Is it necessary to have sounds in your game

[sandy234]

I am having hard time implementing sounds in my game. It doesnt seem to work in chrome browser at all and in safari only some sounds seem to play. I have seen lots of game without sounds.

So i was just wondering whether sounds were necessary?

[Ezelia]

use sound libraries that handle multiple sound formats like buzzjs or howlerjs and provide sound files to the three formats : mp3, ogg, aac

 

 

and yes, sound is very important in games

[sandy234]

well i am using game maker to make games and i cant seem to get sound play on mobile browsers. Game maker already uses mp3 and ogg

[rich]

I think a year ago you could get away with selling a game with no sound easily, but not any more. You have to have at least something. Just keep it nice and simple (one looping background track, or very well spaced out sound effects that don't overlap massively).

[sandy234]

Is webaudio implemented for mobile browsers?

Honestly though i have yet to see any game with sound on mobile chrome browser.

[Ezelia]

no web audio on mobile browsers http://caniuse.com/#search=web%20audio and very limitted on desktop browsers.

 

btw, if you are in contact with a good sponsor, they are usually helpful, they can give you tips to solve those problems since they have experience from other sponsored games

[rich]

Web Audio is available in iOS6 and should absolutely be used, because it's the best audio experience possible on mobile. Once Chrome sorts itself out on Android we can use it there too.

[gobbogoes]

No, it´s not necessary. The web normaly has no sound, and people use it in this way. Big companies  of course aspect sound in games, that´s one of the points why no one invests in Html5 games. But the industry also aspect the same things that you can do in native mobile apps. But it´s not the same and you must create your games in another way.  Playing on a smartphone is not cinematic, it´s casual, sound is okay but not realy important.

[remvst]

I always play without sound, and I don't mind.

 

It's always better to include sound, but only if the sound is actually good.

 

And it's so hard to get good sound effects that fit into your game

 

I almost never include sound, but I'm not sure anyone would think it's a major problem.

[rich]

Web games always have sound and we've not built a client game yet that didn't require it. For our own little games we started out without audio, but have lost a few sales recently because of it. With web audio support there is absolutely no good reason to not add sound any more.

[sandy234]

no web audio on mobile browsers http://caniuse.com/#search=web%20audio and very limitted on desktop browsers.

 

btw, if you are in contact with a good sponsor, they are usually helpful, they can give you tips to solve those problems since they have experience from other sponsored games

No i havent contacted any of them yet bec i cant seem to fix audio issue.

I am using gamemaker and it doesnt seem to output sounds for safari and chrome whether i use webaudio or not.

For safari it does seem to play one sound at a time but wont play background music

 

Is there anyway i can manually add sound through index.html?  I dont have any knowledge about java script though.

[Ezelia]

humm seems similar to an issue I got with a mobile game and rich answered me in this topic : http://www.html5gamedevs.com/topic/495-chrome-mobile-not-playing-audio-files-from-js/

 

my solution was to load all my sounds in the first screen, when the player click "Play" I start the sound and stop it immediately so it become available to the game ... not tested on iOS but works fine with Android (my main target was chrome mobile for android)

[sandy234]

Tried this method also doesnt seem to work.

Just tested your game germiz. Great game and plays sound on my chrome as well. But game seem to lag a bit.

[Ezelia]

yes the online version is not optimised for mobile I'm working on a new version.

[fatalfluff]

Sometimes it seems to me that it is sufficient to have sound to just dangle it in front of the client like a carrot  Even if the true end customers never get to hear it because their mobile browsers fails to play it.

[sandy234]

Is there anyway i can add sound by editing my .js file or index.html file??

[Rune]

Sandy, no you cannot add sound by just editing the index.html file.  The default system works in MOST mobile and desktop browsers, and is probably your best bet.  I know there are a few extensions around, but I would just concentrate on making your game.  Eventually the technology will catch up and it won't be an issue.

[dh2]

Cross browser/platform/device sound is difficult work in HTML5. Flash did it well but that was a virtual machine running in the browser and some Javascript audio libraries use flash as a fallback even now. But the main thing is testing what you make as widely as possible so at least nothing breaks in other browsers. Chrome tends to work the best for HTML5 audio with the Web Audio API but it is not yet standard. So I think try to have some audio but don't aim too high and test as you go. 

[Solidus]

I generally avoid playing with sound effects and music on when I'm in public, but alone/in a private setting I use sound for most games I play.  It is viscerally detaching to have no sound connecting what someone tells the game to do and what the game does.

 

Even when testing my games, I hate not hearing the sound of a bullet firing or the sound of collecting a coin.  I believe people need that kind of feedback to become invested in a game.