Steps and Sensibility: How Foley and Ambience Sounds Convey Emotions in First-Person Shooter Games

Abstract: In computer games, creators want to convey and induce emotion in players. A way of enhancing emotions in games is by using conscious sound design. This essay is about how conscious recorded and mixed foley and ambience sounds can enhance the conveying of emotions in games. For the experiment, a game was created where subjects played two different levels with two different sound designed spaces in each.
The only difference between the spaces was the sound of the footsteps in an indoor level and the sound of the wind in an outdoor level. Results shows that the outdoor level better conveyed different emotions between the spaces than the indoor level but the indoor level could convey different emotions too, especially for experienced gamers and listeners.