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Sierra Clark
Level Design
Bump in the Night : Best Practices for Compelling Horror in Audio
For my thesis , I investigated the best sound techniques most commonly used in horror films and games . I collected these techniques by watching a wide variety of movies and playing many horror games and noting which were used the most often across various subgenres . These techniques also had a pattern in their timing , which led me to categorize the techniques I found by the four-act structure ( introduction , rising action , climax , resolution ). By categorizing these techniques based on timing , I created a checklist that level designers can use to pick sound events to use in different acts
in their own levels .
Once I had identified which techniques were most effective during which act , I created an Unreal 4 horror game over the course of 250 hours . In this game , the visuals are extremely neutral and only the audio is used to create player tension .
This project honed my knowledge of Unreal , blueprinting , and audio design . This project sets a helpful precedent of looping audio directly into the level design process as a holistic part of games as an audio-visual medium .
36 LEVEL DESIGN