the lumberjack boss enters an exhausted state, and thus becomes vulnerable to attack. Visually this is clear but he also needed a heavy breathing voice to add a vocal cue. The breathing sound is the exaggerated breathing of our sound designer, the pitch of which is lowered to reflect how the lumberjack is quite a large man. To ensure that the player can actually hear the breathing from the mobile device speakers, a different breathing sound was added to bring texture.

As stated above, mobile games need to have sounds even though some players may mute them. These sounds also need to complement the gameplay, which means that you can’t have bad quality sounds since they may just as well ruin an experience much like bad gameplay can. Whether your user uses headphones or just the phone speakers, you, as a sound designer, can cater to both.

The biggest challenge is bringing the low end of the sound spectrum to a hearable level. The bass sounds simply cannot be properly replayed through basic mobile device speakers, often resulting in a tinny, treble-heavy sound. This should naturally be avoided for its unpleasantness. One way to make the low frequencies sound better and make them easier to hear is to use saturation, which brings the higher frequencies of the bass sounds to the front. This makes the ear realize that the bass sounds are there, even though you still can’t hear them that well. You have to find a balance between headphones users and users who use the device speakers.

In conclusion:

When you’re developing a game, usually on a computer with real speakers or quality headphones, you may use bass heavy sounds that sound good at the time. However, these sounds will not be played in-game as you heard them. Plan your sound design for mobile devices with this in mind.

Find the right frequencies for your game audio and make full use of them. Use saturation to mimic the effect of the lower frequencies in sound design.

To find out more how we at Koukoi Games are finalizing Crashing Season, stay tuned for more updates and remember to play the game when it comes out for iOS and Android devices globally! The game is currently available for Android devices only in CAN & AU. Also, sign up in our mailing list and receive a free digital artbook and printable papercraft character!（source：Gamasutra）