BACHELOR THESIS “How does Sound Design Impact the Players Perception of the Level of Difficulty in a First Person Shooter Game?” Sebastian Darth 2015 Bachelor of Arts Audio Engineering Luleå University of Technology Department of Arts, Communication and Education 1 “How does sound design impact the players perception of the level of difficulty in a first person shooter game?” Sebastian Darth 2015 Bachelor of Science Audio Engineering Luleå University of Technology Department of Arts, Communication and Education 2 Abstract This research paper explore if a games sound design have an impact on a games perceived difficulty from a players point of view. The game industry produces many game titles that are similar in terms of mechanics and controls, for example, first person shooter games. This thesis investigates if the differences in sound design matter. Where many first person shooter games are very similar in terms of gameplay, controls and sound design, these sound designs are similar though not identical. With new information on how players use sound when they play games, interesting new games styles, mechanics and kinds of game-play could be explored. This study found that players use the sounds of his or her allies in the game more than any other sound when presented different tasks in games. It was also shown that players use the sound of weapon fire to know where their targets are and when they need to take cover to avoid defeat. Finally it was suggested that loud weapons might impact the perceived difficulty as it might cover the sounds of the various voices. 3 Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisors Nyssim Lefford and Jan Berg for the help and input during the construction of this research, I would also like to thank the members of the research committee and the persons who took their precious time to participate in the active playing test. 4 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................. 5 1.1 Background ...................................................................................................................................................................... 5 1.2 Purpose ............................................................................................................................................................................ 6 2. Method .......................................................................................................................... 7 2.1 The Games ....................................................................................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Pre-study ........................................................................................................................................................................... 8 2.3 The Sounds ..................................................................................................................................................................... 9 2.4 Choosing segments of the game to analyse ........................................................................................................ 11 2.5 Analysing the sound design of the three comparable games ........................................................................ 12 2.6 Analysing the VO sounds ......................................................................................................................................... 12 2.7 Analysing the Weapon sounds ............................................................................................................................... 15 2.8 Active playing test ...................................................................................................................................................... 18 2.9 The questionnaire ........................................................................................................................................................ 19 3. Results ......................................................................................................................... 20 3.1 Analysis of the sounds mentioned by the test subjects .................................................................................. 20 3.2 Distribution of answers from the questionnaire ................................................................................................ 20 3.3 Distribution of answers from the questionnaire in the VO category ......................................................... 22 3.4 Distribution of answers from the questionnaire in the weapon category ................................................. 23 3.5 Results from the second part of the questionnaire ........................................................................................... 24 4. Analysing the data from the active playing test .......................................................... 25 4.1 Analysis of the level of difficulty responses ...................................................................................................... 25 5. Discussing the data from the active playing test ......................................................... 27 6. Critique ....................................................................................................................... 27 7. Future work ................................................................................................................ 28 8. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 28 9 References .................................................................................................................... 29 9.1 Data points .................................................................................................................................................................... 29 9.2 Software ......................................................................................................................................................................... 30 10. Appendix ................................................................................................................... 31 10.1 Appendix 1 answer form for the pre-study ...................................................................................................... 31 10.2 Appendix 2 Comparison Calculation ................................................................................................................. 32 10.3 Active playing test questionnaire .................................................................................................................... 33 10.4 appendix 4 test subjects answers from the active playing test .................................................................. 36 10.4.1 answers from Battlefield: Bad Company 2 .................................................................................................. 36 10.4.2 answers from Call of Duty: Black Ops .......................................................................................................... 39 10.4.3 answers from Battlefield 3 ................................................................................................................................. 42 5 1. Introduction A first person shooter game (FPS) is game with projectile-based combat game with a first person perspective, that is that the player sees the game world through the eyes of the games protagonist. In a first person shooter game the field of view is limited to circa 85 degrees, this leaves 275 degrees of vision that are unable to give the player visual information. In addition a player cannot see enemies or objectives that are blocked from their vision by obstacles in the game. In order give the player information from those critical areas another communication medium is required. A suitable medium for carrying this information is sound as it can give cues to the player without requiring that the source of the sound is in the player’s line of sight. The purpose of this study is to research if different sound designs can influence the playability of a game with and if these sound designs choices impact the perceived difficulty. 1.1 Background The field of game sound has its roots in film and cinema sound and a lot of the research done in game sound originates from film and cinema. It is not until recently that the area of game sound became regarded as a specialized field of research and the differences between game sound and traditional linear media like film or cinema was explored. Karren Collins (2013) states that the interactive sounds in a video game are kinesonically syncretic, meaning that that sounds are fused to actions as opposed to being fused to images. Interactive sound is explained as the sounds that are initiated by the game or the player. These sound are the primary differences between the linear media and games. Sound design is the process of recording, selecting, mixing and processing the sounds for a film, game or other medium that involves sound. In traditional media like cinema and theatre and other linear media the sound design is not influenced by the audience, the sound design is the same without any regard for the audience. Film and cinema does not use interactive sounds. Games are not linear and the player of the game can make decisions that influence the sound design and the sound design can influence the player to take actions