Starting to think about how to approach the sound design for our Collaboration Project with Games Design. This video about the sound design for ‘Animal Crossing’ on the Nintedo Switch, is a great example of how in depth something as simple as sounds for menu design can be.
What I find very interesting about the Nintendo Switch is the handheld function of the console. As it can be played through a TV, handheld or with headphones, this poses interesting questions about how you generalise the frequency of sounds across each of these functionalities. You couldn’t have too much sub-bass in your mixes for example or low end (even though this is not entirely common in video games anyway, at least in their primary sound modes), instead would have to opt for more crisp high mids. – I believe that a lot of the Nintendo produced games have this in mind, with the sounds tending to be soft and delicate with most of their information being in a high mid range and low mid because the designated frequency shelf for your ambience textures/soundtrack as there are no low ends to explore. I wonder if it’s influenced by the cultural phenomenon of ASMR as often fans of Nintendo games comment on their ‘asmr-like’ sounds. Another video by ‘Scruffy’ a clear Nintendo fanboy explains some intricate details of the Breath of The Wild Sound Design. – which is a really interesting mix of cinematic, intuitive and interactive sound design.
Nintendo is a huge fan of Foley and tend to record most sounds for their A-list games in a studio.
I think this choice for isolated foley audio, may go some way to explaining this adopted asmr-like sound design and for sure it’s easier when each audio component is isolated. You can then assemble the building blocks.
Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response – these essential act as ‘triggers’ that set off a particular response. If ASMR induces relaxation, this could be a very useful sound design tool. This however, is not always a positive, as sufferers of Misophonia often find ASMR triggers unbearable.
Not sure if this podcast is related ‘Sound Matters’ podcast, but found it on Soundcloud, they talk about ASMR in relation to Psychoacoustics. ASMR is one noticeable phenomenon from a countless amount of invisible effects sound has on our subconscious. This ‘invisibility’ perhaps sends us full circle back to the Zelda sound design video above. Good sound design utilises psychoacoustic affect to induce the desired emotional state and is often not listened to.
Another thing I’ve been thinking about is how each of these start ups represent their own unique style of sound design.