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International Conference on Entertainment Computing

ICEC 2021: Entertainment Computing – ICEC 2021 pp 319–335Cite as

That Sound’s Juicy! Exploring Juicy Audio Effects in Video Games

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Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNISA,volume 13056)

Abstract

Juiciness describes exaggerated redundant audio/visual feedback in games, creating a better player experience. As computer games are principally a visual medium, sound is an underused potential for creating juiciness. This study aims to explore juicy audio. A mixed-methods approach is used to investigate the influence of juicy audio on the experience of presence in the player, and how players affectively experience and evaluate the juicy audio. Two versions of a game were created. One containing juicy audio effects, and the other without juicy audio effects. Results show a significant effect of juicy audio on presence as expressed in immersion and sensory fidelity, where participants experienced more presence in the juicy audio condition. Regarding the affective evaluation of juicy audio, three themes are identified; association & expectation, pragmatic quality, and describing sounds. The latter is an interesting direction for future research, as we appear to lack a shared, intuitive vocabulary for game sounds.

Keywords

  • Juiciness
  • Game feel
  • Game design
  • Sound design
  • Game audio
  • Audio effects

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  • DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-89394-1_24
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Fig. 1.

Notes

  1. 1.

    A video of both versions of the game can be found in the supplemental material. Playable versions are hosted externally, and are playable for as long as the external host allows here: Juicy version: https://i.simmer.io/@keijioch/~09826b4b-43e3-7e09-6513-799f4b654a4a. Control version: https://simmer.io/@keijioch/~36d78477-536d-d273-5b07-ef4b06dd51dd.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5612AZ, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Jolie H. K. Smets & Erik D. van der Spek

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  1. Jolie H. K. Smets
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  2. Erik D. van der Spek
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Correspondence to Erik D. van der Spek .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Bremer Institut für Produktion und Logistik GmbH (BIBA), Bremen, Germany

    Prof. Dr. Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge

  2. University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Jorge C. S. Cardoso

  3. University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Licínio Roque

  4. Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Pedro A. Gonzalez-Calero

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Smets, J.H.K., van der Spek, E.D. (2021). That Sound’s Juicy! Exploring Juicy Audio Effects in Video Games. In: Baalsrud Hauge, J., C. S. Cardoso, J., Roque, L., Gonzalez-Calero, P.A. (eds) Entertainment Computing – ICEC 2021. ICEC 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13056. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89394-1_24

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