Wednesday, 13 May 2015

Evaluation


Throughout this module I have gained valuable skills in audio manipulation with audition and the equipment used for capturing audio. The overall outcome of the audio I processed for my final game, I feel has come out to a high level and give a good atmosphere for my game. I captured audio for my game which I had to edit in order to gain the effect I wanted. As my final game was almost similar to a horror game, I wanted to create audio which had a strong impact on the actions in the game.
I captured many different pieces of audio to give me the opportunity to develop audio for my game and to give me the opportunity to explore audio creation with different sounds. The sounds that are used in my final game are; footsteps, character voice, character impact, enemy hit, enemy alert and background audio.

The footsteps used in my final game work were recorded in my house. The audio would have been perfect as they audio matched the visuals of what the character walked on. The problem I encountered was a slight buzzing noise from the fridge. Whilst editing this piece of audio, I had to sync the audio with the visuals. Once I synced the audio, I attempted to edit the audio as it had some background noise which did not sound good. I could not eradicate this from the audio so the idle to walk in game goes from no audio, to audio. If I could go redo this piece of audio, I would want to gain the same audio for the footstep without the background audio which doesn’t help the audio clip in the final game.

This is a problem but is helped with the introduction of backing music. The backing music was downloaded from a royalty free audio website which really gave the game and eerie feeling theme that I wanted.

The character voice was recorded by myself which was used for when the character is hit by an enemy. To create variety, I adjusted the pitch to the original audio piece and carried this out on two more occasions.

I also adjusted the pitch on three occasions from the original audio file with the character hit. The character hit is used when the main character is hit by an enemy. To gain the natural sound I hit myself and edited it accordingly.

The audio I created for my enemies were both created with my mouth. The enemy alert is a simple ‘hiss’ noise and the enemy hit was a simple noise made with my mouth. The alert is used when the character is in the line of sight with the enemy and the hit sound is used when the character is hit by the enemy which is a slashing sound. I adjusted the audio slightly as both the original files were a bit too simple.

The audio used for the gun was created through experimentation and development of different techniques. I originally gathered audio with multiple found objects. I used objects such as clipping a pen, dropping a pen, popping a bag and hitting a radiator. I compiled these audio files together as a multi-track mixdown with each audio file having an effect which helps the overall outcome for a gun sound. Despite the outcome being successful, I felt it could be better as it didn’t have an effect of a gun.

I knew of another way to create a gun sound which was through using 3 layers of pink noise with different frequency edits and having an amplification effect applied to each. The overall outcome of this edit had a greater effect and had a feel of an 8-bit sound. This works well with my character as when he is hit, he flashes which is similar to older games.

I feel throughout the process of development of the audio for my game, I have learnt new things and have given my game a great atmosphere. I feel that it immerses the player successfully with the realistic and different style of audio pieces used.


I have learnt a lot throughout and I have enjoyed gaining these new skills as I have been able to go and create and edit what I want for my game. I have enjoyed the freedom to create unique audio pieces with the integration of creating a 2D game. 

Wednesday, 22 April 2015

Digital board game

Audio List

Character Walk

Record myself walking.
Record myself tapping on table.

Bullet Shot

bag pop for initial bang.
pen click for sudden impact sound.
dropping something to get a natural impact sound.

Enemy

Create audio with found objects or by making sound with my mouth.
hissing sound when enemy is alerted to character.
slash when enemy hit character.

Character

Voice of character when hit made by myself.
Sound for when character is hit, impact sound. Hit object or hit self to gather natural sounds.

Background Audio

background theme music which has an eerie feeling to imerse the player into the game of feeling of slight fear as to when the enemies will attack next as you go around the next corner.

Edited Audio

Enemy Sound

The is the original enemy sound which was made by me just making a sound with my mouth.
https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/enemy-sound


This is the edited version which hasn't seen much change as the original was good enough, all that required was that it needed to increase in decibels and I added a small amount of distortion to it. This piece of edited audio progressed slightly as it has a slightly harsher impact of audio to make the enemy sound ever so increasingly harsh.

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/enemy-hiss

Enemy Slash

The slashing audio that I have recorded isn't very different from my edited audio as the original file worked well, I added some distortion and increased the decibels. Editing the original slightly adds the effect of impact which matches what I was aiming to create. It is a more harsher sounding piece of audio which works to give the impression that the main character has been hit.

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/slashing


https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/edited-slashing

Gun Edits

The gun sound audio I created was made from three clips of pink noise which is generated noise from Adobe audition. I had to cut down each piece of audio and add effects to them. I cut frequency away from most of the audio clips and I added an amplify effect to give the audio a harsh impact sound which makes it sound like a gun.


https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/gun-sound-fx

I intended to create a gun piece of audio by using audio I collected myself. the audio clips were a pen clicking, dropping a pen on the floor, two different audio clips of a bag popping and hitting my hand on a radiator. I added amplifications to all of these audio clips at different ranges to achieve the final audio file. Although I tried this process and worked to get this piece of audio to work, I didn't think that the audio that I created, was strong enough to be implemented into my game.

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/audio-compilation-mixdown

First audio clip: Bag pop
Second audio clip: Bag pop
Third audio clip: Dropping a pen
Fourth audio clip: Clicking a pen
Fifth audio clip: Hitting a radiator


https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/gun-sound-fx-pt2

Character Walk

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/original-walk

In order to gather the audio needed for my characters walk animation, I needed a harder surface to walk on to gather the appropriate audio. I walked in my utility which has a fridge running so there is a lot of background audio.

This was a problem when I edited it because I couldn't lose the background noise without ruining the footstep audio that I needed. As I could not edit this piece of audio, I could only cut the audio to  match the animation of my characters walk.

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/character-walk

Character Hit

The sounds used for when the character is hit by the enemy was created by me hitting myself to gain a realistic sound of impact.

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/original-impact

To achieve different sounds for the game, I found the right piece of audio needed and I then edited each audio clip by adjusting the pitch of each of these so the game had variety in the audio.

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/impact-sound-1

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/impact-sound-2

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/impact-sound-3

Character Voice

Here is the original audio clip which I recorded by making noises as if I was being hit. I did deepen my voice as I wanted my character to not sound like myself for the final game. Although I could have edited it in Adobe Audition, I found it easier to work with a piece of audio which was closer to my intended final outcome.

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/original-character-voice

In order to have a variety of sounds for my game, I picked out the best piece of audio piece to work with and I then edited each audio clip by adjusting the pitch of each individual audio clip so the game didn't have the same piece of audio looping when the character lost life because of being hit.

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/character-voice-1

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/character-voice-2

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/character-voice-3

Background Audio

The background music used in my game was from a royalty free website. the piece of audio used is called 'Ice Demon'. I decided to use this piece because it had a calm but eerie sound to it which I wanted to achieve for my final outcome.


http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?feels%5B%5D=Eerie&page=1

Tuesday, 10 March 2015

Team game

Sound games

Before starting development into our team game, I looked at other games which heavily use or rely on audio as the game or to benefit it.

Guitar Hero

Guitar Hero is a game which uses audio as the game in which players have to match the notes shown on the screen to collect points and complete the song. Players are given a fake guitar where they play it as it is a real guitar to immerse the player into the game. To gain the highest score possible, the player must hit the notes on the guitar at the same time as they appear on the screen and in time with the song.


Rock Band

Rock Band is similar to Guitar Hero because you have to hit the notes on the guitar, drum, bass and mic at the same time as they appear on the screen and in time with the song in order to gain the highest score possible.

rhythm racer

Rhythm Racer is a futuristic style game where the playera is in control of a space ship racer and they have to go through a level and hit as many of the spheres as possible to play the song and get the highest score possible.


Audio Surf

Audio Surf is another game where the player controls a space ship in futuristic setting. The players have to complete a song by hitting the notes to get a high score much like Rhythm Racer.


Task

For this task, we were placed in teams where we had to create a game in which audio was involved. We decided to create a side scrolling game where the player had to avoid oncoming obstacles. Once we had decided on what kind of game we wanted to create, we each took on different roles where one person worked in Construct 2 making the game work, one was working in 3DS max to create some of the assets, another was creating the graphics in PhotoShop and I was creating and editing the audio for the game itself. 

Job list

Matteo - Audio creation
Corey - construct scripting
Elliot - 3D creations
Sarah - graphics creation 

As a team, we decided that the audio should be realistic with a possible cartoon feel to it. I had to create audio for the submarine, atmosphere noise (underwater effect), an explosion, bubbles popping, metal noises for when the submarine hit the rocks and some background music.

Steel drums


I recorded 3 notes on a website which has interactive instruments and I edited them together to create a tune to be used as background music. Although I created this to be used in the game, it was not used in the final product.



Propeller

I sourced a free audio file online of a classic plane idling and edited it to match something similar to a submarine propeller. I had to deepen the audio and slow it down so it sounded more like a boat/submarine propeller

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/propeller

Bubble pop

The bubble popping sounds which featured in the game were created by my making noises with my mouth. I picked one piece of audio and edited so there was variety in the game.

Impact noise

The noise when the submarine made contact with the rocks was made with a screw driver being scrapped across concrete do get the intial sound needed to imitate that kind of situation. I had to take it into the audition and edit it so it was deeper and sounded more as if it was under water.

Explosion

The explosion sound used in the game was made by me getting small food bags, filling them with air and popping them to get an explosion sound to work with. I did this many times to collect a variety in sounds. I had to then deepen the audio so it sounded as if it was underwater and seemed more realistic.

Here are all the sounds used in the game in a video which was made for our team by Corey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akqP8_PkdVs&feature=youtu.be

Game feedback

High score system is great.
Good fast pace when you get into the flow of the game, Nice ambient audio.
Could you add more controls in the future like a boost? 
Submarine is a bit sluggish when you try to move it.
Control overview?
Submarine is extremely cute and animation is smooth.
Controls were unclear, Sounds were well made.
No life counter or ways of telling how much health left.
Good graphics. 
Intense and fun as the game progresses and the submarine speeds up.