Engaging the Player: Audio, Haptics, and Information: Music and Experience

Audio and haptics play a vital role in creating a full, sensory experience in games. Genevieve Johnson explains how these senses can define a game – and even how gamers move through virtual spaces and engage emotionally.
“Besides the sounds, you want to think about the button clicks and the sound they’re making. Think about the music in your games – music is a huge deal. I happened to play maybe six different zombie games for a minor research project just a couple of days ago.
“In one particular game, it had solid gameplay – most of them had solid gameplay – but its music was mostly sort of soothing. So you felt sort of soothing, calm, like, alright, I’m getting ready to go to battle these zombies. And it was a long, long battle.”
That juxtaposition removed tension that would have otherwise made the game unplayable while setting a tone that still worked with the horror.
“There’s no difference between music in a game and music in life,” says Dan Shefelman. “If you’re working out, you want to hear a workout mix. If you’re trying to relax, you want to hear calm music. It emotionally creates a feeling in you.”
Haptics – the understanding of the world around us through the sense of touch – works similarly. Shefelman details how haptics shapes so much of modern gaming, and how it can change depending on the medium.
“My first experience with haptics, or, I should say, with the lack of haptics, was in virtual reality . . . I couldn’t tell how far anything was because I’m used to sculpting. I’m used to feeling something that I hit. Until they have developed haptics, you’re in a three-dimensional space and you’re not feeling it. It feels vague.”
Now that games are becoming more of a sensory experience, audio and haptics have become just as important as optics. When you’re immersed in a game, you want to feel something at the same time.