Sound Design

[WispBae]

Noise is very important in all types of shooters, so I thought we could talk a bit about that.

With only two types of senses available to you in gaming (sight and sound), learning to look and, more importantly, listen for cues is the the first step in more aware of your environments, and using those cues to properly predict enemy patterns and possible flanking options. Here are some audio cues to be aware of when playing, taken from the video above. Note that some cues are only audible in close quarter scenarios.

Gamemode Specific

• Zone Status Change: A deepening alarm when the zone is captured by enemies, and a jingle when the zone is captured by your team. Neutral alarm when the zone is contested.

Player Cues

• Pings from teammates, who have called for help. You see "Emily" and "Janet" do it in the video.
• The popping and wail from enemies or friendlies who have been splatted. Good indicator for "you can stop shooting now".
• Splashing and sloshing when players swim through ink in squid form. If you are not nearby friends and hear it, there is probably someone about to ambush you.
• While you are in squid mode in the ink, the music is dampened and all other noises are brought up, good for knowing when to pop up for an attack. Hopefully there is an option to turn down the music or turn it off later (even though I do enjoy it).

Weapon Cues

• Grenades all have a whirring noise when thrown, friendly or not. Very good for being able to tell where items are being thrown.
• Small alarm for the regular grenades, right before explosion.
• Suction grenades have a "charging up" noise when triggered (getting too close).
• The rat-tat-tat of the automatic weapons, only heard from midrange it seems.
• The splat charger has a clear pop able to be heard anywhere on a map when it is fired. No audio cue for when it is being aimed.
• A small bell when your special weapon is ready for use.

Only cues I wanted to mention specifically in this video was the use of the roller, with lots of loud splashing when rolling around, and louder pops when ink is flung from it.

This is all I could find without commentary over it, but it seems sound will play into a good chunk of the game, though not as prevalent as in some of the CoD games or Gears of War. I personally think after a while, you may not even need game audio to do well, since there are many visual cues, but the highest level of competition will still want to hear what's going on. What do you think?

 

[Lyn]

This is very useful. I will keep these in mind when playing the game upon release. :)

 

[Astral]

Actually i'm not sure if anyone else has noticed it, but there is a very distinct popping sound made when a hit is landed on an enemy player

And i think we can all agree that the music in this game is amazing :D