Sound Design Horror: Induzieren von Angst in Videospielen

Abstract

Different from the visual sense, from which players can easily withdraw themselves by closing their eyes, humans are continously exposed to an acoustic stimulus and the information that is transfered through this sense of hearing. This master thesis tries to outline sound design principles of video games inside the horror genre which can be used to induce different kinds of terror within the player, by analysing sound design techniques used within them. Research shows, that linking fundamental fears of human hearing perception with sound design principles, such as subverting players expectation can heavily induce terror and increase the effectiveness of scares within a horror game scenario.To finalize, this paper will apply the acquired knowledge to e.g. create a sense of loneliness in certain sound design heavy parts of the video game SONDER, the master project of the author and document on how the sound design is implemented.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	German (Austria)
Supervisor	Roland Keil (Supervisor)