Talk Title: How to make things POP

Effective talk: Using Audio to improve games

Year of Talk: 2024

Video Link: How to Make Things "POP" with Audio and Color

Why should you care?

• In the past few years, the market for games has become oversaturated.

• So the game is competing against over 10k on Steam alone. Need something to make it unique.

• Need to create an impression when a lot of things are asking for people's impressions and attention.

How to make the game stand out?

• As the game is designed, it's important to determine the essence or the most important parts of the game.

• Similar to how for the art you might use an art palette, you need a sound palette to help guide the audio process.

• Think about how you can recognize The Simpsons or South Park with some basic LEGO pieces with different colors. Or how the Star Wars theme song is super recognizable.

• So, try to make the audio for the game super recognizable after a few seconds.

How to make the best audio?

• Set the proper limitations or rules for the audio.

• Like, what is the intention of the clip, or what is happening while the clip is playing?

• For example, in “Hidden Folk,” there was a practical limitation where only vocals could be used.

• Or in “Among the Sleep” with a conceptual limitation due to needing to think about how a child might perceive things.

How to pick the sound?

• When working on “Gonner,” the art style and audio went hand in hand with a very random feel to it. The art and audio would have a gradient that slowly changed between different values as the map appeared.

• In “Fruitbus,” the game was a more whimsical game with the intent to have the art in a brighter color and audio format. The audio had a combination of realistic and abstract sounds.

How to find the essence?

• Make sure to find and understand the game's themes and run with them.

• At the same time, make sure to follow any rules you set up early for the game's audio.

• Iterate on the audio to get it closer to the game's themes.

• Understanding where your thought process comes from and how you work helps the artist and audio people learn the direction and how you came up with an idea.

Making the POP stick (Memorable experiences)

• When you've found a memorable pattern, don't use it, will tire people out.

• The audio is meant to work as whispers to the player. Too much might make them notice and feel uncomfortable.

• Two forms create a great combination of audio and art. Bottom-up processing and top-down processing.

• Bottom-up processing combines parts of audio or art into a whole.

• Top Down has a whole audio piece in mind and tries to build to it

• Repeating audio queues for certain areas or actions helps create mental notes of when something happens. If you know how weapons reloading sounds or footsteps, then you know something is happening. Even if it's outside of your view.

Common language

• Important to start talking early on. This means that everyone has time to think through problems. 

• By having people communicate expectations and what they need from each other then there is more time to get things right.