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The Number One Educational Resource for the Game Industry

Session Name: The Neuroscience of Game Audio
Speaker(s): Zak Belica, Seth Horowitz
Company Name(s): Epic Games, Inc., NeuroPop, Inc.
Track / Format: Design

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Overview: Much is known about how the brain processes information, but until recently, little has been known about how the brain actually processes sound. New studies that shed light on how the brain hears, processes and interprets sound can yield useful and sometimes surprising techniques. Examples include:
  • Leveraging audio reaction times and refresh rates with audio input
  • The startle circuit: how to leverage it
  • Emotional responses to audio types: what humans react the strongest to, and have innate associations with
  • Creature audio design: take advantage of what humans are afraid of
  • Emotional responses to music, and how to leverage an unconscious narrative
  • How low quality and unsynchronized audio will make your game look worse
With audio system capabilities growing to a point where limitations on sound use are disappearing, it will become more and more important to manage the presentation and complexity of audio. By tuning an audio presentation to take advantage of how the brain processes and focuses on sound, much richer and more meaningful experiences can be crafted.

GDC 2015

Zak Belica

Epic Games, Inc.

Seth Horowitz

NeuroPop, Inc.

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Design

Design

Audio

Audio