When people talk about games, one of the first things they'll talk about are the visuals. Let's face it, the game's visuals are the big selling point for a lot of games. Graphics are seen more easily than any other aspect of the game when it comes time to promote a product. You can see the visuals in screenshots, animated gifs, and video that is often accompanied by a single song. The next big thing people notice once they actually have the game is how it plays. Where then does the game audio itself have its time to shine?

To put it bluntly: It doesn't. At least for most people, game audio just isn't something that many people put much stock into. Why is that? Surely, people will notice when there isn't any audio but you don't often see people praising a game for its audio. Too often we find that consumers place very little importance on the role of audio in games. Strangely, the role of audio in games also seems to take a back seat to other aspects during the development process, often coming in late in the development cycle for many games. This has the tendency to result in sub-par audio for the final release or, in other cases, an inflated budget that failed to adequately take into account the cost of game audio and a game soundtrack.

This may not seem like a huge deal to larger game studios out there, but smaller studios that live and die by tight budgets cannot ignore game audio when it comes to budgeting and allocation of development time. This is especially true for mobile apps. Look at what consumers have to choose from in either the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. It's often a sea of cookie cutter repeats of games. What is going to make one game stand out from the rest when most things are equal (gameplay, visuals, and cost)? Yep, it's probably going to be the audio. One of the most overlooked aspects of game suddenly becomes a deciding factor for some consumers.

Without a doubt, there are some games that place a huge emphasis on audio. Just look at what EA did with Star Wars Battlefront. No matter what you think about the gameplay in Battlefront, it's hard to deny that the audio is lacking in the slightest. At times, it actually feels as though you're playing through the films thanks to the audio and presentation of that game. Hell, EA and DICE even won for best audio at the 19th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. Another big winner at the D.I.C.E. Awards was Ori and the Blind Forest, which won three of awards, one of which was for best original musical composition. Ori also won for best art direction and achievement in animation. Clearly, Ori's developer Moon Studios knew from the start that audio was just as important as art and it paid off in spades for them. Thankfully, we're starting to see more Indie games starting to place an increased focus on audio. Just look at the hot, new release Devil Daggers. This game features no game music. Instead, an emphasis is placed on audio cues from the incoming enemies. Without these important audio cues, the game would be nowhere near as enjoyable as it is.

Plenty of web based games, including online casinos are learning this same lesson. Gone are the days of loud, obnoxious bells and whistles pulling in people off the streets to something like a slot machine. We're instead starting to see online casinos pull consumers in with flashy visuals and getting them to stick around with financial rewards and audio cues that provide positive reinforcement even if a person doesn't win. Interested in playing online slots? Click here… Sites like that show a changing trend both amongst online casinos and the industry as a whole. A renewed focus on the importance of game audio benefits consumers and developers. Budgets are kept in check for developers while consumers benefit from audio that was fine-tuned and built for the game from the start.