What is Horror Game Music and its Effect on the Player?
Part 1 of More Scary Wallpaper Plz. A series of audio analysis of Horror games and occasional film.
Horror games will always be a favourite genre of mine to explore and play since it’s very often a case of delivering the perfect balance between music and sound effects. I wanted to find out exactly what and how horror audio can affect us and came across some interesting nuggets of fact.
I’ve attempted to condense everything down into digestible chunks which I hope will prove somewhat helpful for other composers and audio designers to gain a better understanding of how effective game audio can be when music and sound design work together.
What is the ‘Horror’ Experience?
Let’s define what ‘Horror’ is. It is the intense feeling of fear, shock and/or disgust. In games (and to quote Extra Credits):
From Extra Credits — Horror Protagonists
If we put ourselves into the shoes of the protagonists, do games have the power to create experiences for us to physically feel something? What are they? Human bodies are built and designed to protect us from danger and here’s a small list on what they are.
Biology
• Brainstem Reflex (Flight of Fight Response) — where emotion is induced by the music because they are taken by the brainstem to signal an urgent event (the biological defensive mechanism inbuilt in humans for the ‘flight or fight’ response), which is mostly induced with the compositional technique of Contrast and Non-Repetition (article pending!).
• Lacking ‘ear lids’ — a physical defence mechanism that is constantly ‘on alert’ to signal us from danger. This is especially true when we are sleeping.
• Biological Responses — comes in two types. Physical (external) and Physiological (internal) responses.
Physical (External)
- Sweating
- Foot tapping
- Shivers / chills
- ‘Lump in throat’
- Pilomotor reflex (goosebumps)
Physiological (Internal)
- Change in heart/pulse rate
- Change in blood pressure
- Respiration (Breathing)
- Muscular tension
Some other random facts:
- Fast, loud, staccato musical passages act like a stimulative and slow, soft, legato musical passages act like a sedative.
- Non music sounds (such as drilling, clock tickings, etc) generally induces a negative emotional response. The greater the intensity, the greater the response.
- Human hearing is naturally more sensitive to high frequencies (like crying babies, squeaky doors), therefore it’s perceived worse than it actually is.
- Certain frequencies resonate with different parts of the body. For example, 65 Hz affect the lower back region, pelvis, thighs and legs. Higher frequencies affect the upper body.
Note that this is just a snippet and is a broad conclusion based on observations of what most people feel in certain situations. The degree in which people feel these effects differ from each individual and their own experience.
Psychology
There are two strands of music psychology which I will focus on here in describing the audio in horror games.
Evaluative Conditioning
Refers to the process where an emotion is induced by the music simply because the stimulus has often been paired with with other positive or negative stimuli.
Music examples include:
Final Fantasy’s Victory / Game over themes
There are specific music tracks for specific situations within gameplay. It can be argued that players will internally ‘mimic’ (see below) the emotional expressions of the music here, but the emotional effect is intensified in those specific situations.
This can be subverted at times to create confusion and unexpected gameplay moments such as in the following:
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty / Fission Mailed
Due to the narrative, the game suddenly goes into Game Over (Mission Failed) but on closer inspection, it says ‘Fission Mailed’. Since we are use to this Game Over screen and jingle, some players did not realise this was a fake Game Over and stopped playing.
Mario Kart Double Dash — Star Pick Up Item or activating the Chain Chomp item
Whenever a player activates a special item such as the Star or Chain Chomp, the in-game music changes to reflect the use of those items. While fun and light hearted in nature, it can be interpreted as terrifying for the other players who are desperately trying to avoid whoever activated them in the first place.
Upping the tempo at the final lap also has an effect on players. The situation becomes more desperate and it’s a player’s final chance at becoming first in the race.
There are many more examples of this which will discussed later when I write about Audio and Game Design.
Sound Effect & Design
Minecraft Pick Up SFX
(For something more musically neutral sounding / sound effect) Depending on the situation, the player can interpret this sound effect as either positive or negative since it’s already a neutral sounding tone.
I purposely did not choose any examples from Horror games for this as I wanted to show the scope in which Game Audio can manipulate players.
Emotional Contagion
Refers to the process where emotion is induced by the music because the listener perceives the emotional express and ‘mimics’ that expression internally.
Examples include:
Persona 5’s Beneath the Mask (Instrumental) / Beneath the Mask (Rain, Instrumental)
‘Beneath the Mask’ is an important track in the Persona 5 game and a subconscious indicator to the player on what the weather is like in-game. Like in real life, the weather changes the day mood, even though it is the same landscape. The ‘Rain’ version lacks the kit drum and bass which probably communicates a sense a solitude, isolation or loneliness depending on how you look at it. Much like how one would be walking under an umbrella. The rain does not drastically change gameplay (some areas on the map become inaccessible), just the mood of the narrative.
Final Fantasy VII — Aeris’ Death Scene
Spoiler alert? Either way the impact of the character’s death would not have been as intense if it weren’t for its iconic soundtrack that appears throughout the narrative and at poignant scenes in the game.
Another random fact:
This is probably obvious but worth mentioning that gamers usually play games in the evening and weekends to relax. We’re already accustomed to relaxing during these periods and we are therefore more susceptible to being emotionally affected by a game’s experience / audio.
By purposely not using horror game examples here (and therefore lacked specific sound design examples), I hope it can show just how already effective and impactful game music can be in general.
In my next article, I shall discuss film theory and go a bit more in-depth into the Narrative / Emotional Intensity timeline. After that, I will go into more focused Narrative Game Audio techniques which will hopefully be a helpful resource for both Audio folk and Game Designers and Developers.
Thanks for reading!
‘More Scary Wallpaper Plz’ or #MSWPlz is a series of audio analysis of Horror games and occasoinal film. More information here!
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