Music and Sound Effects

This Week

I’ve been continuing my work on Level Design and the creation of Music for our project. I’ve also added some code that keeps track of amounts of bullets from a weapon and then adds ricochete soundeffects to add a bit of variation to the shooting. I’ve also started working a bit on the AI and their detection (or lack thereof) through sound.

One of my goals for the levels is for the player not to be aware of the meddling fingers of the designer. I want the player to feel good about himself as he finds a good hiding spot; in other words the hiding spots can’t be too obvious, but they’re still there to serve a purpose. With this in mind, I’ve scribbled down some changes I’m about to do on the current level we’re using (I’ll update the blog with the changes as soon as I’m done with them). I’m also waiting for new and improved Sprites to be finished so that I can re-work the maps aesthetics.

Speaking of Aesthetics: the whole reason why we’re re-designing the aesthetics of the map is because we want the map to reflect the mood that the music is sending out. Which brings me to:

Music

I’ve been working closely with an old child-hood friend of mine by the name of Zlatan Karamustafic. We’ve created a couple of theme songs for the game that follows a guide-line, or actually more of a slogan that goes : “Airport, Sneak, 80’s, Neon Lights and Impending doom”.

With those slogans in mind we created the following tracks:

“MountDoom” Terminal main theme – Listen!

“MrMiyagi” Terminal background soundtrack – Listen!

“Idonteven” Terminal Action Soundtrack – Listen!

MountDoom takes inspiration from Kavinsky and M|O|O|N.

MrMiyagi takes inspiration from Kavinsky, but most importantly from Frank Klepacki’s “Eagle Hunter”.

Idonteven takes inspiration from Kavinsky, Justice and M|O|O|N.

Sound Effects:

I came to the conclusion that making our own sound effects would be more interesting then just “borrowing” soundeffects from the net. Although there’s obviously some sound effects that are impossible to emulate without having access to the real thing (Shooting a gun for example).

One of the main things I wanted to make sure existed was the reverberation ( A reverberation, or reverb, is created when a sound is produced in an enclosed space causing a large number of echoes to build up and then slowly decay as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air. And since the game is riddled with corridors and enclosed spaces, it’s paramount that it’s added to most sounds), because according to me, it just adds that little extra flavour of realism and emersion (think of the Battlefield 3/4 weapon sounds for example).

Weapon Handling: 

Magazine loading – Listen!

Cocking the handle – Listen!

Pulling forward the handle after ejection – Listen!

(these are done with my G18 Gas Powered Airsoft gun, which has real-steel parts)

Coins (for throwing on the ground):

Wooden floor – Listen!

Ceramic floor 1 – Listen!

Ceramic floor 2 – Listen!

And finally, and this one is a bit special so it’ll require explanation, a prototype of the rifle soundeffect.

To follow the games aesthetics, a woman who doesn’t have any prior knowledge of gun handling, and a game that is set in an in-door space, I chose to create an Assault Rifle sound that is supposed to CHOCK the player. It’s not your run of the mill M-16 action movie sound. No, this one is supposed to be brutal, deafening and absolutley frightening.

Assault Rifle (AK5C in this case), In-doors, 5.56 NATO round – Listen!

This sound effect has recieved some extra echo, noise reduction, reverberation and lowered pitch in order to simulate that awe-inspiring sound that is the 5.56mm round leaving a barrel at the speed of sound.

That’s it for me today, I’ll be back next week with some Level and Game Design updates. I’ll leave you with a picture of the AK5C, the weapon of the heavily armed guards in Terminal.

The AK5C. The Swedish Armed Forces Assault Rifle. Fires a 5.56mm Round at 870 m/s and weighs in at an impressive 4.5kg.