(Blogtober Day 2)
Games tell stories. Some games allow players to be a part of stories. Other games even allow players to write their own stories. But while many games have an overarching narrative for players to discover and explore over several hours, there’s another kind of storytelling that tends not be identified as often. The second-to-second storytelling. This kind of storytelling tends to be much more interactive on the player’s behalf. Running through a medieval town, picking a lock, or engaging in gun combat. While these stories tend to be short, they are a part of what allows players to identify the character that they are playing as and imply how they should feel as that character.
These second-to-second stories are told through a myriad of techniques. Animation, game mechanics, lighting, and so on. But also through sound design. Let’s explore what kind of role sound design plays in these micro-stories and a few concepts to think about while creating a soundscape that can take a good sound and make it a memorable one.
Second-To-Second Storytelling
Let’s examine a simple interaction a player might have in a game.
A player is exploring an underground dungeon. In their efforts the player finds an abandoned satchel on the ground. The player picks up the satchel.
That’s it. Its short and simple, and reading it in simple text without any flourishing adjectives to help it might seem completely mundane and average. But I think we could break that down even further to demonstrate my thoughts on this subject…
A player is exploring an underground dungeon. In their efforts the player finds an abandoned satchel on the ground. The player picks up the satchel.
That’s the story I want to explore with sound. Its short and simple and at first glance probably doesn’t seem like it should provoke much investment when it comes to sound design. Something as simple as the player picks up the satchel can easily fall into a category of “see a thing, hear a thing” where so long as the sound of the player picking up the satchel makes logical sense to the visuals the job of the sound designer is done. And in many ways it might be. That would likely be sufficient. But I think it’s important to give some thought to simple interactions like this and see if it can yield more opportunities.
Its Just A Satchel…
While the sound design for the satchel would have to match the visuals, i.e. a leather satchel should sound like leather and not plastic, as sound designers we still have some elements to play with to give the satchel some identity.
More expensive goods tend to be heavier in nature, and the opposite in cheaper goods. So if we want the satchel to sound expensive we can try to imply weight. We can do this with pitch, “heavier” tends to be somewhat lower pitched.
Higher quality leather tends to be heavier (got that covered already) but also thicker. Thicker leather has a more box-ee sound, and when manipulated tends to yield a more noticeable “stretch” sound like with saddles or leather belts. This stretch sound can be another color we add to our pallet for designing the sound of this satchel.
Pickup Artist…
The other part of the sound of “The player picks up the satchel” is the verb. The action of picking up the satchel. Even if we ignore elements like the cloth sound of the player’s character’s clothing making a brushing sound as the character reaches for the satchel, the action can yield more opportunities. We can explore the timing of the action. Not the time it takes for the animation to complete, that is dictated by animation. But does the characters hand grasp the satchel quickly, or does their hand fumble just slightly as their hand grasps the allowing for some lighter transient taps of a finger or two? When the satchel is lifted does it leave the ground cleanly in one motion, or does it drag slightly on the ground creating a bit of a scraping sound on the surface? Could the leather creek slightly when its in motion? Could we hear something rattling inside the satchel as it moves?
That Seems Like A Lot
To be fair, it does seem like a lot. Probably too much. And many thoughts and decisions like the ones I pointed out in the example are likely things that are processed a bit subconsciously. But I definitely did not have these kinds of explorations when I started making sounds. Especially early on in my career I would often find myself with a kind of “writer’s block,” scratching my head on why something doesn’t sound interesting, or feels like it needed something more. When I started to process how I could effect the second-to-second storytelling in a game with little examinations like this it unlocked my creativity and allowed me to take something that appears simple and mundane and make it much more impactful.