Types of Game Audio and its Roles

There are several types of audio within games, these include.

Dynamic Audio

Sound that reacts to changes in the gameplay and/or in response to a user.

If the sound occurs in the game environment reacting to the gameplay rather than responding to the user it is know as adaptive audio. Examples of this are, when playing Grand Theft Auto 4 during a multiplayer deathmatch, the music changes to a fast paced beat when there is thirty seconds left in the game to let the player know there time is running out.

When a player presses a button to jump, run, fire a gun for instant the sound made from this action is know as interactive audio. It is a sound that reacts to gameplay responding to the player.


Diegetic Sounds

Sounds that occur in the character's space

"In non-dynamic diegetic audio, the sound event occurs in the character’s space, but with which the character has no direct participation". [Karen Collins. (2008). Glossary of Game Audio. Available: http://www.gamessound.com/learning.htm. Last accessed 3 October 2008.]
These sound occur in cut-scenes but also appear during gameplay. In Half Life 2 when Gordon Freeman meets Eli Vance for the first time Eli interacts with his computer, the sound from the computer is non-dynamic diegetic audio.


"Adaptive diegetic audio. In Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, at dawn we hear a rooster crow, and in the “day” sequences of Hyrule Field, we hear pleasant bird sounds. When the game’s timer changes to night-time, we hear a wolf howl, crickets chirp, and various crows cawing. These sounds are diegetic and adaptive." [Karen Collins. (2008). Glossary of Game Audio. Available: http://www.gamessound.com/learning.htm. Last accessed 3 October 2008.]

When the player makes and action like walking, shooting, kicking of a ball for instance the sound made from these is know as Interactive diegetic. The sound is from an interaction of the player in the characters space.

Non-diegetic Sounds

These sounds are triggered in reaction to gameplay there are both Adaptive and Interactive non-diegetic sounds. They are sounds or music that occur outside the diegesis. These are in the same way triggered like there diegetic counterparts.

With Adaptive non-diegetic the sound is unaffected by the characters direct moves

With Interactive non-diegetic the sound reacts to the player directly. An example of such is if the player would get near to an enemy the music would change after passing the trigger point, if the player then moves away leaving the trigger zone the music would return to normal.

Non-dynamic linear sounds are mostly found during cut-scenes of games, the player has no control over these sounds making them non-dynamic.

From the short description of these different types of audio in game it is clear to see there is a lot going on that many people take for granted when playing games. I think that if we didn't have these sound in game they would feel shallow and unentertaining, there are always new ways of get the most out of sound in games one of the newest is Kinetic gestural interaction which is used in such games such as Guitar Hero where the player physically interact with an object (the guitar controller) to trigger the sounds.

Very exciting stuff.