Sound/Music (or lack thereof) in adult games

[khumak]

I've noticed that most of the adult games out there seem to be entirely silent for some reason. I've seen some posts by some people who say that when there IS sound, they just mute the sound and play their own music anyway but for me if the sound effects/music actually fit in with the story they're almost as important as the visuals. So I'm curious why so few games have it. Do you mute the audio on your TV shows/movies and just play music during that as well?

Is it just an issue of copywright? Lazyness? Lack of demand? I would assume there are places where you can find public domain music/sound effects that could be used so you don't have to be a musician yourself. So maybe you couldn't use recent music without paying for it but you should be able to find sound effects and public domain music to use. Not that paying for/licensing music/effects to use would be bad, but I can understand people not wanting to pay for it unless they know they'll recoup the investment with Patreon subs/Steam sales.

Not including voice acting makes sense to me since it's so much work to get voice actors to record all of your dialog so that makes sense to me. The lack of music/sound effects/ambient noise, I find strange though.

 

[polywog]

I would assume there are places where you can find public domain music/sound effects that could be used

You must be registered to see the links

 

[BossFloof]

We're planning to have sounds and music in our game. But it's also hard to have a good soundscape. It influences so much of your experience and perception of the game, sometimes it's just better to not have sound at all, than bad sound.
We're currently struggling to find good music. There's lots of free stuff, but a theme song should be somewhat iconic and tell a story of the game and fit its style.

For sound FX there are lots of talented voice actors out there who are affordable. But they also need good briefing and context to produce something that doesn't sound cheap. Voice-overs are really expensive in comparison when you have lots of text.

Last but not least, integrating sound nicely into a game is actually rather tricky, technically. You don't want to hear the same sound over and over, you want variety, and you want sound to be dynamically mastered to hear what's actually going on. There are specialized sound engines to mix and play interactive sound and music. And those are pretty expensive.

tl;dr - sound is tricky and no sound is better than bad sound

Edit: I wanted to zombie this thread as I also want to hear other opinions on sound, music and its importance

 

[Domiek]

Usually the games that do have sounds, it's mostly royalty free music with the odd sound effect here and there. This is why most people just mute it and play their own.

Editing and mixing a bunch of random sounds to fit the game and be consistent is tricky. Making your own means that you have to buy new equipment, software and learn an additional skill to the many others already involved in these games.

Great, now we have all sounds except for the characters. Are you going to record all the moaning and grunting yourself, even for the girls?

Before long, you're knee deep in the sound design side of things and most people are telling you that they don't give a shit about sound, they mute it anyways. You sit in a cold corner, holding on tightly to your dear friend Jack Daniels. You fall asleep in each other's embrace on a damp tear soaked carpet.

 

[riktor]

I tend to disable the music in all games where it is possible, not just porn games. Hell I wish I had the option to do so for tv shows and movies.

 

[fidless]

I have no idea. To me, sound and music are part of the game. Quality stuff is easily available and cheap nowadays.
Maybe some just don't care, but the concept of it is just too strange for me to understand.
Sound is part of experience, authenticity. Something that makes a game and let players to immerse themselves into its world.

 

[Lemon Mint]

Personally speaking, games without sound lack any sense of immersion. Like, it really feels like half of the experience is not really there. Most adult game players might not care about it, but I certainly do, so that's why I try to give my games proper BGM.

 

[DoctorPervic]

I am currently working on a Scifi Game that is fully sound effected, with a bit of background music where it is appropriated.
The only thing that is voiced in my game is the Computer, saying small sentances.

I would be interested to know how many people on F95 would be interested in playing a fully sound FX game or is the majority only interested in No sound.