2005 Game of the Year: Sound

Music in a game, along with the sound effects, goes a long way towards creating the ambience.  In fact, they may even have more of an effect on the overall game experience than  the graphics.

While Indie games tend to lag just a touch behind when it comes to graphics, the music in Independent games is as good as any out there.  From Punk to Mexi-Cali Rock, from human voice to computer, this year's games cover a lot of ground and sound great doing it.

5th Place - Glow Worm

Developer: Flashbang Studios		Players: 1
Website	Download		Purchase
System Requirements: Windows 98/2000/XP/Me, 600MHz, 128MB RAM, 16 MB Video, DirectX 7+

The music in casual games is typically something you just skip over.  Maybe that is because a lot of the casual gamers play the games with the music off.

If there was ever a reason for you to make sure you had the sound on while playing a casual puzzle game, Glow Worm is it. 

For whatever reason, Flashbang Studios seems to have a knack for creating game soundtracks that put players at ease and sound fantastic.  With their last IGF finalist, Beesly's Buzzwords, it was done through the judicial use of classical music. 

Glow Worm's sounds certainly aren't classical, but the new-age sounding background music is entertaining and light without ever becoming repetitive.  In addition, some work has been spent on the voice of your your tutor, which helps in the overall game feel.  Turn on Glow Worm and no one will ask you to turn the volume down.

4th Place - Façade

Developer: Procedural Arts		Players: 1
Website
System Requirements: Windows XP/2000/ME, 1.6 GHz, 256MB RAM

A lot of what makes Façade work as well as it does is the voice acting in the game. Creating characters that respond to player's typing by speaking is certainly no easy task as it requires thousands of pre-recorded responses with today's technology or a computer voice that speaks its responses. As good as computer voices have gotten they are still no match for the drama that can be created by a good actor.

The voice acting in Façade is tremendous and goes a long way towards heightening the drama that is found in the game (it also contributes to the absolutely enormous size of the game...an 800 mb download!)

The sound was carefully crafted in the game so that voices heard in another room sound like they are in another room and the audio environment feels very realistic. With a game that is completely centered on the responses that come from the characters in the game, and your ability to perceive the emotion behind the responses, Façade could have been a bust without good voice acting. Instead it pushes itself away from the pack as being one of the best sounding games available this year.

3rd Place - Ultratron

Developer: Puppy Games		Players: 1
Website	Download
System Requirements: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, Mac, Linux

The first time I heard 'Run Coward' while playing Sinistar I freaked out. Where could I go to get away from this other-worldly beast that was soon to be encroaching on my spacecraft? Puppy Games has brought much of the same emotion through the fantastic sound in their Robotron-esque game Ultratron.

Ultratron really focuses on being a minimalist when it comes to the sound. There isn't any sound-track with madly blaring guitars playing in the background.  Instead, it is the silence of the computer world that your character inhabits that creates the atmosphere.

The world has its own sounds as different enemies move around the screen and there is a pulsing drone in the background that helps create a feeling of fear. When the computer voice kicks in with 'Kill all humanoids!' the stage is complete for a game that creates a large amount of the environment in your mind with the imagery created by the sounds in the game. Sometimes simple is better, and the simple sounds in Ultratron are simply amazing.

2nd Place - Zombie Smashers X2

Developer: Totally Screwed		Players: 1-2 (Co-Operative)
Website			Purchase
System Requirements: 450 MHz, 64 MB RAM, 16MB video card, DirectX 8+

There are few games that go to the point of including music with actual lyrics in games (not just in the menus), and often times it doesn't work out. Perhaps it is because when concentrating on the lyrics, players loose track of what they are doing on the screen. Perhaps its because popular songs are chosen for games that just don't seem to go with them.

Whatever the trap is, Zombie Smashers X2 definitely doesn't fall into it. The game is built around a punk music theme which complements the gameplay perfectly.   The less-entertaining music that is used while you travel around town works to set the stage for the punk tracks that accompany the levels.

The music is well-chosen for the blood-splattering happy Smashers and will lead players to return to areas just to hear the tracks. There are a couple of games each year that are well-worth the money just to hear the sound-track (and perhaps they should sell the soundtrack). Zombie Smashers X2 is definitely one of those games. If you haven't given this one a go yet you are missing out on some great tunes and some great gameplay that comprise a great game that also won our Action Game of the Year award.

2005 Game of the Year: Sound - Mexican Motor Mafia

Developer: Science of Tomorrow		Players: 1-6
Website	Download		Purchase
System Requirements: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, Pentium III 600 MHz, 128 RAM, Geforce or better Video Card with 32 MB RAM, Direct X 9.0c+

Mexican Motor Mafia shows the results of hard work in many aspects.  One of the key areas in making this game so enjoyable is the sound. 

While pictures may say a thousand words, music can instantly transport your mind to another world.  The sound tracks in Mexican Motor Mafia do just that with some great guitar-driven tracks with a Mexi-Cali feel to them.  The music makes the player feel like they can taste the dust of the cars as players drive around fighting desperados in Mexico.

Of course, great music doesn't come easily and Science of Tomorrow took tremendous amounts of time and effort making sure they had a set of songs for the game that was unique sounding with the quality of a CD-soundtrack. 

We contacted the developer to talk about it, which led to some great background information about how the music was obtained.  It was certainly a journey, though multiple musicians and avenues over a long period with several instances where things had to be nearly started over from scratch.  The game's developer was driven to come up with the perfect variety of paces in the music that would match this game's distinctive look and feel and help in many ways to create the experience that players are engaged in when they play this game. 

The music in Mexican Motor Mafia is second to none, and the sound effects are solid as well, with great explosions, revving engines, and screeching tires that make this game a treat to listen to. The music in Mexican Motor Mafia lends itself to the greatness of the game and led it to being the winner of the Game of the Year award for sound.

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By: Russell Carroll
Posted: Saturday December 24, 2005