Community Poll: Preferred genres for sound assets

[Lee]

As the title suggests if you had the following genres: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Horror, and Steampunk, what would be the order of preference? I'd put up a poll, but the permutations left me lazy

[wolph42]

Steampunk - Horror - Sci-fi - Fantasy

edit: that's concerning my games. If however I would give it some thought on when I'd use it...
- opening and closing doors (sounds: clean, creaking hinges and sliding doors: the shooosh.)
- footsteps (sounds: clean step on solid, dito with echo, mud, water:splashing, muffled, breaking twig)
those are very general in use and can be used often. After that it becomes more specific and quite limitless, stuff like
- laughter:baby, kid, adolescent, adult (male female)
- engine starting, running, stopping
- guns shot (few 100 types of those)
but also background noises
- people talking in a bar (that one is quite general actually)

Overall i usually use sound effect in my games (currently) when describing horror scenes, there the sounds effects are the most effective.

btw why these four genres? Although I play sci-fi/steampunk I don't really envision 'steampunk' sounds... maybe the pumping of an engine and crackling of an electric arc, but thats about it. I would much more focus on
- background sounds (like the bar and running engine but also forest, cave, running water)
- 'voiced' sounds(like laughter, growling, talking, howling)
- action sounds (shooting gun, clapping hands, footsteps, closing/open door etc.)
- supernatural (or horror. Although i think this one is mostly covered by the other three)
These three categories probly need subdivisions, but you get the idea

Overall I would focus on HOW you're gonna use the sounds in your game. In that case the 'genre' is less important. Whether i open a hinged door in a sci-fi, fantasy or steampunk setting does not matter, same with laughter, bar, forest, gunshot.
There will be in some cases sounds types (like sliding doors) which do not occur in one of the genres or only occur in one genre but i would not make that leading. I would ask the community for what they would use it. And in my case the first thing that pops to mind is doors and footsteps and the second thing background noise or ambiance.

[Lee]

btw why these four genres? Although I play sci-fi/steampunk I don't really envision 'steampunk' sounds... maybe the pumping of an engine and crackling of an electric arc, but thats about it. I would much more focus on
- background sounds (like the bar and running engine but also forest, cave, running water)
- 'voiced' sounds(like laughter, growling, talking, howling)
- action sounds (shooting gun, clapping hands, footsteps, closing/open door etc.)
- supernatural (or horror. Although i think this one is mostly covered by the other three)
These three categories probly need subdivisions, but you get the idea

Overall I would focus on HOW you're gonna use the sounds in your game. In that case the 'genre' is less important. Whether i open a hinged door in a sci-fi, fantasy or steampunk setting does not matter, same with laughter, bar, forest, gunshot.
There will be in some cases sounds types (like sliding doors) which do not occur in one of the genres or only occur in one genre but i would not make that leading. I would ask the community for what they would use it. And in my case the first thing that pops to mind is doors and footsteps and the second thing background noise or ambiance.

Thanks for the input. While I understand your point completely from the user perspective, in this case, it is important to have grasp of genres in demand when it comes to people who actually mix sounds and compose music. If you recall the grander, more "lofty" aspects of what I want to accomplish, part of it is creating more active engagement with content creators. I am currently using time away from coding to begin this process.

It is my hope that the application being developed will allow the active congregation of users and content creators. Right now, it takes initiative on both parties to discover each other. You know as well as I that there are a lot of users who want quality assets, but have trouble finding any; and we both know that there are a lot of creative people putting together amazing works of art, but have trouble growing their audience and market.

As for my opinion on this particular subject, I've composed and performed semi-professionally when I was younger, and I can understand that it is a lot easier to follow a thematic aspect when writing for sounds and music. It can definitely help composers focus their talents to a more profitable goal, if nothing else.

[Full Bleed]

As the title suggests if you had the following genres: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Horror, and Steampunk, what would be the order of preference? I'd put up a poll, but the permutations left me lazy

Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Steampunk, Horror.

I think Horror is a little universal though, even though I don't even play games that are "strictly" horror.

Seeing as how Pathfinder and D&D are the biggest sellers in the industry I think you can safely bet on Fantasy being the top demand.

[aliasmask]

Fantasy, Horror, Steampunk, Sci-Fi

But this is literally what I refer to as bells and whistles which I general avoid. The genres have a lot of crossover though, so working on assets that would work with multiple themes would be a good start.

[Lee]

Thanks FB. You're right, it's likely the top

@A.M. I get what you mean. I have taken note of the times you mentioned this in the past, and mused about it myself. What I like about introducing this is, not only is this a step to being on par with other modern VTTS, but it's a good answer to the design question I keep asking myself: "How to involve players more in framework design?".

We all know that GMs are overloaded with work enough as it is; I believe this was part of the reasons why you have the "bells and whistles" opinion. But unlike, like say drafting a map or writing macros, putting together a soundscape that has a looping score, and ambient sounds, or writing macros that just fire sound effects appropriate to a generic scenario, is something players can chip in to make things more immersive, without receiving any spoilers on what's to come.

Besides, unlike other VTT assets, music assets are something that can be enjoyed outside a game session. Some of these scores are really awesome!

[CoveredInFish]

Hmm ... I guess since I tend to have short sessions with random genres I would go all for generic sounds. If you listen to hollywood scores you cant necessarily hear what genre a movie is apart from some sound effects. Dramatic music for sci fi sound pretty similar to dramatic music for pirates or medieval.

But I guess I'm a really low prep type of GM and can only dream of playing games where I spent serious time into selecting music/sound effects.

[Full Bleed]

We all know that GMs are overloaded with work enough as it is; I believe this was part of the reasons why you have the "bells and whistles" opinion. But unlike, like say drafting a map or writing macros, putting together a soundscape that has a looping score, and ambient sounds, or writing macros that just fire sound effects appropriate to a generic scenario, is something players can chip in to make things more immersive, without receiving any spoilers on what's to come.

Amen to that!

I've had players ask for sounds for spell effects and such as well. And while I'm not against having them, I don't want to have to be the one to go scouring the internet for this stuff.

That said, how will sounds triggers be permissioned?

[Dervish]

The sounds of stone grating on stone , The slam of a door, haunting cry on the wind. For mood i would use excerpts from the anime Berserk, some final fantasy XI bits are good to set the mood but for the most part my groups is mid to late 40's and we can live with a description.

[Lee]

That said, how will sounds triggers be permissioned?

It's has 4 levels for granularity. Server setup option (i.e. like Strict Token Ownership) to GM-only, a prompt for GM-permission when a player attempts to stream to the group (this also has a GM-side toggle-per-player, to bypass asking for permission), free-play-for-all, and receiver-side mute. GM's cannot be muted, though their broadcasts can be paused, stopped, and resumed on the receiver's end.

@Dervish True. Nothing beats imagination

[Jade]

Really late, but to me, the sounds of Fantasy and the sounds of Horror are closely related. But then, I've played a lot of WFRP...

So, keeping that perspective in mind, I'd say Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, Steampunk, but possibly switching Sci-Fi and Steampunk, especially if "Steampunk" means Enlightenment sounds (steam engines, musket fire, waterwheels, etc.)