Exploring the Use of Musical Sound Effects in Games

Musical sound effects are brief, event-triggered sounds, apart from the dialogue or music, which nonetheless contain a distinctly musical element as part of their sonic essence. Combining semiotic codes and thematic materials, musical sound effects can serve various important functions in video games: accentuating emotions, building worlds, providing signals and clues, and other purposes. This chapter explores various examples of their use, discussing how and why they are used on a case by case basis. It then provides readers with different techniques that can be applied to their own video game music projects.