There are many ways to create SFX... maybe as many ways as there are sound designers.
I'd say that for a video game most of the sound come from sound effects libraries. Things such as footsteps, or shattering glass as you say are programmed into a certain action of the character you're playing. Recording it as a foley would be pointless because the action changes with the player and is not exactly the same always.
I guess you program a certain number of SFX for a certain action (like footsteps) so that they play randomly, so that they sound less repetitive. You also have to program different footsteps for different types of floors (metal, dirt, grass etc.). If a sound effect is very specific and/or difficult to find in a library the sound designer has to record it from scratch in a studio if possible.
Now, those are only the sound effects that don't involve sound design. What about monster roars, or plasma guns or spaceships? Well those have to be created pretty much like the ones you create for any given feature film. You talk to the developer of the game about what kind of sound he envisions, maybe you make your pitch as how you imagine the sound should be.
Most of the time special SFX are made out of several (and I mean several) different sound effects. A monster, for example can be made with the beginning of a wolf (1 octave down) + a lion; the middle can be made with the squeal of a pig (with some low pass filter and harmonic exciter) + a walrus (time-stretched); with the end breathe made of a gorilla + your own voice recorded with an SM57 down your throat... you get the idea.
Some other effects can be made out of entirely synthetic sounds made with generators modulators synths samplers filters etc. These sounds tend to sound less organic, but you can make great sounding machines and cosmic rays...
But the most important thing is to try to hear any sound with a different perspective trying to imagine it out of context (flapping the pages of a children's cardboard book to create that ominous critter's walking), and try to break all the "rules" when you're searching for a sound (a spectral repair is used to correct errors in a recording... but how about using it to morph a sound into another by using it in a different way, maybe you WANT that odd sounding artifact that comes out when you do dynamic noise reduction too much).
Sound design for any media is a fun creative craft that involves a lot of techniques. It's never the same for any project (or sound for that matter).
I'd say that for a video game most of the sound come from sound effects libraries. Things such as footsteps, or shattering glass as you say are programmed into a certain action of the character you're playing. Recording it as a foley would be pointless because the action changes with the player and is not exactly the same always.
I guess you program a certain number of SFX for a certain action (like footsteps) so that they play randomly, so that they sound less repetitive. You also have to program different footsteps for different types of floors (metal, dirt, grass etc.). If a sound effect is very specific and/or difficult to find in a library the sound designer has to record it from scratch in a studio if possible.
Now, those are only the sound effects that don't involve sound design. What about monster roars, or plasma guns or spaceships? Well those have to be created pretty much like the ones you create for any given feature film. You talk to the developer of the game about what kind of sound he envisions, maybe you make your pitch as how you imagine the sound should be.
Most of the time special SFX are made out of several (and I mean several) different sound effects. A monster, for example can be made with the beginning of a wolf (1 octave down) + a lion; the middle can be made with the squeal of a pig (with some low pass filter and harmonic exciter) + a walrus (time-stretched); with the end breathe made of a gorilla + your own voice recorded with an SM57 down your throat... you get the idea.
Some other effects can be made out of entirely synthetic sounds made with generators modulators synths samplers filters etc. These sounds tend to sound less organic, but you can make great sounding machines and cosmic rays...
But the most important thing is to try to hear any sound with a different perspective trying to imagine it out of context (flapping the pages of a children's cardboard book to create that ominous critter's walking), and try to break all the "rules" when you're searching for a sound (a spectral repair is used to correct errors in a recording... but how about using it to morph a sound into another by using it in a different way, maybe you WANT that odd sounding artifact that comes out when you do dynamic noise reduction too much).
Sound design for any media is a fun creative craft that involves a lot of techniques. It's never the same for any project (or sound for that matter).
