One of the most important parts of creating an immersive game is sound. This was largely overlooked with only a few limited number of sounds in One Shot originally. With the rework I am working to change it, here is a little bit behind the goals and design choices for the new soundscape I’m creating in One Shot.

Goals:

1. All sounds should add to the sense of being on a ship in space.

2. Sounds should provide information about what they are related to.

3. Sounds should be identifiable so sources of the sound can be identified without needing to see them.

These three goals are fairly simple actually, but the implications of them is a bit more than that. These three goals actually added a lot of limitations to what I could do with sound in One Shot, but that’s not a bad thing. Instead it has made me focus on really making the games soundscape shine.

To accomplish the first goal of making all sounds embody the sense of a ship I’ve had to change a few things. Firstly, I completely removed music from One Shot. This music has been replaced with the occasional groans of a dying ship. The atmosphere and immersion this single change created was spectacular.

The next change I made was improving the uniqueness of sounds to prevent repeated sounds from sounding alike. This is done through a number of methods. The first was to add minor pitch modulations to frequently repeated sounds such as footsteps. This makes each footstep sound unique even if they aren’t. Next I took advantage of a SECTR Audio to create a soundscape that truly interacts with the environment. Sounds can bounce off walls and imfluence the sounds of one another. This really helps create an environment and helps sounds sound different as you move through the ship.

In order to accomplish the second goal I focused on making sounds distinct in the spectrum and also focused on making sounds 3D. This allows, as I previously mentioned, for sounds to interact with the environment, but it also gives you spacial awareness when you are in the game allowing you to locate objects through sound alone. This helps you know if something is happening behind you even before it consumes you.

These characteristics also lent themselves to accomplishing my third goal of making identifiable sounds. Each sound helps to fill the game with an identifable tone that lets you identify when a flare has fallen, a footstep has been made or an electric circuit has shorted. This makes it possible to not only know if something is behind you, but also to figure out what it is and begin to consider what you should do about it.

My goals here are to bring the ships of One Shot to life and really plunge you into the world. So far I think it’s been a success, but the real test will be when you, the players, get to try it out.

I am using a combination of my own recordings alongside resources from FreeSound.org to build the audio for One Shot.