Do you care about having music in your adult games?

[TacoHoleStory]

I find that I need some sort of background sound, but I'd be just as happy with environment noise loops - e.g. birds and wind if it's an outside scene. I've never found an adult game where I've thought, wow music is really enhancing this experience, and often the music used is soulless stock music or painfully repetitive. Music could be good, but we don't exactly have huge budgets.

What are your opinions on this?

 

[sillyrobot]

Game gets launched. Mute is applied. I never discover if a game has the ability to make noise.

If I want ambience or background, I'll use my own library to supply it. That said, I heard someone else playing Love and Magic, and the background music is appropriate and decent if a trifle overloud in dramatic scenes so I suppose some game devs make good choices.

 

[Jumbi]

I usually mute the music. I find it distracting most of the time. I guess I may be missing some fine music by doing this, but it works best for me.

 

[fitgirlbestgirl]

Bad poll. The correct answer is obviously both, based on the scene and the context. Constant music can get tiring, but it enhances games if it's well chosen and used at the right times.

 

[woody554]

ambient sounds are by far the most underused extremely powerful tool in the games we see here. especially when we're mostly talking about daz models with their inherent limitations at expressing emotions. 90% of a movie's emotion comes from its soundscape, NOT the actors. and I'm sure we've all seen the videos where a horror movie gets transformed into a light-hearted romCom or vice versa by simply changing the soundscape appropriately.

songs are a little different, and mostly don't work. unless they fit in the aforementioned soundscape view. that's one of the main reasons modern hollywood movies are so shit, they're used as just another marketing platform for the newest piece of shit act a record company needs to push for you.

so avoid songs, unless they're the type that creates more ambiance than a performance. the rule of thumb is: if you're aware that a song is playing, it's way too much of a 'song' instead of soundscape.

have a humming fridge in the kitchen or a basement, birds in the backyard and especially forest. rain is awesome. have suspense ambience when the mc is creeping around mom's bed, have a quiet smooth jazz drift on when the mom enters your room in the middle of the night. that sort of thing.

but it needs to be subtle, 99% of the time. you can't have loud reggae blasting every time the mc drops his pants. I get that it's supposed to be a joke like 'here we go again', but the problem with jokes is you don't want to be repeating the same joke 5 times a day for hundreds of game days. it needs to be subtle, not in your face.

***

and just in case it isn't obvious, people who mute their porn are not relevant to this question. they will mute it no matter what, like they always say. none of your sound design decisions should be based on their opinion, they will not be listening to it whatever you do. this is not meant as an insult, there are loads of good reasons to mute. but the point is if you mute, you remove yourself from the pool of relevant sound design opinions.

 

[sillyrobot]

<anip>

and just in case it isn't obvious, people who mute their porn are not relevant to this question. they will mute it no matter what, like they always say. none of your sound design decisions should be based on their opinion, they will not be listening to it whatever you do. this is not meant as an insult, there are loads of good reasons to mute. but the point is if you mute, you remove yourself from the pool of relevant sound design opinions.

Nah. We demonstrate how little relevance sound decisions have.

 

[Carrera]

I almost always mute the sound, and despite what some people would like to believe in their tiny world view it's because I prefer the sound in my imagination over the crap many devs wind up using. It either doesn't fit the scene, not normalized volume wise, or is just atrocious from the outset.

 

[qazqwertyer]

Even bad music, if used correctly, can lead to a good experience. I can't number the times I've heard that one track that starts with a drum roll in all Ren'Py games, but if you want to make a moment feel ridiculous and cheesy you can have me laugh just by blasting that overused tune.

Audio is a tool; if you know how to use it properly it will always be a good addition. If you don't, well, you are better off not polluting your game.

 

[woody554]

I almost always mute the sound, and despite what some people would like to believe in their tiny world view it's because I prefer the sound in my imagination over the crap many devs wind up using. It either doesn't fit the scene, not normalized volume wise, or is just atrocious from the outset.

do you watch your movies muted in the "tiny world" where you prefer your amazing imagination to the real thing? I'm willing to be anything that you don't.

 

[sillyrobot]

do you watch your movies muted in the "tiny world" where you prefer your amazing imagination to the real thing? I'm willing to be anything that you don't.

If I'm watching a sub-titled film, it's possible. If not, no. because that medium is being used to convey an information stream known as conversation.

 

[Beatrix Kiddo]

A mix of everything. There's some obnoxious music out there, but a nice and soft backgroung music is always welcome if done properly. I don't want it to grab my attention, just a subtle little something that adds to the experience. Ambience sound works just fine too.

Also, on a side note, I find most games lacking in sound effects. I've seen too many ass-spanking scenes with no slapping sounds. Granted that it can be done awfully too.

 

[Deleted member 1942105]

Depends on how well it's used but in general, Music/Ambience can have a very big impact on a game or movie. I dont think adult games are an exception here.

 

[MrFriendly]

Nope, very few adult games have good music. Some even use the same generic free use music that half a dozen other games have used before. Inevitably unless the game has handpicked and curated playlists, Leap of Faith for example, I turn the music off.

On the other hand I like hearing ambient sounds, it helps immerse me in the scene. I even like it when there are sex sounds, heavy breathing, etc. But most games don't do any sounds or don't do them well. Even the bigger developers don't have much in the way of sounds. If the MC was someplace that had music playing, say a coffee shop or a concert, then I could see having music for that scene.

The generic loud "game" soundtrack music is terrible and always causes me to mute and, at worst, quit a game.

 

[hakarlman]

IMO,

Music makes up 33% of the erotic impact. Erotic impact is the height of the buildup, where you attempt to make the user cum as hard as possible.

You need to hit these three senses ALL at once during the erotic climax:
- Visual 33% (Great art or renders)
- Mind 33% (The mind fuck. Writing that completely fucks with the mind, and the user is like WTF, it's so erotic!)
- Auditory 33% (music that hits hard just at the right moment)

No music means you're robbing your senses of stimulation. Can a scene still be erotic without music? OF COURSE, but why not make the erotic moment 33% more erotic with appropriate music?

 

[God3333]

For me I'd never judge a game negatively for not having music/sound, but if it does then I'll get more enjoyment. It's not needed, but it's appreciated. Of course, as long as it's done right, i.e I don't wanna hear a kevin macleod tune when I'm beating.

 

[rayminator]

I pick silence because I watch my TV shows and movies

 

[duningtwo]

appropriate noise stings, yeah. screams, gunshots, etc. easy to apply, plenty of audio libraries for cheap. far and away the most important audio i think. moaning and other sex noises, sure. ambient background noise is fine but coffee shop chatter really adds nothing very important. it's proper white noise, i don't notice when it isn't there. music i mute, i listen to my own. voice acting, fuck no. i agree with buddy up there that love of magic has good music, only memorable example i can think of off the top of my head.

 

[FoolBoy]

Ambience for immersion does help the given scene, music on the other hand is mostly just akwardly chosen and breaks the immersion. Of course all depends on production quality. ME3 (some say not a eroge ;-) love scene with Liara uses music very well, while cheap slap sounds in some webm's turn me off instantly.

 

[Korder]

Muting the music is the first thing I do when I boot up a new adult game.

 

[C_Cullen]

Proper music would be great and I'm sure people wouldn't mind. Problem is... erotic games just don't have "proper music", so it's annoying and distracting more often than not due to bad choice of said music.