Playing with audio

Stargate Worlds Sound Designer Nick LaMartina penned a dev blog concerning in-game audio. As pointed out by one of the SGW forum members, most players usually turn off a game's audio and turn on their MP3 player of choice. LaMartina hopes to change the way we all look (and listen) to game sounds.

LaMartina isn't happy with the way game audio has been designed in the past. He asserts that maybe the reason players strip out the music, almost immediately, is because it's been designed wrong for so long. "Don't wait for them to become interested. Give them a reason to be." That's his motto, and he promises that the way he and his group are making the audio portion of SGW will give us all "something very special to look forward to."

There has always been visual cues and clues, but why haven't developers utilized the high end sound cards sitting in all our rigs? Film makers have known for some time that the auditory portion of a movie is just as important as the visual. It's about time someone took this sorely underutilized gaming component... and cranked it!