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Now I am getting into sound for games, and I am taken aback to something I learned early on:

People tend to focus more on graphics today than actual good gameplay, game design, sound design, etc.

Right now, all I have running in my game is a few sound effects, and the longer I let it loop, I get more ideas on how the environment of this sound track would look.

There is a creaking door, and a distant rainstorm. Now I can visualize the graphics in my head, and I actually feel like I am close to being there. The anticipation is built even before I make my first model (and I don't even have a game at this point to make).

A lot of people might rant and rave about the graphics of the Last of Us, but what about that sound? What about that game design?

A lot of investment goes into graphics software, but not as much focus is there for music (no-proprietary for games) or perhaps even less to focus on just the game logic aspect of games (not code, but just some sort of logic mapping software? Innovation!)

I think I might like to get some 3D sound in this game to make the player even more submerged in the game.

I mean, you can't have a 90" television without a serious surround sound system to compliment it. And what else? A nice comfortable room, with good lighting perhaps? You have to have the temperature right. The smell even plays a role.

Neat idea: what about packaging a game with a fragrance that is meant to be in the room while playing it? Or perhaps an automatic fragrance blower that is connected to the system to release fragrances at certain levels? They say that smell induces emotions.

Environment!

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So, what do you guys do to create "Environment" in your games?

People tend to focus more on graphics today than actual good gameplay, game design, sound design, etc.

I think I might like to get some 3D sound in this game to make the player even more submerged in the game.

So, what do you guys do to create "Environment" in your games?

1: That has been an "issue" since the bit wars back in the early 90's .

2: Using 5 channel is a bit excessive, especially when most folks only use 2 channel stereo ( stereophonic ) equipment to listen to the game . A good sound design would utilize real time channel mixing and balancing based on were the sound is coming from compared to were the player's character is .

3: I let the player use their imagination. Since I am a hobby programmer, I have no access to high quality music / sounds .

Yes, Immersion is the keyword.

I do use a game engine that has relative sound, so the sound has an actual location.

I just made a small demo that just explores using sound to create a mood or "atmosphere."

Thanks Servant of the Lord for that information, I will explore all of them. I think a mix between VR and AR (Augmented Reality) would be really cool too.

Right now, main focus is Sound. We are used to appealing to the eyes, but the only time I had some real earcandy is when I learned of 3D sounds. There is an app that gives you a virtual haircut. I am wondering why I haven't seen this technology in AAA games.

When I upload the demo, I will link to it here.

A good example of heavy use of sound processing effects, is a modern FPS like Battlefield.

Yeah - the sound mix and design in Battlefield 4 is exceptional.

One of the problems that you get in a lot of online FPS games is that the weapons all have very similar frequency ranges, so when you get a lot of guns firing at once the sound gets very muddy.

Battlefield 4 gets around this in a number of ways. First off all of the individual weapon sounds are very well designed; it's easy to tell what weapons are firing around you based on sound alone, even in the middle of an intense firefight. They also have a very good audio HDR implementation.

Another example of great audio design is Alien : Isolation; the environmental audio in that game is nothing short of spectacular.

Unfortunately sound doesn't get much love in many AAA projects, lots of titles don't have dedicated audio programmers - let alone sound designers.

Almost all titles will have 3D positional sound; anything using Wwise definitely will. 3D positioning for audio events is almost inconsequential to implement. But as Olof mentioned, positioning is only a tiny, tiny part of what needs to be taken in to account for good audio design.

For some reason, sound effects are not as obvious to people as visual effects

I think that's inherent with sound design; if it's done well you don't notice it, it just enhances the overall immersion in the game world. On the flip side, bad sound design stands out like a sore thumb.