WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:05.120 A fair warning: This video regards a horror game,  and it will feature some creepy sounds. It will   00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:10.000 not contain any jumpscares, though. I promise.  This is best experienced through headphones.   00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:14.960 {What I Love!} 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:20.320 >>Announcer: Hello! And welcome! This educational video  is designed to show you how a horror game   00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:25.760 and its soundscape can intensify each other. Any  other effects this video imparts are beyond the   00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:31.360 liability of Fazbear Entertainment. Now you  may be wondering: what is sound intensity?   00:00:31.360 --> 00:00:35.760 How does it work? How can it keep me safe  from any malfunctioning equipment in my   00:00:35.760 --> 00:00:40.720 business establishment? Rest assured, the Five  Nights at Freddy’s series can answer the first   00:00:40.720 --> 00:00:46.320 two questions. Due to budgetary considerations  and certainly not due to supernatural threats,   00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:53.280 this video will only be covering FNaF 2, 3,  4, Sister Location, and Pizzeria Simulator.   00:00:53.280 --> 00:00:58.080 But it should be noted that sound intensity  occurs in all horror games, in fact it occurs   00:00:58.080 --> 00:01:00.293 everywhere. There is no escape from—   00:01:00.293 --> 00:01:02.560 —experience. And without further ado, 00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:07.760 let’s hand it off to our guide, Scruffy, who needs  to deliver a concise review of sound intensity in   00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:12.240 the aforementioned games, if they wish to ward  off the animatronics approaching the studio.   00:01:12.240 --> 00:01:14.960 >>Scruffy: Wait, what? That wasn’t in rehears— >>Announcer: Remember to keep your eyes and   00:01:14.960 --> 00:01:18.560 ears peeled, and from all of us at  Fazbear Entertainment, good luck.   00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:22.480 >>Scruffy: Wha… a-approaching the studio!? [distant animatronic sounds]   00:01:22.480 --> 00:01:24.400 Ohhhkay! [thumps from air vent]   00:01:24.400 --> 00:01:31.280 Uhh.. I-I’m Scruffy, and today, we gotta get  right into it: “sound intensity.” It’s a very   00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:37.760 subjective concept about how much tension a sound  raises. It’s not as quantifiable as sound volume,   00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:42.560 nor even as agreed upon as sound velocity, which  is the rough amount of force with which something   00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:50.480 is activated to create a sound. Though, generally  speaking, louder, more forceful sounds are   00:01:50.480 --> 00:01:55.920 more likely to be intense. But there are also  cases where softer sounds can be intense,   00:01:55.920 --> 00:02:02.240 for instance, someone yelling into a pillow. It’s  also intense perhaps because the sound raises   00:02:02.240 --> 00:02:07.600 questions. Where’s that yelling coming from?  Who is yelling? Why is it muffled? Or, sounds   00:02:07.600 --> 00:02:12.640 can become intense by association, which means  each person can find different sounds intense.   00:02:12.640 --> 00:02:17.120 But there are sometimes popular sounds like— [jack-in-the-box jingle repeats]   00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:22.240 Y-yeah, like that. That a great deal of people  have come to associate with rising tension for   00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:29.840 a sudden... jump... And it’s precisely this  sort of stress that can be exploited in a   00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:35.040 horror game to make the player even more uneasy.  So, let me share some examples that this handful of   00:02:35.040 --> 00:02:38.800 FNAF games do well. These aren’t exclusive  examples, they’re done well in other   00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:42.800 horror games that I’ll want to talk about  later, and there’s no story spoilers here,   00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:46.720 but it’d be good to know the jist of the  gameplay experience as we go through each game.   00:02:46.720 --> 00:02:51.520 So, let’s begin with: FNaF 2: Unknown Drones   00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:56.080 Sounds are easily intense when we don’t know  what their source is. Whether we can’t locate   00:02:56.080 --> 00:03:00.960 the sound, or we haven’t heard that kind of sound  before. FNaF2 gets pretty intense already just   00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:06.240 through pure gameplay, but in the slower moments  of the game where you have little to no control,   00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:11.920 a slew of untraceable sounds intensify the  experience. If any animatronics are in your   00:03:11.920 --> 00:03:18.080 office, primed to attack you, you get this TV  static in your ears, where is that coming from?  00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:23.840 If the Puppet’s music box isn’t kept wound, and  it escapes and is set to attack you, you literally  00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:29.200 hear the jack-in-the-box jingle anywhere you look,  how is it doing that? You can even confirm the   00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:35.760 location of one animatronic, Mangle, by the radio  static it’s constantly emitting. Sure, but why   00:03:35.760 --> 00:03:41.760 does it have to make such a garbled, incongruous  sound? And then, personally the creepiest for   00:03:41.760 --> 00:03:47.120 me are these interactive cutscenes between the  nights of gameplay, where you are inexplicably   00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:52.080 given the perspective of Freddy Fazbear, on  stage with Bonnie and Chica. Visually, not   00:03:52.080 --> 00:04:06.160 much is going on, but once we add the audio… [unsettling noises from FNaF2's cutscenes]   00:04:06.160 --> 00:04:10.160 I don’t know what’s making that collection of  sounds, I don’t know where they’re coming from,   00:04:10.160 --> 00:04:15.760 I don’t know if they’re real or hallucinatory.  While I’m playing, my guess is as good as yours.   00:04:15.760 --> 00:04:21.120 That is effective sound intensity. Now, a related case of unknown sound is when we do   00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:26.560 recognize the sound, but it’s indicating something  that we haven’t or can’t immediately confirm.   00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:32.320 This is why alarms are intense. When we hear an  alarm before confirming that time has passed,   00:04:32.320 --> 00:04:36.640 when we hear an alarm before we know that there’s  smoke in a room, or that a car has been jacked,   00:04:36.640 --> 00:04:41.680 or that a message is so important that all  televisions need to broadcast it simultaneously.   00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:46.560 Alarms earn their intensity by  association, which is why this— [FNaF hallway alarm plays] 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:52.720 this alarm becomes intense in FNaF2, initially. It  indicates that an animatronic is in the vents,   00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:57.760 and you’d probably hear it before you confirm  it... yep, there they are! We need to move on. 00:04:57.760 --> 00:05:03.280 FNaF 3: Context is Everything So, this sequel generally scales   00:05:03.280 --> 00:05:08.640 things back from FNaF2. You’re now only  dealing with one real animatronic instead of…   00:05:08.640 --> 00:05:13.760 at least ten. And though the sound design follows  in the footsteps of FNaF2, I’d argue the intensity   00:05:13.760 --> 00:05:18.960 is a bit scaled back as well. You have some alarm  sounds that definitely raise questions the first   00:05:18.960 --> 00:05:23.280 time you hear them. And, there’s another cool  between-night interactive cutscene where you   00:05:23.280 --> 00:05:28.400 explore an Atari-esque rendering of a pizzeria,  once again playing as Freddy and the gang,   00:05:28.400 --> 00:05:35.200 but with more incongruous audio of  thunder and… strange, quiet rustling.   00:05:35.200 --> 00:05:39.600 But again, I’d argue it’s not as immediately  intense, this game’s a little more reserved   00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:43.600 about creating auditory stress. And,  there’s an interesting shared sound   00:05:43.600 --> 00:05:48.800 effect between it and FNaF2. This is actually  an example of de-intensifying a sound.   00:05:48.800 --> 00:05:54.080 So, back in FNaF2 we have one animatronic, Balloon  Boy, who will eventually try to get into your   00:05:54.080 --> 00:05:59.840 office to sap your flashlight power. Pretty sure  we’re safe for right now, but when he does move,   00:05:59.840 --> 00:06:05.440 it comes with little utterances like these: [Balloon Boy voice]   00:06:05.440 --> 00:06:09.920 And that’s really off-putting initially,  this human voice is suddenly coming from   00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:16.000 somewhere. That’s intense enough. Yet go over  to FNaF3, and now these Balloon Boy sounds are   00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:20.400 actually in your toolset to help you. You  can play these sounds in a specific room,   00:06:20.400 --> 00:06:24.640 and the animatronic you’re warding off,  Springtrap, will be coaxed to go there,   00:06:24.640 --> 00:06:30.080 thinking there’s someone in there. It’s one way to  keep Springtrap away from your office. And by all   00:06:30.080 --> 00:06:35.040 means, this was just a gamedev decision: it’s  easier to reuse sounds from a previous title.   00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:40.240 But, by recontextualizing them, these sounds are  now no longer intense, they are positive feedback   00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:45.680 for your actions, and we now know exactly where  this sound is coming from and why. Now it would be   00:06:45.680 --> 00:06:50.080 more intense not to hear them when you press this  button, isn’t it funny how it works like that.   00:06:50.080 --> 00:06:52.160 [sound of button failing] Ohh dear,   00:06:52.160 --> 00:06:59.360 uhh, while I reboot this, let’s move on to: FNaF 4: Food Tastes Stronger When You’re Hungry 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:02.880 Strange subtitle, I know, but in the  same way that taste is intensified   00:07:02.880 --> 00:07:08.720 when we perceive a lack of food, hearing gets  intensified when we perceive a lack of sound.   00:07:08.720 --> 00:07:13.440 FNaF4 takes place in a child’s bedroom at  night, and while it’s never silent in there,   00:07:13.440 --> 00:07:17.840 it is remarkably quieter than the previous  games in the series. There’s a fan in this room,   00:07:17.840 --> 00:07:22.560 but unlike the previous games, it isn’t running.  You just have some low, ominous droning,   00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:27.729 some grandfather clock chimes in the distance, and  the sound you’re told to listen for: 00:07:27.729 --> 00:07:29.040 breathing. 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:34.080 Yes, if you hear breathing when you check a door,  you are to close it to stop the animatronic from   00:07:34.080 --> 00:07:40.160 attacking you right there. But breathing  is quiet. The breathing that indicates an   00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:45.840 animatronic is inches away rises only a little  above the ambient noise of your room. And so,   00:07:45.840 --> 00:07:51.600 in a playthrough of FNaF4, you have to parse  sounds very granularly. Your ear is searching   00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:56.640 for small differences in volume, which makes  any difference in volume become more intense.   00:07:56.640 --> 00:08:00.720 And, might I add, that’s only when you’re checking  the doors: in other parts of the room there are   00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:05.360 different, non-audial mechanisms for warding off  animatronics. Not to mention this setting has   00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:10.475 some of the lowest light so far in the series,  so you clamor for visual information as well.   00:08:10.475 --> 00:08:13.600 In my previous video about Five Nights  at Freddy’s, I referred to this as   00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:18.320 absence of information, when the player knows  that something’s being withheld from them.   00:08:18.320 --> 00:08:24.160 But it’s not exactly withheld information, it’s  just faint information that takes focus to absorb   00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:29.520 and corroborate into a plan. And with so many  tasks to juggle, focusing on miniscule sounds   00:08:29.520 --> 00:08:32.880 and details is intense, stressful even. [slight noise in the background]   00:08:32.880 --> 00:08:40.640 Ooh, I heard that! We should move along, to: FNaF: Sister Location: Narrative Dissonance 00:08:40.640 --> 00:08:44.560 First of all, this game is a smorgasbord  of everything we’ve talked about so far.   00:08:44.560 --> 00:08:49.120 You have weird unknown sounds all over the  place, you have some sounds that would be intense   00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:53.600 except that they’re given into your control, and  thus you miss them when they aren’t present; and   00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:58.720 you have one environment, the Ballora Gallery, in  which you must traverse a pitch-black room while   00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:06.800 listening out for a quiet ballerina music box,  indicating that the animatronic Ballora is nearby.   00:09:06.800 --> 00:09:10.640 So, with all that present, I wanted to touch on  something a little different in this game since   00:09:10.640 --> 00:09:17.120 it’s so focused on narrators. FNaF 4 was the first  in the series with no vocal narrator, before that   00:09:17.120 --> 00:09:21.920 Scott Cawthon himself was reading voice clips over  the phone in every game. But in Sister Location,   00:09:21.920 --> 00:09:27.040 you have two new AI narrators who guide you  through the game, telling you your next tasks   00:09:27.040 --> 00:09:31.680 and how to perform them. And perhaps their literal  narration sound experiences some glitches here and   00:09:31.680 --> 00:09:37.760 there. But a more postmodern way to intensify  this narration is to add narrative dissonance,   00:09:37.760 --> 00:09:42.320 where what is being narrated does not match  what is happening in the story. There’s some   00:09:42.320 --> 00:09:47.200 great exchanges where the HandUnit narrator will  have you check for the animatronic Circus Baby   00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:51.680 using a light. And even though she isn’t  on her stage, the narrator believes she is,   00:09:51.680 --> 00:09:56.320 and events continue. Rather than a specific  sound, it’s language this time that makes you   00:09:56.320 --> 00:10:01.520 aware that things aren’t as they seem, and thus  the general arc of the game gets more intense.   00:10:01.520 --> 00:10:05.520 There’s later a moment where Circus Baby will  start talking to you, and she will say things   00:10:05.520 --> 00:10:10.400 in direct conflict with the previous narrator’s  instructions. Again, when the game raises more   00:10:10.400 --> 00:10:15.680 and more unconfirmable questions this way,  the whole experience becomes more intense.   00:10:15.680 --> 00:10:20.160 This game was also significant in the series for  having an original soundtrack, rather than using   00:10:20.160 --> 00:10:25.840 stock music. And the game’s composer, Leon Riskin,  worked some narrative dissonance into the music.   00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:29.840 Most of the time you spend playing has no music,  and some of the most dramatic or plot-heavy   00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:35.120 moments will play some deep, moody themes. But  the endpoints of each night are announced by   00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:41.840 contrastingly comedic little jingles, with  cheery elevator music at the beginning,   00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:46.320 and a theme at the end of a night that  sounds straight out of an 80’s VHS.   00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:51.120 This game certainly flares its sense of humor  when there’s room for a break from intensity,   00:10:51.120 --> 00:10:56.160 but I find it fascinating that even this humor  can raise more concerns than it satisfies.   00:10:56.160 --> 00:11:00.400 There’s one great moment in the game where  the literal sound of this dark comedy suddenly   00:11:00.400 --> 00:11:04.800 spikes the moment’s intensity. You’re quietly  making your way through the Ballora Gallery,   00:11:04.800 --> 00:11:09.634 your ears are primed to the low noise floor,  attentive for any distant music, when suddenly:   00:11:09.634 --> 00:11:14.284 Announcer: "The HandUnit narrator chimes in  at full volume, telling you to hurry up."   00:11:14.284 --> 00:11:19.204 Scruffy: It’s not a jumpscare in the traditional  sense, but it is a type of sound intensity that   00:11:19.204 --> 00:11:25.298 gets highlighted in the next FNaF title: FNaF Pizzeria Simulator: Player Noise 00:11:25.298 --> 00:11:30.800 Whew, we can do this. So, after you design your  own pizzeria in this game, you have to survive in   00:11:30.800 --> 00:11:36.080 it, performing some menial maintenance tasks like  ordering pizzeria supplies and printing posters,   00:11:36.080 --> 00:11:41.040 while any malicious animatronics inside track  you down from the vents on either side of you.   00:11:41.040 --> 00:11:45.440 A lot of variables affect your ability to make  it through this, but one thing’s for sure:   00:11:45.440 --> 00:11:52.640 you are loud, when you’re trying to be  quiet. It’s kind of flipping the script of FNaF4:   00:11:52.640 --> 00:11:57.280 now in addition to listening out for the once  again miniscule sounds and voice clips that alert   00:11:57.280 --> 00:12:03.120 you to nearby animatronics, you have to do tasks  like printing, on the world’s noisiest printer,   00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:07.680 and keep your office cool using a droning  fan. Or, maybe you had your pizzeria   00:12:07.680 --> 00:12:14.320 sponsored by a third-party company, and their  ad blares on your computer all of a sudden.   00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:18.480 Those sounds attract animatronics, and make  it more difficult to hear the sounds you’re   00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:23.280 really wary for. And even worse, there isn’t  a clock-out time: you can only leave when all   00:12:23.280 --> 00:12:29.040 these boisterous tasks are complete. So, this  game especially feels like flirting with death:   00:12:29.040 --> 00:12:33.600 it’s further exploiting how we perceive  things when we’re instructed to stay quiet.   00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:38.560 Every noise against that quiet state is  intensified, especially the noises that are   00:12:38.560 --> 00:12:44.320 our fault, that we can trace to ourselves. So even  a sound that might not usually be that intense,   00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:49.360 like appliances humming, starts to  become a stressor in this context.   00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:54.240 That’s the thing about sound intensity, it  depends heavily on context, on how our minds   00:12:54.240 --> 00:13:00.080 were previously attuned or instructed to perceive  sounds, and how much we know about the source and   00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:05.200 the meaning of the sound. But these were some  ways the FNaF series flavored its gameplay   00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:10.880 to make less complex scenarios still stressful,  and perhaps to make jumpscares feel like they   00:13:10.880 --> 00:13:16.400 top off a tense buildup, rather than come out  of nowhere. And I have no doubt the FNaF devs   00:13:16.400 --> 00:13:21.120 and growing community are not done with  cooking up these intense experiences.   00:13:21.120 --> 00:13:27.520 But, one last thing to note. There was a point  starting at FNaF4 where the games approached   00:13:27.520 --> 00:13:33.040 relying on those quiet sound cues to progress.  It’s plausible to make it through the base games   00:13:33.040 --> 00:13:37.520 without listening to sound cues, but some of  the late-game challenges, especially the custom   00:13:37.520 --> 00:13:43.440 night in FNaF: Sister Location, become essentially  impossible, or at least, left very well up to luck,   00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:49.440 without attentive listening. And that’s a problem  if you don’t have access to sound, such as people   00:13:49.440 --> 00:13:54.080 who are deaf or hard of hearing, or even just  people without a speaker or headphone setup.   00:13:54.080 --> 00:13:58.800 It’s just worth noting that, when working on a  horror game, with an achievable win condition,   00:13:58.800 --> 00:14:03.760 it behooves us to make sure it can be accomplished  without the sound, just as FNaF4 can be   00:14:03.760 --> 00:14:09.680 completed without the visuals. And… I think that’s everything,   00:14:09.680 --> 00:14:16.480 yeah that’s it, that’s all I have to say, done,  closing time! I’m safe! Whew... I hope this video   00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:21.120 gave you some ideas about ways that sound  intensity can work to your advantage if you   00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:26.880 make games, or to your horror if you’re placed  in the middle of them. I’d like to thank my   00:14:26.880 --> 00:14:30.960 friend Wolfgang and DerEineSchwarzeRabe  for helping out with this script.   00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:36.160 I’d also like to thank my patrons on Patreon, who  help make my videos a more sustainable process.   00:14:36.160 --> 00:14:40.080 If you’d like to support my work directly  and get perks like your credit here,   00:14:40.080 --> 00:14:45.120 seeing videos early, a vote on what music I  arrange, and more behind-the-scenes content,   00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:50.720 you can visit my Patreon link in this video’s  description. And with that, I’m Scruffy,   00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:52.924 and thank you very much for watching.