We wrote this book because we love games. We also love sound and music, and we love what they
can bring to games to make them thrilling, involving, and moving. We want you to be able to
try out your sound and your music in a real game. For a book whose examples are based exclusively
around one piece of software, it may appear contradictory to say that actually the tools are not
important. Once you’ve had experience with any game editor or audio middleware package, the
concepts you learn are easily transferable to others. We chose the Unreal Development Kit (UDK)
for this book, as it’s a serious game development tool, it’s used for lots of games, it’s free, and it’s
fun. In terms of sound and music there are easier tools to use, but unless you’re already working for
a games developer, you can’t get them to work in an actual game. Putting your sound and music
into a real game environment = cool. Having to be already working for a games developer to get
access to the tools to get them in game = not cool.
We want to put control into the hands of sound designers and composers and to show what you
can do, and how far you can go, with the standard tools that come with a typical game editor. As
a sound designer, composer, or game designer (we hope there are a few of you reading too!), you
have to be an advocate for audio. The good thing about audio is that it tends not to be noticed
that much. This means we can affect the player on a powerful subconscious level. The bad thing
about audio is, well, that it tends not to be noticed much. You will have to constantly convince
people of the importance of investing in sound and music. You’ll have to be able to make your
case, explain and persuade people that better use of audio makes a better game. You can do this by
talking, but you can do it better by showing. We’ve tried to give you not only the sound and music
systems themselves but also an introduction to a number of gameplay systems. By having the
means of production, you won’t just be the passive provider of assets but can understand the game
design process, experiment, and get involved in building systems to demonstrate your ideas effectively.
If you want to create great sounds or music and then hand them over for someone else to
put into the game, then this book isn’t for you (and P.S., your days are numbered). Game audio is
about a system of sound or music elements that interact in real time with game events. If you want
to be part of the future of game audio you need to learn how to produce interactive audio, not just
one-shot sound effects or music loops. You can’t separate asset creation from implementation.
A note on genre. There are many genres of games appealing to many different people. Although
we’ve tried to mention several, we have not exhaustively explored the particular aspects of implementing
sound for each one, as the principles here are intended to be applicable to many. The
biggest-selling, highest-grossing games are undoubtedly first- and third-person shooters. As this is the
case, they also tend to be the areas where the most investment is being made in taking the technology
of games, and game audio, further. If this is not your preferred genre we can only apologize
for the amount of gunfire, death, and explosions in this book, but we hope you understand our
reasoning. (We also just like blowing stuff up.)