How important is volume control in a game?

in our game we have no sound control, we only have ambiance background and sound fx, we target tablet users and phones first of all and on those I believe it is more intuitive to use hardware buttons. however if you have a lot of music and not just ambiance that could be something that some players may want to turn off.

 

For me personally, I don't think its that important - you can just use the volume and/or mute controls of the phone itself (with iOS devices at least, not sure about Android devices but i assume all devices have volume on the side?).

However, if you do implement it in a game, maybe its more to do with the ability to mute music or sound effects separately? For eg, the bg music may not be to their taste but still want to hear the clicks/pings/beeps, etc...

Cheers,

 

I very rarely use in game volume controls as if I need to shut sound off I use the iPad buttons, I'll only use in game controls if the sound effects are annoying or irritating and I'd want them them permantly off, it's only ever happened once though.

 

I think it's vital. I've not played certain games because they won't coexist with music/podcasts. Ideally I like to be able to turn music off completely and adjust the effects volume to a level where I can hear them but they are behind whatever i'm playing.

It's very tempting to say "the music is part of the game, it stays on" but why would you when it's easy to offer the option.

 

I like toning down the music to around 10-25% and I do that in almost every game that has that option. I keep the sound effects going at a normal level. I don't really like mute toggles alone because the music is a part of the overall design.

 

Some of us like to listen to music, podcasts, radio, whatever and will only play games that coexist. How many of us are there? It's possibly just me but that's enough for me to have put individual sliders for mp3 music and openAL sound effects. Given that I already had a slider control in my UI and was already saving settings it was a few minutes work though I did take this further in my last game. It detects if 'other audio' is playing as it starts and automatically disables the music if it is. If the user presses the button on the remote the 'other audio fades out and the game music fades in. Press it again and the music/podcast/radio/whatever fades back in. All very easy to do and the fading is all handled for you by Apple.

 

Nice, I didn't go that far. If I detect that audio is playing on your Apple device, then the music won't start in my game (but the sounds will still be played).

if anyone is interested here is my code for my main.mm file:

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import <AudioToolbox/AudioServices.h>
#include "VD.h"

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];

// check if IPOD is playing music
UInt32 isPlaying = false;
UInt32 propertySize = sizeof(isPlaying);
AudioSessionInitialize(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL);
AudioSessionGetProperty(kAudioSessionProperty_OtherAudioIsPlaying, &propertySize, &isPlaying);

CAudio::GIsMusicAuthorized = (isPlaying==false);

CSystem::Open();
int retVal = UIApplicationMain(argc, argv, nil, nil);

CSystem::Close();
[pool release];
return retVal;
}

 

Actually I checked My game again and it seems it only works as I described for the built in music app, at least it doesn't work for Downcast (podcast app) which it detects as 'other audio playing' even when paused. The code you posted is very useful though. Specially for a developer who isn't able to add the UI needed to switch music on and off.

 

The first thing I do for every game app I buy is to go into options to turn off music, then to adjust the sound effects to a level that would be suitable with my iPad's master volume, which is set at about 50%. That way, whichever game I launch won't suddenly blare out super loudly at inappropriate times when I launch them...

 

Nice and good work on graphics....

 

I also appreciate it when the options are there, even if I only use them once in a while. Perhaps you could release the game as is for now, and then experiment with adding the volume options as a future update?