While slot game sound design influences player actions and gameplay elements, it also makes a virtual environment feel inviting and playful by crafting a fun soundscape for players to immerse themselves into.
The use of music allows gamblers’ sympathetic nervous system and emotional pleasure to begin to happen, thus encouraging those gamblers to continue playing.At higher tempo, with fast beat rhythms, music can induce excitement, raising arousal levels. and may encourage people trying to win the stakes they had lost, to play even more.
Symbols
Symbols for slot machines, integral to gambling since their inception, are also integral to casino spaces, as well as the aesthetics of video gaming.
Horseshoes, stars, diamonds and simple Liberty Bells are just a beginning: they are the meticulously crafted work of artisans, when it comes to these slot-game symbols. Far more complex possibilities are opened up by so-called ‘stacked’ or ‘stick…
Audio design is another method that slot designers use to add depth and dimension. The music can be upbeat and fast-paced, or slow and serene; either way it serves as a reinforcer by keeping the player playing so that he doesn’t become bored.
Bonus rounds
Sound effects in slots are not just beeping and jingling. There is psychology in choosing winning sounds for slot machines: the sound has to be cheerful, active or calming to keep the player going, motivated for more winnings; some times, such sonic events would accompany bright lights or winning animation to put emphasis over the winning symbols.
This might explain why our skin conductance responses and our self-reported degrees of arousal changed in the presence of sound, while our GEQ scores did not – perhaps because GEQ focuses on core dimensions for describing gaming experience.
Never mind, though, as what our work clearly shows is how sounds can actually influence levels of arousal, and that players are actually attracted to games with sounds. When wins are experienced, celebratory noises such as ringing bells or clinking coins have been found to evoke brain reward areas, and the resultant feelings of elation as a result of the win. However, with losses, the sound is often absent leaving players with feelings of despair or helplessness.
Paylines
This work on the sound design of slot games has a magical, powerful impact on gameplay and player retention, creating an aura in which players’ attention is cemented and transported into the world of the slot machine – whether it is the ruins of Indiana Jones, a fairytale kingdom or galaxy far, far away! The right music is an immersive composition in itself.
Winning sounds can provoke heightened arousal, while losing ones can dredge up sadness or anger. Uptempo music with four-on-the-floor rhythms might have the effect of getting players to spin quicker and longer, betting more money and staying in casinos for longer periods of time.
New research suggests that there are psychophysiological responses to sound that affect players’ gambling, but this did not affect scores in the GEQ, the very questionnaire meant to assess the gamers’ experience, revealing that the GEQ captures only a part of its effect.
Sound
While music and sound cues facilitate engagement with each play (and provide much-needed resolution when the reels are spinning in suspense), setting the player in a more immersive audio world, with appropriate theme and atmosphere, is equally important. Good sound design increases the chance that a player will engage for longer. Sound in gambling design can add a seamless and resonant dynamic, and make a delightful noise whenever the player’s desire coincides with an event. In the case of slot gaming, sound also helps a player remain alert and focused, and in this way can mitigate fatigue over longer play sessions.
Sound effects play when particular in-game actions are sensed, for example ‘spinning the reels’ or when one wins a bonus round. These sounds provide players with sensory feedback and reinforce rewards; in one recent study, our group found that participants reported they preferred the sessions where sounds had been added to reinforce rewards rather than in no-sound conditions.
From improved visual graphics to increasingly sophisticated sound technologies and systems, new gaming environments will become increasingly immersive, for example, by employing spatial audio technology, which virtually moulds sounds within an experience, creating the perception of being actually located among the sources of sounds that are emitted.
