The current paradigm for creating emotional impact in game sound is to carefully choose which sounds to play. This paper takes an alternative approach, suggesting that emotional impact of sounds can be affected by choosing how to play those sounds. We describe a novel concept for emotional sound design - emotional fine-tuning - and show how it is possible to systematically influence the emotional impact of a single sound sample. A controlled user study with 8 subjects confirmed that changing the reproduction of a sample so that source localization of the sound is challenged will increase its perceived scariness compared to the same sound with clearly detectable source. The work extends experimental research on emotion perception in sound. It has practical implications for sound design in games and other interactive media.

Authors: Ekman, Inger; Kajastila, Raine
Affiliation: Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland
AES Conference: 35th International Conference: Audio for Games (February 2009)
Paper Number: 23
Publication Date: February 1, 2009 Import into BibTeX
Subject: Audio for Games: Sound Design, Recording, and Foley
Permalink: https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=15177

Click to purchase paper as a non-member or login as an AES member. If your company or school subscribes to the E-Library then switch to the institutional version. If you are not an AES member and would like to subscribe to the E-Library then Join the AES!

This paper costs $33 for non-members and is free for AES members and E-Library subscribers.

Learn more about the AES E-Library

E-Library Location: (CD 35thPapers)   /35/aes35-000061.pdf

Start a discussion about this paper!