Music and sound effects are arguably one of the most important assets for your game. Whether your game is on a console and blaring through surround sound, or it's playing through ear buds on an android device, the audio of your game is crucial to the overall experience. Without great audio, the overall appeal of your game could drop off dramatically.
The music in your game should create some kind of emotional response in the brain of the end user. Heavier songs are often used for boss battles because they intensify the scene and often times create a sense of urgency. Softer, more melodic tunes are used when a beloved character in your story line has died or been critically injured. Casual soundscapes create an ambient atmosphere when navigating menus and skill trees. All of these things are absolutely essential to creating the exact kind of experience that all serious developers strive for.
All of the same can be said for sound effects. Have you ever been playing a first person shooter when suddenly several loud shots come smashing through your headphones? Instant adrenaline rush. The loud clink of swords clashing make you feel like you are swinging it yourself. Even the little clicks and beeps of menu buttons are essential to building the perfect look and feel. If the sound isn't right, the game isn't either.
One of the challenges for new independant game developers is acquiring adaquate game adsets. In game development obe usually has some kind of background in either programming, graphic design, sound engineering, or story writing. It's very rare that one gets in to game development and is already proficient in all four of those fields. If you are a programmer it can be especially difficult to get your hands on qualty sounds and graphics. Luckily, there are options out there that you can take advantave of.
Before we jump into the list of valuable sources that I have for you we should discuss the different types of copyright licensing that we will potentially be working with.
1. Public Domain
Public Domain is a way of saying that some piece of work doesn't have an outright owner. Most often this happens when someone doesn't file a copyright claim on their work, or they fail to maintain those copyrights. If no one owns the rights to any particular piece of work, it is considered to be the property of the general public. If something resides in the public domain then it can be used, shared, and even sold, by ANYONE. If you go this route, you have to be 100 percent certain that the work you are using is actually in the Public Domain.
2. Creative Commons
Creative commons is similar to Public Domain in the sense that it can be shared freely, and even used commercially. Where these two differ is in that someone does own the rights to that work and are allowing the public to use it royalty free under creative commons licensing. The biggest things to remember with creative commons licensing is that you are not allowed to change the work in any way and you absolutely have to give proper credit to the original author.
The idea here is to find quality music and soumds that fit your project that are either Public Domain or Creative Commons. Either one of the two can be a viable option, so long as you are using them the right way.
Now lets move on to the list of resources:
No comments:
Post a Comment