Abstract
We study the impact of sound design – soundscape, sound effects, and auditory notifications, namely earcons – on the player’s experience of serious games. Three sound design versions for the game Venci’s Adventures have been developed: 1) no sound; 2) standard sound design, including soundscapes and sound effects; and 3) standard sound design with auditory notification (namely, earcons). Perceptual experiments were conducted to evaluate the most suitable attention retention earcons from a diverse collection of timbres, pitch, and melodic patterns, as well as the user experience of the different sound design versions assessed in pairs (1 vs. 2 and 2 vs. 3). Our results show that participants (\(n=23\)) perceive better user experience in terms of game playing competence, immersion, flow, challenge and affect, and enhanced attention retention when adopting standard sound design with the earcons.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
https://unity.com, last accessed on May 15, 2023.
- 2.
https://freesound.org, last accessed on 15 May, 2023.
- 3.
https://soundcloud.com, last accessed on 15 May, 2023.
- 4.
https://www.reaper.fm, last accessed on May 2, 2023.
References
Alseid, M., Rigas, D.: The role of earcons and auditory icons in the usability of avatar-based e-learning interfaces. In: 2011 Developments in E-systems Engineering, pp. 276–281. IEEE (2011)
Blattner, M.M., Sumikawa, D.A., Greenberg, R.M.: Earcons and icons: their structure and common design principles. Hum.-Comput. Interact. 4(1), 11–44 (1989)
Brandon, A.: Audio for Games: Planning, Process, and Production (New Riders Games). New Riders Games (2004)
Brewster, S., Raty, V.P., Kortekangas, A.: Earcons as a method of providing navigational cues in a menu hierarchy. In: Sasse, M.A., Cunningham, R.J., Winder, R.L. (eds.) People and Computers XI, pp. 169–183. Springer, London (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3588-3_12
Chattopadhyay, B.: Reconstructing atmospheres: ambient sound in film and media production. Commun. Public 2(4), 352–364 (2017)
Collins, K.: Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. MIT Press, Cambridge (2008)
Dakic, V.: Sound design for film and television (2009)
De Freitas, S.I.: Using games and simulations for supporting learning. Learn. Media Technol. 31(4), 343–358 (2006)
De Troyer, O.: Towards effective serious games. In: 2017 9th International Conference on Virtual Worlds and Games for Serious Applications (VS-Games), pp. 284–289. IEEE (2017)
Dede, C.: Immersive interfaces for engagement and learning. Science 323(5910), 66–69 (2009)
Eriksson, M.L., Pareto, L., Atienza, R., Hansen, K.F.: My sound space: an attentional shield for immersive redirection. In: Proceedings of the Audio Mostly 2018 on Sound in Immersion and Emotion, pp. 1–4. Elsevier (2018)
Falkenberg, K., Frid, E., Eriksson, M.L., Otterbring, T., Daunfeldt, S.: Auditory notification of customer actions in a virtual retail environment: sound design, awareness and attention. Georgia Institute of Technology (2021)
Gualdron, D.A.R.: Developing effective virtual simulations and serious games: the effect of background sound cues on visual quality perception. University of Ontario Institute of Technology (Canada) (2012)
Habgood, M.J., Ainsworth, S.E.: Motivating children to learn effectively: exploring the value of intrinsic integration in educational games. J. Learn. Sci. 20(2), 169–206 (2011)
IJsselsteijn, W.A., De Kort, Y.A.W., Poels, K.: The game experience questionnaire (2013)
IJsselsteijn, W.A., De Kort, Y.A.W., Poels, K., Jurgelionis, A., Bellotti, F.: Characterising and measuring user experiences in digital games. In: International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology, vol. 2, p. 27 (2007)
J.148, I.T.R.: Subjective video quality assessment methods for multimedia applications (1999)
Jennett, C., et al.: Measuring and defining the experience of immersion in games. Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud. 66(9), 641–661 (2008)
Leplâtre, G.: The design and evaluation of non-speech sounds to support navigation in restricted display devices. University of Glasgow (United Kingdom) (2002)
Lopes, P., Liapis, A., Yannakakis, G.N.: Modelling affect for horror soundscapes. IEEE Trans. Affect. Comput. 10(2), 209–222 (2017)
Paterson, N., Naliuka, K., Jensen, S.K., Carrigy, T., Haahr, M., Conway, F.: Design, implementation and evaluation of audio for a location aware augmented reality game. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Fun and Games, pp. 149–156 (2010)
Patterson, R.D., Edworthy, J., Lower, M.C.: Alarm sounds for medical equipment in intensive care areas and operating theatres. University of Southampton, Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (1986)
Rovithis, E., Moustakas, N., Floros, A., Vogklis, K.: Audio legends: investigating sonic interaction in an augmented reality audio game. Multimodal Technol. Interact. 3(4), 73 (2019)
Rüppel, U., Schatz, K.: Designing a BIM-based serious game for fire safety evacuation simulations. Adv. Eng. Inform. 25(4), 600–611 (2011)
Smith, B.A., Nayar, S.K.: The rad: making racing games equivalently accessible to people who are blind. In: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1–12 (2018)
Sonnenschein, D.: Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice, and Sound Effects in Cinema. Michael Wiese Productions (2001)
Toprac, P., Abdel-Meguid, A.: Causing fear, suspense, and anxiety using sound design in computer games. In: Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments, pp. 176–191. IGI Global (2011)
Wang, A.I., Lieberoth, A.: The effect of points and audio on concentration, engagement, enjoyment, learning, motivation, and classroom dynamics using Kahoot. In: European Conference on Games Based Learning, vol. 20. Academic Conferences International Limited (2016)
Whyte, E.M., Smyth, J.M., Scherf, K.S.: Designing serious game interventions for individuals with autism. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 45, 3820–3831 (2015)
Yewdall, D.L.: The Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound. Routledge (2012)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Cao, Z., Magalhães, E., Bernardes, G. (2023). Sound Design Impacts User Experience and Attention in Serious Game. In: Haahr, M., Rojas-Salazar, A., Göbel, S. (eds) Serious Games. JCSG 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14309. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44751-8_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44751-8_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-44750-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-44751-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)