Audio Influence on Game Atmosphere during Various Game Events

Abstract

Audio is an inseparable element in our lives, with no exception in the world of video game, called as game audio. It has become more popular and video games have many different elements which make up game audio. Based on our experience, some game audios are very well, but sometimes they don’t fit right with the game situation. In this paper, we would like to assess the role of game audio with particular attention to understand their effect on immersion and emotional engagement. We conducted the experiments to convey the questions about the importance of game audio elements, including the compatibility of audio elements in video game. It can be concluded that sound effect is the most important audio elements in video games.

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Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
Procedia Computer Science 179 (2021) 222–231
1877-0509 © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 5th International Conference on Computer Science and
Computational Intelligence 2020
10.1016/j.procs.2021.01.001
10.1016/j.procs.2021.01.001 1877-0509
© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientic committee of the 5th International Conference on Computer Science and
Computational Intelligence 2020
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
1877-0509 © 2020 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 5th International Conference on Computer Science and
Computational Intelligence 2020
5th International Conference on Computer Science and Computational Intelligence 2020
Audio Influence on Game Atmosphere during Various Game Events
Felix Andersena, Dannya, Calvin Leonard Kinga, Alexander A S Gunawana,
*
aComputer Science Department, School of Computer Science, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia 11480
Abstract
Audio is an inseparable element in our lives, with no exception in the world of video game, called as game audio. It has become
more popular and video games have many different elements which make up game audio. Based on our experience, some game
audios are very well, but sometimes they don’t fit right with the game situation. In this paper, we would like to assess the role of
game audio with particular attention to understand their effect on immersion and emotional engagement. We conducted the
experiments to convey the questions about the importance of game audio elements, including the compatibility of audio elements
in video game. It can be concluded that sound effect is the most important audio elements in video games.
© 2020 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 5th International Conference on Computer Science and
Computational Intelligence 2020
Keywords: audio; games; game atmosphere; audio effect; audio in games audio
1. Introduction
Game audio can be considered as the art and science of producing and configuring sounds for video game or
interactive media. Sound for games is not a single entity, but a combination of entities that all come together to
create a complete game audio 1. Game audio experiences is not just music in video game. There are many different
elements which make up game audio. In short, there are three kind 2 of game audio, that is: background music,
ambience sounds and sound effects. Background music 3 is audio that runs through a large portion of video game. It
is normally created with instruments or digital means. When we use the video maker applications, there are always
built-in music tracks to create background music. Ambience sounds are relatively shorter than background music for
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +62-21- 5345830
E-mail address: aagung@binus.edu
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
1877-0509 © 2020 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 5th International Conference on Computer Science and
Computational Intelligence 2020
5th International Conference on Computer Science and Computational Intelligence 2020
Audio Influence on Game Atmosphere during Various Game Events
Felix Andersena, Dannya, Calvin Leonard Kinga, Alexander A S Gunawana,*
aComputer Science Department, School of Computer Science, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia 11480
Abstract
Audio is an inseparable element in our lives, with no exception in the world of video game, called as game audio. It has become
more popular and video games have many different elements which make up game audio. Based on our experience, some game
audios are very well, but sometimes they don’t fit right with the game situation. In this paper, we would like to assess the role of
game audio with particular attention to understand their effect on immersion and emotional engagement. We conducted the
experiments to convey the questions about the importance of game audio elements, including the compatibility of audio elements
in video game. It can be concluded that sound effect is the most important audio elements in video games.
© 2020 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 5th International Conference on Computer Science and
Computational Intelligence 2020
Keywords: audio; games; game atmosphere; audio effect; audio in games audio
1. Introduction
Game audio can be considered as the art and science of producing and configuring sounds for video game or
interactive media. Sound for games is not a single entity, but a combination of entities that all come together to
create a complete game audio 1. Game audio experiences is not just music in video game. There are many different
elements which make up game audio. In short, there are three kind 2 of game audio, that is: background music,
ambience sounds and sound effects. Background music 3 is audio that runs through a large portion of video game. It
is normally created with instruments or digital means. When we use the video maker applications, there are always
built-in music tracks to create background music. Ambience sounds are relatively shorter than background music for
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +62-21- 5345830
E-mail address: aagung@binus.edu
2 Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000
example, the sounds from an airport, harbor, highway, or other environments. Ambience sounds 4 are usually placed
within specific and relevant scenes in video games. These sounds are also normally not created with instruments, but
they are captured by recording the natural sounds in a specific location. Sound effects 5 are short, specific audio clips
that are added into a small scene, such as computer beep, sound of footsteps, rooster's crow, and many other sounds.
These sounds are usually related to character activities within a scene.
Based on our experience, sometimes game audio doesn’t fit right with the game situation. To design the suitable
game audio, we should know the purpose of audio in games. It can be concluded that the purpose is in three words 1:
inform, entertain, immerse. Inform means the audio cue 6 can be used by the gamers to navigate the game. Our
brain can interpret these sound stimuli into a distance, direction and dimension. Entertain 7 means the game audio to
hold the gamer attention and to give them fun. The sound should be designed be exciting and original. Finally,
Immersion 8 means sense an individual experience of being physically located in an environment different from their
actual environment. The sound should generally hint at an environment beyond what can be seen and experienced on
screen. It performs the functional task to make the scene feel real emotions 9.
Problem and the Proposed Solution
Sometimes when playing any kind of video game, we can hear a variety of sounds played throughout the game.
As example are the footstep sound from walking through the world’s terrain, background music during fighting a
monster, and many more. Furthermore, have you ever wondered how game developers get their idea for placing,
let’s say “Music A” into scene A of a game, or “Music B” into scene B of a game? And, have you ever wondered
how some audio elements do not fit a certain part of the game? Should a game even have any audio in them? These
questions are the reason why we do this research. In general, video games are made to be captivating and immersive
10. Bandral and Kahur 11 said there is always a need of close audio-visual relationship in video games to create one
cohesive interaction experience with the audience.
By gathering many data related to player experience while hearing many aspects of sound elements in a video
game, we can learn about the influence of audio from the data and relevant literatures. Moreover, our study might be
a useful learning material for both game developers and the gamer themselves. Game developers will be able to
rethink what kind of soundtrack or sound effect, they should use for certain parts of the game. While gamers may
understand more about their played games’ universes or mechanics depicted from the audios. Especially for indie
game developers who have less people, money, and time to work on their games, they can learn about what the basic
minimum existence or quality of audio elements for their game to be good enough. We will do a survey on gamers
experience specifically on the audio side of the experience. Which is going to give us the result of some complaint
and compliment that usually the game developer doesn’t listen to. We also would like to know the difference of
impact to players between using even a half-appropriately designed audio in video games and not using any audio.
This study can reduce the negativity that is happening in the gaming community which they complain a lot about
games that have a bad background music.
Focus and the Scope of the Problem
The focus of our problem is about the importance of audio in video games. And the scope of our problem can be
described in one question: “why do video game play music or sound in certain situation?”. The answer can discover
about how audio affected many things in game designs and how it can change the whole gaming experience. The
remainder of the paper is composed as follows: first we discuss the method of our research in section 2, and then is
followed by the experiment results, in section 3. In the end, we concluded our work with limitation of our study and
suggestions for the future research in section 4.
2. Methods
A. Method Design
The main method of our experiment is using an experimental study, based on game participant response
collected with Google Forms Survey. Our main point in this research is the participant’s response to the presence of
sound in the game demonstration. Detailed data is gathered from the survey, which will later be analysed for further

Felix Andersen et al. / Procedia Computer Science 179 (2021) 222–231 223
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
1877-0509 © 2020 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 5th International Conference on Computer Science and
Computational Intelligence 2020
5th International Conference on Computer Science and Computational Intelligence 2020
Audio Influence on Game Atmosphere during Various Game Events
Felix Andersena, Dannya, Calvin Leonard Kinga, Alexander A S Gunawana,*
aComputer Science Department, School of Computer Science, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia 11480
Abstract
Audio is an inseparable element in our lives, with no exception in the world of video game, called as game audio. It has become
more popular and video games have many different elements which make up game audio. Based on our experience, some game
audios are very well, but sometimes they don’t fit right with the game situation. In this paper, we would like to assess the role of
game audio with particular attention to understand their effect on immersion and emotional engagement. We conducted the
experiments to convey the questions about the importance of game audio elements, including the compatibility of audio elements
in video game. It can be concluded that sound effect is the most important audio elements in video games.
© 2020 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 5th International Conference on Computer Science and
Computational Intelligence 2020
Keywords: audio; games; game atmosphere; audio effect; audio in games audio
1. Introduction
Game audio can be considered as the art and science of producing and configuring sounds for video game or
interactive media. Sound for games is not a single entity, but a combination of entities that all come together to
create a complete game audio 1. Game audio experiences is not just music in video game. There are many different
elements which make up game audio. In short, there are three kind 2 of game audio, that is: background music,
ambience sounds and sound effects. Background music 3 is audio that runs through a large portion of video game. It
is normally created with instruments or digital means. When we use the video maker applications, there are always
built-in music tracks to create background music. Ambience sounds are relatively shorter than background music for
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +62-21- 5345830
E-mail address: aagung@binus.edu
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
1877-0509 © 2020 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 5th International Conference on Computer Science and
Computational Intelligence 2020
5th International Conference on Computer Science and Computational Intelligence 2020
Audio Influence on Game Atmosphere during Various Game Events
Felix Andersena, Dannya, Calvin Leonard Kinga, Alexander A S Gunawana,*
aComputer Science Department, School of Computer Science, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia 11480
Abstract
Audio is an inseparable element in our lives, with no exception in the world of video game, called as game audio. It has become
more popular and video games have many different elements which make up game audio. Based on our experience, some game
audios are very well, but sometimes they don’t fit right with the game situation. In this paper, we would like to assess the role of
game audio with particular attention to understand their effect on immersion and emotional engagement. We conducted the
experiments to convey the questions about the importance of game audio elements, including the compatibility of audio elements
in video game. It can be concluded that sound effect is the most important audio elements in video games.
© 2020 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 5th International Conference on Computer Science and
Computational Intelligence 2020
Keywords: audio; games; game atmosphere; audio effect; audio in games audio
1. Introduction
Game audio can be considered as the art and science of producing and configuring sounds for video game or
interactive media. Sound for games is not a single entity, but a combination of entities that all come together to
create a complete game audio 1. Game audio experiences is not just music in video game. There are many different
elements which make up game audio. In short, there are three kind 2 of game audio, that is: background music,
ambience sounds and sound effects. Background music 3 is audio that runs through a large portion of video game. It
is normally created with instruments or digital means. When we use the video maker applications, there are always
built-in music tracks to create background music. Ambience sounds are relatively shorter than background music for
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +62-21- 5345830
E-mail address: aagung@binus.edu
2 Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000
example, the sounds from an airport, harbor, highway, or other environments. Ambience sounds 4 are usually placed
within specific and relevant scenes in video games. These sounds are also normally not created with instruments, but
they are captured by recording the natural sounds in a specific location. Sound effects 5 are short, specific audio clips
that are added into a small scene, such as computer beep, sound of footsteps, rooster's crow, and many other sounds.
These sounds are usually related to character activities within a scene.
Based on our experience, sometimes game audio doesn’t fit right with the game situation. To design the suitable
game audio, we should know the purpose of audio in games. It can be concluded that the purpose is in three words 1:
inform, entertain, immerse. Inform means the audio cue 6 can be used by the gamers to navigate the game. Our
brain can interpret these sound stimuli into a distance, direction and dimension. Entertain 7 means the game audio to
hold the gamer attention and to give them fun. The sound should be designed be exciting and original. Finally,
Immersion 8 means sense an individual experience of being physically located in an environment different from their
actual environment. The sound should generally hint at an environment beyond what can be seen and experienced on
screen. It performs the functional task to make the scene feel real emotions 9.
Problem and the Proposed Solution
Sometimes when playing any kind of video game, we can hear a variety of sounds played throughout the game.
As example are the footstep sound from walking through the world’s terrain, background music during fighting a
monster, and many more. Furthermore, have you ever wondered how game developers get their idea for placing,
let’s say “Music A” into scene A of a game, or “Music B” into scene B of a game? And, have you ever wondered
how some audio elements do not fit a certain part of the game? Should a game even have any audio in them? These
questions are the reason why we do this research. In general, video games are made to be captivating and immersive
10. Bandral and Kahur 11 said there is always a need of close audio-visual relationship in video games to create one
cohesive interaction experience with the audience.
By gathering many data related to player experience while hearing many aspects of sound elements in a video
game, we can learn about the influence of audio from the data and relevant literatures. Moreover, our study might be
a useful learning material for both game developers and the gamer themselves. Game developers will be able to
rethink what kind of soundtrack or sound effect, they should use for certain parts of the game. While gamers may
understand more about their played games’ universes or mechanics depicted from the audios. Especially for indie
game developers who have less people, money, and time to work on their games, they can learn about what the basic
minimum existence or quality of audio elements for their game to be good enough. We will do a survey on gamers
experience specifically on the audio side of the experience. Which is going to give us the result of some complaint
and compliment that usually the game developer doesn’t listen to. We also would like to know the difference of
impact to players between using even a half-appropriately designed audio in video games and not using any audio.
This study can reduce the negativity that is happening in the gaming community which they complain a lot about
games that have a bad background music.
Focus and the Scope of the Problem
The focus of our problem is about the importance of audio in video games. And the scope of our problem can be
described in one question: “why do video game play music or sound in certain situation?”. The answer can discover
about how audio affected many things in game designs and how it can change the whole gaming experience. The
remainder of the paper is composed as follows: first we discuss the method of our research in section 2, and then is
followed by the experiment results, in section 3. In the end, we concluded our work with limitation of our study and
suggestions for the future research in section 4.
2. Methods
A. Method Design
The main method of our experiment is using an experimental study, based on game participant response
collected with Google Forms Survey. Our main point in this research is the participant’s response to the presence of
sound in the game demonstration. Detailed data is gathered from the survey, which will later be analysed for further

224 Felix Andersen et al. / Procedia Computer Science 179 (2021) 222–231
Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000 3
information. We choose this experimental method so that the data gathered from each participant is more precise
and accurate.
B. Game Sample
In this experiment, we use a sample pre-built game from Unity3D Game Engine called “FPS Microgames” and
modify the sample game by coding in required modification using C# programming language to accommodate this
experiment. The game demonstration consists of two levels, with both have roughly the same level of difficulty.
C. Procedure
The procedure of our experiment is as follows:
1. We prepare the game sample by doing several steps, and the first one is to download Unity3D v2019.3.1f1
and FPS Microgames from the official website of Unity.
2. We add background music to the game 12. It was said that not only as a stand-alone music, but also in video
games, sounds can be used to raise strong emotions in players 13. We try to use a metal genre music made by
Mick Gordon, titled “BFG Division”, which feels like a badass music for shooting down evil alien robots
(even though the enemy in our experiment games are not scary looking and no war-like lore). High arousal
music like this tends to be more activating, happier, and more neutrally pleasant 14. Sound effects and
ambient sounds are inherited from the original game.
3. We modify the game to the following patterns:
a. First Pattern
If the player choose level A first, then level A will be muted (played without any sound), and the
second level (level B) will not be muted (all kind of sound, such as ambient sound, background music,
and any kind of sound will be played throughout the level).
b. Second Pattern
This is the opposite of the first pattern, where a player chooses level B first, then level B will be muted,
and level A will not be muted throughout the gameplay.
4. There were two levels used in the sample game (see Fig. 1), and we arrange the levels to be chosen freely by
this experiment’s contestant side by side in the main screen. At first, the button on the left side redirect
player to “Alien City” arena first, and the button on the right side of the screen redirect player to “Moving
Castle” arena first.
(1)
(2)
Fig. 1. The levels arena viewed from above (1) Alien City arena (2) Moving Castle arena.
S denotes the starting position of the player, and E denotes the area where there are enemies in the game.
5. After finished preparing the sample game, we also prepare two section of form using Google Form
regarding information we want to get from our participant for our experiment. In this questionnaire, all data
are anonymous, also we don’t ask unrelated personal data like gender or age of our participant during the
experiment.
In the middle of data gathering process (filling google form questions), we switch the button position in
the initial screen to balance the ratio of chosen level (Alien City arena’s chosen ratio is slightly bigger than
Moving Castle arena’s chosen ratio because of the button position). The details our form questionnaire are
as follows:
4 Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000
A. First Section
The first section of the questionnaire is used to introduce researcher briefly and provides basic explanation
about what must be paid attention to in this questionnaire. Several tips are also brought to discussion, such
as:
1) Importance of audio in the game (because this is a research about audio, particularly in video game), so
the participant must turn on both their audio and the in-game audio.
2) Game tips to minimalize in-game death.
3) Example of game scoreboard for gathering and filling information.
4) Hyperlink to the game sample which is an online WebGL game hosted on Unity.
Several questions which are associated with the game are asked here, like as follows:
1) What is the first arena you played? (the arena where the sound is muted)
This question is to count the number of participants who played whichever level with muted sound, for
example level A and level B muted level ratio.
2) Please type in the game duration of “Alien City” arena
This question asks how long each participant finish “Alien City” arena in seconds, where the
presumption is with muted level would take longer time, and with unmuted level would take less time.
3) Please type in the hit count of “Alien City” arena
This question asks how many hit the participant got in “Alien City” arena.
4) Please type in the game duration of “Moving Castle” arena
This question asks how long each participant finish “Moving Castle” arena in seconds, where the
presumption is with muted level would take longer time, and with unmuted level would take less time.
5) Please type in the hit count of “Moving Castle” arena
This question asks how many hit the participant got in “Moving Castle” arena.
B. Second Section
The second section of the questionnaire is used to ask user’s experience after playing the sample game.
Several questions which are associated with the game are also asked here, where the one with (*) means a
nonmandatory question, like as follows:
1) How important is ambient sound in the game you just played, in the aspect of aesthetic?
This question asks how important ambient sound is, from the scale of 1 (very not important) to 10
(very important).
2) From the game you just played, do you feel more excited by the presence of background music?
This question asks whether the participant feel more excited by the presence of background music,
from the scale of 1 (very not excited) to 10 (very excited). This question’s answer indicates that
background music in a videogame triggers excitement.
3) From the game you just played, do you feel more enthusiastic with the presence of sound effect
such as shooting sound, destroyed machine, and many more?
This question asks whether the participant feel more enthusiast by the presence of sound effect, from
the scale of 1 (very not enthusiast) to 10 (very enthusiast).
4) From the game you just played, do you think that the presence of sound effect helps you to finish
the game easier?
This question asks whether the participant feel the game is easier by the presence of sound effect, from
the scale of 1 (disagree) to 10 (agree).
5) In the game where the audio is unmuted, do you think the background music is suitable?
This question asks whether the participant think that the background music is suitable or not, from the
scale of 1 (not suitable) to 10 (suitable).
6) * (Fill in question) – What do you think is the downside of the audio element from the sample
game?
This is not a mandatory question, so it is up to participant to fill it or not.
7) In general, what kind of audio element do you think have the most influence in a game?
This question asks participant what kind of audio element they think that have the biggest influence in
game, ranging from background music, ambient sound, sound effect, or NPC/Dialogue voices.

Felix Andersen et al. / Procedia Computer Science 179 (2021) 222–231 225
Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000 3
information. We choose this experimental method so that the data gathered from each participant is more precise
and accurate.
B. Game Sample
In this experiment, we use a sample pre-built game from Unity3D Game Engine called “FPS Microgames” and
modify the sample game by coding in required modification using C# programming language to accommodate this
experiment. The game demonstration consists of two levels, with both have roughly the same level of difficulty.
C. Procedure
The procedure of our experiment is as follows:
1. We prepare the game sample by doing several steps, and the first one is to download Unity3D v2019.3.1f1
and FPS Microgames from the official website of Unity.
2. We add background music to the game 12. It was said that not only as a stand-alone music, but also in video
games, sounds can be used to raise strong emotions in players 13. We try to use a metal genre music made by
Mick Gordon, titled “BFG Division”, which feels like a badass music for shooting down evil alien robots
(even though the enemy in our experiment games are not scary looking and no war-like lore). High arousal
music like this tends to be more activating, happier, and more neutrally pleasant 14. Sound effects and
ambient sounds are inherited from the original game.
3. We modify the game to the following patterns:
a. First Pattern
If the player choose level A first, then level A will be muted (played without any sound), and the
second level (level B) will not be muted (all kind of sound, such as ambient sound, background music,
and any kind of sound will be played throughout the level).
b. Second Pattern
This is the opposite of the first pattern, where a player chooses level B first, then level B will be muted,
and level A will not be muted throughout the gameplay.
4. There were two levels used in the sample game (see Fig. 1), and we arrange the levels to be chosen freely by
this experiment’s contestant side by side in the main screen. At first, the button on the left side redirect
player to “Alien City” arena first, and the button on the right side of the screen redirect player to “Moving
Castle” arena first.
(1)
(2)
Fig. 1. The levels arena viewed from above (1) Alien City arena (2) Moving Castle arena.
S denotes the starting position of the player, and E denotes the area where there are enemies in the game.
5. After finished preparing the sample game, we also prepare two section of form using Google Form
regarding information we want to get from our participant for our experiment. In this questionnaire, all data
are anonymous, also we don’t ask unrelated personal data like gender or age of our participant during the
experiment.
In the middle of data gathering process (filling google form questions), we switch the button position in
the initial screen to balance the ratio of chosen level (Alien City arena’s chosen ratio is slightly bigger than
Moving Castle arena’s chosen ratio because of the button position). The details our form questionnaire are
as follows:
4 Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000
A. First Section
The first section of the questionnaire is used to introduce researcher briefly and provides basic explanation
about what must be paid attention to in this questionnaire. Several tips are also brought to discussion, such
as:
1) Importance of audio in the game (because this is a research about audio, particularly in video game), so
the participant must turn on both their audio and the in-game audio.
2) Game tips to minimalize in-game death.
3) Example of game scoreboard for gathering and filling information.
4) Hyperlink to the game sample which is an online WebGL game hosted on Unity.
Several questions which are associated with the game are asked here, like as follows:
1) What is the first arena you played? (the arena where the sound is muted)
This question is to count the number of participants who played whichever level with muted sound, for
example level A and level B muted level ratio.
2) Please type in the game duration of “Alien City” arena
This question asks how long each participant finish “Alien City” arena in seconds, where the
presumption is with muted level would take longer time, and with unmuted level would take less time.
3) Please type in the hit count of “Alien City” arena
This question asks how many hit the participant got in “Alien City” arena.
4) Please type in the game duration of “Moving Castle” arena
This question asks how long each participant finish “Moving Castle” arena in seconds, where the
presumption is with muted level would take longer time, and with unmuted level would take less time.
5) Please type in the hit count of “Moving Castle” arena
This question asks how many hit the participant got in “Moving Castle” arena.
B. Second Section
The second section of the questionnaire is used to ask user’s experience after playing the sample game.
Several questions which are associated with the game are also asked here, where the one with (*) means a
nonmandatory question, like as follows:
1) How important is ambient sound in the game you just played, in the aspect of aesthetic?
This question asks how important ambient sound is, from the scale of 1 (very not important) to 10
(very important).
2) From the game you just played, do you feel more excited by the presence of background music?
This question asks whether the participant feel more excited by the presence of background music,
from the scale of 1 (very not excited) to 10 (very excited). This question’s answer indicates that
background music in a videogame triggers excitement.
3) From the game you just played, do you feel more enthusiastic with the presence of sound effect
such as shooting sound, destroyed machine, and many more?
This question asks whether the participant feel more enthusiast by the presence of sound effect, from
the scale of 1 (very not enthusiast) to 10 (very enthusiast).
4) From the game you just played, do you think that the presence of sound effect helps you to finish
the game easier?
This question asks whether the participant feel the game is easier by the presence of sound effect, from
the scale of 1 (disagree) to 10 (agree).
5) In the game where the audio is unmuted, do you think the background music is suitable?
This question asks whether the participant think that the background music is suitable or not, from the
scale of 1 (not suitable) to 10 (suitable).
6) * (Fill in question) – What do you think is the downside of the audio element from the sample
game?
This is not a mandatory question, so it is up to participant to fill it or not.
7) In general, what kind of audio element do you think have the most influence in a game?
This question asks participant what kind of audio element they think that have the biggest influence in
game, ranging from background music, ambient sound, sound effect, or NPC/Dialogue voices.

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8) As a gamer, how conscious are you about background music in a game?
This question indicates how important audio element for a player, especially background music, from
the scale of 1 (not conscious) to 10 (very conscious).
9) As a gamer, how conscious are you about ambient sound in a game?
This question indicated how important ambient sound for a player, from the scale of 1 (not conscious)
to 10 (very conscious).
10) * (Fill in question) – In general, and based on your experience playing game, what parts of game
that you don’t like from the aspect of audio?
This is not a mandatory question, so it is up to participant to fill it or not.
6. The data gathered from 30 anonymous participant is later exported to excel file (.xlsx), and then will be
analyzed further.
3. Results
A total of 35 responses were collected, and from deeper observation we exclude 5 responses which did not meet
our criteria. The excluded responses didn’t follow the form-filling procedures, either didn’t win the game or not
even opening the game at all, known from their answer on the first section of questions.
A. First Section
Of the 30 responses which were collected, 16 (53.25%) participants choose “Alien City” arena first, and 14
(46.75%) participants choose “Moving Castle” first. The game demonstration results are as follows:
a. Player who choose “Alien City” first
By choosing “Alien City” arena first, it means they play this arena with muted sound, and the next arena which
is “Moving Castle” with unmuted sound.
1) Game Duration
Game duration here is referring to the duration (in seconds), the player finished playing the sample game.
Fig. 2. Game Duration Comparison player who choose “Alien City” first
From 16 responses who choose “Alien City” first, we can see that the game duration comparison is 3:13,
with the longer game session is from “Moving Castle” arena. This result is influenced by many factors, such as
because of the anonymousness, we didn’t consider that the player who played our game is a frequent gamer or
not. The longer game session in “Moving Castle” can also indicates that by the presence of background music
and any sort of sound effect, it makes the player feel more excited and have tendency to explore the game
world.
2) Hit Count
Hit count here is referring to the number of hit player got by the enemy.

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Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000 5
8) As a gamer, how conscious are you about background music in a game?
This question indicates how important audio element for a player, especially background music, from
the scale of 1 (not conscious) to 10 (very conscious).
9) As a gamer, how conscious are you about ambient sound in a game?
This question indicated how important ambient sound for a player, from the scale of 1 (not conscious)
to 10 (very conscious).
10) * (Fill in question) – In general, and based on your experience playing game, what parts of game
that you don’t like from the aspect of audio?
This is not a mandatory question, so it is up to participant to fill it or not.
6. The data gathered from 30 anonymous participant is later exported to excel file (.xlsx), and then will be
analyzed further.
3. Results
A total of 35 responses were collected, and from deeper observation we exclude 5 responses which did not meet
our criteria. The excluded responses didn’t follow the form-filling procedures, either didn’t win the game or not
even opening the game at all, known from their answer on the first section of questions.
A. First Section
Of the 30 responses which were collected, 16 (53.25%) participants choose “Alien City” arena first, and 14
(46.75%) participants choose “Moving Castle” first. The game demonstration results are as follows:
a. Player who choose “Alien City” first
By choosing “Alien City” arena first, it means they play this arena with muted sound, and the next arena which
is “Moving Castle” with unmuted sound.
1) Game Duration
Game duration here is referring to the duration (in seconds), the player finished playing the sample game.
Fig. 2. Game Duration Comparison player who choose “Alien City” first
From 16 responses who choose “Alien City” first, we can see that the game duration comparison is 3:13,
with the longer game session is from “Moving Castle” arena. This result is influenced by many factors, such as
because of the anonymousness, we didn’t consider that the player who played our game is a frequent gamer or
not. The longer game session in “Moving Castle” can also indicates that by the presence of background music
and any sort of sound effect, it makes the player feel more excited and have tendency to explore the game
world.
2) Hit Count
Hit count here is referring to the number of hit player got by the enemy.
6 Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000
Fig. 3 Hit count comparison player who choose “Alien City” first
From 16 responses who choose “Alien City” first, we can see that the hit count comparison is 11:5 with the
bigger part is coming from “Alien City” arena. By the time the player is in “Moving Castle” arena, most player
have fewer hit count. This behavior indicates that the arena with unmuted sound (Moving Castle) gives player
more immersion and focus.
b. Player who choose “Moving Castle” first
By choosing “Moving Castle” arena first, it means they play this arena with muted sound, and the next arena
which is “Alien City” with unmuted sound.
1) Game Duration
The game duration here is the same as previous category, it is referring to the duration (in seconds), the
player finished playing the sample game.
Fig. 4. Game Duration Comparison player who choose “Moving Castle” first
From 14 responses who chooses “Moving Castle” first, we can see that the game duration comparison is
10:4, with the longer game session is from “Moving Castle” arena. Since this arena’s sound is muted, it
indicates that the presence of background music helps player finished the game faster.
2) Hit Count
The hit count here is the same as previous category, it is referring to the number of hit player got by the enemy.

228 Felix Andersen et al. / Procedia Computer Science 179 (2021) 222–231
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Fig. 5 Hit count comparison player who choose “Moving Castle” first
From 14 responses who chooses “Moving Castle” first, we can see that the hit count comparison is 7:7,
with both arenas containing the same hit count. Since the unmuted arena is “Alien City” arena, this result
indicates that the background music is not really suitable for “Alien City” arena.
B. Second Section
Information gained from the second section is divided into two categories. One from their experience during
the experiment (playing our test game), and the other are from their general experience playing other games.
a. Experience from the experiment
These are respondents’ thought on what they feel, the attractiveness, and effectiveness of audio used on the
experiment game.
1) Importance of ambient sound on aesthetic
Fig. 6 Ambient sound score
Most people give a score of 8 out of 10 for the importance of ambient sound in the aspect of aesthetic.
Some people give less score might be due to the loudness of our background music which suppress the
ambient sound, after less than 10 seconds passed on the game.
2) Score of experiment game background music
8 Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000
Fig. 7 Background music score
Most people find the presence of background music used on the game boosts their excitement during
gameplay. However, from looking on the scattered score, we can deduce that the background music used
is not suitable enough. The non-suitableness of our game’s background music is also the main topic of our
game critics from question 6. From question 6 we know that our background music’s default volume is
too loud, moreover we do not provide adjustment menu for the volume.
3) Score of experiment game sound effects
Fig. 8 Sound effect score
Most of our respondents have their enthusiasm enhanced during gameplay from sound effects. Most likely
as the result of action and cause effects being heightened in the presence of sound effects. Still, only a
little portion of respondents feel sound effects can help/make finishing their game easier, even though the
sound effects of our experiment game could give audio cues or information about enemy attacks from
non-visible angle. Majority of our respondents have their enthusiasm enhanced during gameplay from
sound effects. Most likely as the result of action from cause and effects being heightened in the presence
of sound effects. It is at a very basic level, from the beginning of video game creation, is used as audio
feedback 15. Still, only a little portion of respondents feel sound effects can help/make finishing their game
easier, even though the sound effects of our experiment game could give audio cues or information about
enemy attacks from non-visible angle.
b. Experience from other games
1) Most influential audio elements

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Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000 7
Fig. 5 Hit count comparison player who choose “Moving Castle” first
From 14 responses who chooses “Moving Castle” first, we can see that the hit count comparison is 7:7,
with both arenas containing the same hit count. Since the unmuted arena is “Alien City” arena, this result
indicates that the background music is not really suitable for “Alien City” arena.
B. Second Section
Information gained from the second section is divided into two categories. One from their experience during
the experiment (playing our test game), and the other are from their general experience playing other games.
a. Experience from the experiment
These are respondents’ thought on what they feel, the attractiveness, and effectiveness of audio used on the
experiment game.
1) Importance of ambient sound on aesthetic
Fig. 6 Ambient sound score
Most people give a score of 8 out of 10 for the importance of ambient sound in the aspect of aesthetic.
Some people give less score might be due to the loudness of our background music which suppress the
ambient sound, after less than 10 seconds passed on the game.
2) Score of experiment game background music
8 Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000
Fig. 7 Background music score
Most people find the presence of background music used on the game boosts their excitement during
gameplay. However, from looking on the scattered score, we can deduce that the background music used
is not suitable enough. The non-suitableness of our game’s background music is also the main topic of our
game critics from question 6. From question 6 we know that our background music’s default volume is
too loud, moreover we do not provide adjustment menu for the volume.
3) Score of experiment game sound effects
Fig. 8 Sound effect score
Most of our respondents have their enthusiasm enhanced during gameplay from sound effects. Most likely
as the result of action and cause effects being heightened in the presence of sound effects. Still, only a
little portion of respondents feel sound effects can help/make finishing their game easier, even though the
sound effects of our experiment game could give audio cues or information about enemy attacks from
non-visible angle. Majority of our respondents have their enthusiasm enhanced during gameplay from
sound effects. Most likely as the result of action from cause and effects being heightened in the presence
of sound effects. It is at a very basic level, from the beginning of video game creation, is used as audio
feedback 15. Still, only a little portion of respondents feel sound effects can help/make finishing their game
easier, even though the sound effects of our experiment game could give audio cues or information about
enemy attacks from non-visible angle.
b. Experience from other games
1) Most influential audio elements

230 Felix Andersen et al. / Procedia Computer Science 179 (2021) 222–231
Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000 9
Fig. 9 The most influence audio elements
More than half of our experiment participants choose sounds effects as the most influential audio
elements in a game. Then followed by background music. Ambient music and NPC/dialogue voices get the
least people who vote for. One person chose a free-write “other” option and fill it with “All”. More than
half of our experiment participants choose sounds effects as the most influential audio elements in a game.
While players always interact with the cause and effects scenarios in every part of a video game to
determine the flows of event, sound effects heightened the feel of results on an action from those set of
scenarios 16. Then on the ranking, is followed by background music. Ambient music and NPC/dialogue
voices get the least people who vote for, and we concur that these two are for secondary decoration on
immersion after background music. One person chose a free-write “other” option and fill it with “All”.
2) Awareness of particular audio elements
Fig. 10 Awareness of audio elements
The two data look similar on the chart above. Both ambient sounds and background music got a mean
of 7.767 and 8.000 respectively, slightly bigger on background music. This gives us new findings that
nowadays people also pay attention to ambient sounds, rather than just background music.
3) Audio being disliked in video games
These are findings from our respondents of what they don’t like in video games’ audio:
i. Audio positioning on unsuitable place.
ii. Unbalanced audio volume, which would remove other sounds, at worst when a more informative
sounds are being suppressed.

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10 Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000
iii. Unrealistic sound design, which did not quite match up with what we likely hear in real life.
4. Conclusions
As conclusion of our research, we see how the test of audio in our experiment that game audio affects the
player's gameplay from many sides. This has shown us the importance of audio in video games even from a small
detail such as sound effects of a gun shooting or the enemies walking by to the background music that can change
the feeling of the player felt in a certain situation. We also found out that audio doesn't only affect the gameplay of
the player but also the satisfaction factor of doing an action, based on the feedback of the participant of our game
test.
Finally, we can also conclude that game audio is critical to create a "good game", especially sound effect which
is the most important audio elements. The game developers should not just focus on the gameplay of the game.
Based on our analyses, we can suggest for future research to use of a more specific question in the questionnaire,
such as the gaming experience of each participant beforehand. Researcher can also look at minor variables such as
playing the same type of game even though the level design is different, thereby reducing the validity of the player's
results.
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