Week 5: Music and Sound

Hello! Jacob back at it again with the dev blog. We’ve got some interesting things going on with sound this week that I’d like to share with you.

This morning, Indy and I met with sound design professor Norbert Herber. We had a very insightful conversation about how well everything is meshing together to create a cohesive audio experience within our current build of the game. There are three elements of sound design that I’ve been focusing on for this project. They are music, sound effects, and voice lines.

In terms of music, everything is falling into place well. The genre of music is well-realized and the beat is clear to the players so that they know when to move and attack. To create a more a dynamic mix, however, I need to consider adding more atmospheric sounds and instruments. When there is silence in a song that isn’t done intentionally, the music can fall flat and lose its appeal. I plan to add some white noise and tweak the drum kits to better fit the sound I’m looking for.

Sound effects are coming along nicely and will be implemented into the build soon. For this pass on sound effects I decided to focus more on how these sounds could fit within the context of the songs and the game world. Instead of being something that abruptly interrupts the player’s experience like the UI sounds, all attacks and combat sounds are from drum kits. Some sounds are layered over others to create unique percussive noises but the idea was to create effects that felt like they blend in with the song. Putting these sounds into this frame of mind makes for easy listening and a more intuitive experience for audio cues.

Voice lines are our newest addition to the game and have really added some flavor. Jon and I recorded a handful of announcer dialogue that has been implemented into the game in various ways. Some lines are set to trigger at the end of round 1, some at the end of round 2, and others that play during the match. Since we didn’t want the announcers to be too distracting while players are battling we gave these voice lines a 1 in 15 chance to be triggered when an attack lands successfully. The game pulls from a folder of voice lines so they have the potential to be different every time. The commentary adds a bit of comic relief and definitely helps to lighten the mood.

As of typing this, there are 17 days left until the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and even less before some of us leave to go on the Train Jam. At this point, it’s a race against the clock to complete our next sprint in time but we plan on finishing strong. Our second playable character Nazyilan (Naz), or snake lady as some know her, is finally in the game and polish is going well. We can’t wait to show you the progress we’ve made! Until next week!

• Jacob