Music & Audio
For this project, I collaborated with Roman Banwell to craft a sample pack and shape the auditory landscape. We meticulously designed all in-game sounds from scratch and even composed original tracks to enhance the gameplay experience.
In the showcased clip, you'll witness the game's menu, along with a firefight that highlights the audio craftsmanship. I meticulously synchronised menu sounds with highlighted buttons and added dynamism to blaster sounds by manipulating pitch and volume, optimising memory usage. We engaged voice actors to capture vocal barks, triggered contextually during in-game events to immerse players. To achieve optimal audio balance, I implemented a side chain in Unreal Engine, ensuring precise volume modulation to prioritise key audio elements.
Though audio was a secondary consideration in this serious game project, we integrated fundamental sound elements such as flying drone noises, explosions, and environmental ambience to maintain user engagement.
To enhance the simulation's impact and memorability, we introduced a startup sequence featuring bespoke 2D artwork and a short musical piece, both crafted by me. The client appreciated this addition, as can be seen in the clip below, which effectively encapsulates the game's essence.
During a high-pressure 3-day game jam, I created Sapling's audio from my music studio, ensuring maximum efficiency. To meet tight deadlines, Roman Banwell simultaneously generated sound effect loops while I continued game development. This collaborative approach allowed us to maintain a unified vision throughout and for me to provide real-time feedback.
Sapling features a series of succinct ambient loops, each designed to capture specific time and weather conditions, consuming minimal memory. These loops play continuously, automated with volume faders, creating a dynamic and evolving auditory landscape that mirrors the game's changing atmosphere. Varying loop lengths and alignments further enrich the soundscape adding a huge amount of variety. The clip provided demonstrates this dynamic auditory experience.
Audio and music for this project were the result of a close collaboration. Due to time constraints during the game jam, music and audio development occurred in parallel with game creation, supported by collaborators _Szora and Roman Banwell, who contributed to the music and audio effects.
_Szora created haunting ambient tracks, evoking feelings of isolation and occasional calm, while Roman used a modular synth system to generate a custom sound library based on my specifications. I recorded character voice notes using vintage tape recorders and dictaphones, each device unique to a character, adding depth to their narratives.
Audio design focused on creating tension by enabling players to hear enemies from a distance, urging them to keep moving rather than stand and fight. Gun sounds were inspired by early Doom ESC games, emphasising the graphical style. Monster sounds were intentionally unsettling and aggressive to evoke vulnerability while the player's weapons are consciously made to feel like they are having little and encourage players to flee. The provided clip showcases a selection of audio elements from Too Close To The Sun.
The audio and music in this project posed a unique challenge, given the game's thesis experiment nature focused on ludonarrative conditions. I leveraged audio to frame the experimental mini-games and establish control conditions while engaging players and conveying emotions in cutscenes. I wrote several original pieces and implemented them as appropriate throughout the project.
Original music compositions and foley recordings contributed to the game world's cohesion. In collaboration with Roman Banwell, we used a vocoder to create vocal sounds, delivering possessive, negative, and neutral phrases that were sonically tailored to match respective emotional tones. These vocal elements were seamlessly integrated into cutscenes with character dialogues displayed as text, reinforcing the intended emotions through audio cues. The clip provided offers a glimpse into the diverse range of audio employed throughout Workplace Dissonance while maintaining overall cohesion.
The BHP sound design project was an interesting endeavour, given the game's unique setting entirely within the cockpit of a fighter ship. With the challenge of creating an eerie yet authentic atmosphere reminiscent of an in-flight experience, I used a process of layering various audio tracks to achieve the desired effect.
A key aspect of this process involved capturing the mechanical clicks of button presses on different hardware in our studio. By employing close-mic techniques, we were able to capture the sensation of each press, enhancing the player's sense of immersion within the cockpit environment.
Furthermore, we utilised a Euro Rack system to generate additional sounds such as radar lock signals and distant alien monster noises. This modular synthesis approach allowed us to craft otherworldly and immersive audio elements that complemented the gameplay experience seamlessly.
Incorporating these techniques and technologies into the sound design process enabled us to deliver a rich and immersive auditory experience for players, enhancing their engagement with the game world and its challenges.
I also wrote and mixed an original theme tune, which had to be creepy and tense. I used haunting pads and a wailing lead line to thematically enhance the tension of the game's themes of hopelessness and the uncertainty of the situation. The noise of the alien monsters was then incorporated to explore the threat, and then the rolling drums of war show the pilot's grim determination to fight.
I organised for voice actor Mylo McDonald to record the dialogue. I have regularly worked with him and knew his performance would be perfect. He recorded the lines using a Sm7B. I added effects to them to create the radio effect of the commander to the pilot, and then reverb and ring modulation were used in the later half of the game when the corruption started to set in. I also created the trailer for BHP.