(or Can You Hear Mech Now?)
Last weekend I made several new sounds for AIM<. The game is far enough along that I can look at what will actually be in our game play and focus on just the sounds we need instead of guessing. Chloe Terry got some of the audio in last weekend and Patrick Oudemans has been working on getting the rest done this week. I've got a few more to do this weekend and all the final sound will be implemented throughout the next week in time for the SGX debut.
The last time I talked about sound was four months ago, where I mentioned that general power-up audio, drone jet engines, and a couple more tracks were mastered. This set of sounds and the audio featured in AIM< Audio II and III further down this post were created by an auxiliary team I lead from a Fall 2016 digital sound studio. The contributing members of that team are as follows: Shane Yach, Hannah Bragelman, Derek Sirp, and Daniel Mike. Take a listen to the first set of tracks!
The team and I made this first set of audio for the areas I thought would be the most important at the time. Some of the mechanics have changed since then and a couple of the sounds are not as critical as they once were but are still being used in some form or fashion.
Next came the audio for picking up power-ups, swapping power-ups, firing projectiles, launching drones, and an alarm for nearby danger. Out of all of these, the projectile sound was the most difficult. Field recordings of firearms contain a lot of reverb (kind of like echo) even if they are recorded in a small room. The presence of reverb causes the audio sound like it's happening in very specific environments. Removing the reverb is necessary so the engine can control audio "size" based on how the levels are designed. Here's the audio!
I really enjoy the physicality of the swap power-up track created by Hannah Bragelman. It's going to be used for menu sounds and when players swap ammo types with the "ammo cards". As I mentioned in my UI post, portions of the UI were inspired by trading card games so this track emphasizes the physical inspiration quite well.
The last of the audio created with the auxiliary team features explosions, alerted enemy sounds, and an impact sound. Click play!
Shane Yach was responsible for the hilarious drone alert sounds. All of the sounds he synthesized have a lot of personality and are very dynamic breathing welcome life into the AIM< world.
The explosion sounds were challenging. Any field recordings of explosions face the same problems as firearm sounds. Once reverb is removed, the recordings tend to feel flat and unsatisfying. There are a couple tricks to bring back some depth. A rumbling low end can be made by slowing down a lion or other big cat roar. Layer that with a kettle drum and the depth is returned without too much reverb.
Audio, like any other art, is about trying to find what to exaggerated to create the feeling, world, character, or other elements one desires to create. It's not always beneficial to try to mimic reality exactly since the fantasy of what something is is almost always better than the reality. I'll elaborate on this thought a bit more in my next post when I cover the most recent audio I've made.
I know I said this last week but be sure to keep checking the AIM< Facebook page! Mark May 4th on your calendar and stop by to play the game if you're in the area! Have a great weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment