I was asked by a third year game design student to help them with the audio for their game "set in hell". I chose to have a go at creating a soundscape piece with some samples I had found in a similar way to how art students create a mood board. This is to help the game design student know what kind of thing I can create as well as having something to come back to in order to inspire what I am working on.
"...something along the lines of barren wasteland"
I wanted to get an understanding of what they wanted their game world to sound like and the general idea for a narrative. Once the soundscape had been made I set about making an asset list with the help of the game's creator as to what sounds will be needed, the areas in the game and the different characters involved.
The art style for the game is based upon the work of Zdzisław Beksiński but currently there is not anything to show in terms of art made for the game or level design for you the reader to see, so watch out on this blog for updates.
Above is some of Zdzisław Beksiński's pieces that represent the art inspiration for this game.
So far, a lot of the player sounds and ambiences are complete and ready to be implemented as soon as the project is ready. The only things left are the dialogue and some music.
Ambiences
Currently, I have created the ambient tracks to be used in three different sections.
One is an abandoned underground train station area that is uncomfortable but more neutral than the outside area. The ambient track has a low rumble loop with certain train station themed spot effects and extras to add to the strangeness of the area which can be randomly triggered either in certain areas or from random positions. The idea being that these distant random sounds will occur every so often and keep the environment sounding interesting.
The outside section includes the main track used in the soundscape but with the one-shot spot elements taken out to be triggered randomly in different directions at random times. These one shot sounds include buildings falling to represent "man's empire decaying before your eyes" as said by the game designer. Other elements are distant screams and growls to help convey the idea of the player being in hell.
The player can experience flashback sections where the main character remembers something from when they were alive. To represent the idea of this being a memory, I recorded my own turntable static using it's recording output to create a looping crackle sound. To further represent this, maybe it will be a layer added to the currently playing ambience that will have a filter added to it. All of this can be done in Wwise or FMOD.
Environment
The game will have certain chasing elements that creates a need for door opening and closing sounds with different inflictions, softly or hard. Also, hiding spots in boxes and lockers will be available similar to what can be seen in Outlast. Taking inspiration from that game and others in a horror genre, I set about recreating the sounds needed for this in a Foley recording session. Recreating the sound of a locker closing and opening is fairly difficulty without having one to hand so for the moment samples will have to do as well as shelves falling over.
Here is a pic before I was going to record some footstep sounds in a Foley session for this game using a Rode NTG1.
Player
The main character of the game is an old man. Different inflictions were therefore needed from the Foley recording session such as vaulting and footsteps but most of these were recorded and can then be added to the animations. I know I can set up a line trace system in Unreal Engine as I have done before whilst having it relate to different surface types.
A current issue with the player sounds comes from the need for dialogue. Due to the current lockdown status of the UK, it is difficult to organise recording sessions with voice actors yet the studios remain open thanks to distancing measures. Therefore, eventually we will be able to record dialogue for the main character but for the moment we need to focus on creating a script as well as the possibility of not having dialogue recorded in time. If we run out of time for the dialogue then an alternative text-to-speech system will be needed.
What to do
As of now, the main things needed are the dialogue recordings as well as some music or musical elements for the representation of some characters such as a Guardian and a Tormentor. I have found some samples so far that can be used but if this is not enough then I will have to organise with a composer some music to be used in this game. Next comes the actual implementation of these sounds which I have offered to help with once the game designer is ready. I am looking to use Unreal Engine to implement them but I know more technical and interactive systems can be implemented if I use Fmod or Wwise on this project. As a challenge I could use Fmod as I have some experience using it but little experience implementing it into a Unreal project.
I will add more updates in blog posts on here as to what is happening with the project and hopefully I will present the finished project on this website too. Again, if you have some interest in the project as it is I would be happy to talk to you about it in terms of audio, any composers who would be interested in creating some pieces for it let me know with an email or comment down below.
Thanks for reading,
Nick
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