Examining the role of soundscapes for player experience : A Case Study of Darkwood

Abstract: This study is about audio design in horror games, by looking at the horror game Darkwood. Its goal is to answer the questions on how the soundscape of Darkwood affects player experience, what sounds Darkwood utilizes, and what emotional registers it evokes. This study’s goal is to figure out the methods of horror soundscapes to be useful for followingattempts at making horror-themed soundscapes by future game developers. The research wasconducted by having five participants play the introductory section of Darkwood, theparticipants would be interviewed afterward with questions regarding the game and horror ingeneral. The gathered data would be analyzed mainly by using the Two Factor Theory of Emotion by Schachter and Singer. The study found that the audio of Darkwood had an impacton the participants’ experience, with players visibly growing uncomfortable by the tense ambiance, but it also discovered that visuals played a large part in it too, thus it recommends future experiments with greater scale and more precise tools for measuring emotional reactions derived from sound.