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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeolDZw5XBE&feature=youtu.be 

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.

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/steel-drums

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.

game clip audio creation

The game clip I am using is from Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor. I intend to re-create the audio pieces within the clip and possibly add to the video in an attempt to improve the video clip. I have chosen this piece of video becuase I want to re-create real world sounds into a piece of gameplay footage and create an eerie feeling with some background audio. This will be created using recordings I have done myself and edited to match the visual.

I am using from the clip from 04:18 - 04:36

Sounds that feature are rain, thunder, crawling of Gollum and footsteps - crouched running, walking & running in the rain on grass/mud.

04:18 - 04:20

Crouched walking in the rain on grass

04:20 - 04:23

Running in the rain on grass

04:23 - 04:26

Standing in the rain

04:26 - 04:28

Walking/running in the rain on grass with thunder

04:28 - 04:33

Crouched walking in the rain on grass

04:33 - 04:36

Crouched walking in the rain on grass with thunder

The clip will feature rain throughout and feature eerie background music.

04:18 - 04:36

Original video clip. Unedited.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1uCeX1sZEo&index=1&list=LLkZlLKDThUkUZ3NuqV0SwGA

FINAL EDITED PIECE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpztxx3Vyds

final piece presentation feedback
the feedback I received was very positive as many people said I created the audio well and that I had created something which was better then the original clip. Some of the comments I received was that I created a realistic delay between the lightning and the thunder, the footsteps was synced well with the visuals and that I created a great atmosphere with the rain and the music in the background.   

Background music

https://archive.org/details/EerieCreepyAndScaryMusicForYourScoresDvds

I found the music that I used for my video clip on this site. The piece of audio is called 'DVD Theme Music-Horror-Private Reflection'. This piece of audio works quite well as it isn't too intense but given you a feeling that something is near you.

Audio edits

Rain
The rain audio has renamed unchanged as I felt that the audio was working well as original. I reduced the volume and I faded it into and out of the clip.

Footsteps
The footstep audio has remained nearly unchanged as the original audio clip was good enough to go straight in. I had to try and sync the audio with the visuals as best I could so it didn't look or sound unprofessional. It was a really difficult task attempting to sync the audio of the footsteps with the visuals of the footsteps for the main character and gollum to make it work well. I adjusted the volume and faded it into and out of the clip.

Thunder
The thunder audio is something I am rather proud of as it is something that I didn't get original recordings of. I experimented with different objects like dropping rice onto a tray, I later had an idea of crumpling up a crisp packet and editing it. I was able to create the kind of audio I needed to match the visuals in my video clip.

Here are the edits I made to the crisp packet audio with descriptions of how they effected the audio in order to create the thunder audio.

Crisp packet audio (ORIGINAL)
https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/original-crisp-packet

Thunder audio (EDITED)
https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/thunder-audio

Stretch and pitch

Stretch Shortens or extends processed audio relative to existing audio. For example, to shrink audio to half its current duration, specify a Stretch value of 50%.

Pitch Shift Tonally shifts audio up or down. Each semitone equals one half‑step on a keyboard.

Amplify

The Amplitude and Compression > amplify effect boosts or attenuates an audio signal. Because the effect operates in real time, you can combine it with other effects in the Effects Rack.

Gain sliders Boost or attenuate individual audio channels.

Link Sliders Moves the channel sliders together.

Underwater speech

Convolution reverb

The Reverb > Convolution Reverb effect reproduces rooms ranging from coat closets to concert halls. Convolution-based reverbs use impulse files to simulate acoustic spaces. The results are incredibly realistic and life-like.

Generate noise – brown noise

http://helpx.adobe.com/audition/using/generate-tones-effect.html

‘Brown noise - has a spectral frequency of 1/f2, which means, in layman’s terms, that the noise has much more low-frequency content. Its sounds are thunder- and waterfall-like. Brown noise is so called because, when viewed, the wave follows a Brownian motion curve. That is, the next sample in the waveform is equal to the previous sample, plus a small random amount. When graphed, this waveform looks like a mountain range.’

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/audition/cs/using/WS58a04a822e3e5010548241038980c2c5-7eeb.html

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/audition/cs/using/WS58a04a822e3e5010548241038980c2c5-7ed7.html 

Extra noise
There is a bass noise which was taken from the thunder audio. I copy and paste segments together in order to create a long enough piece to give some depth to the audio background.

audio distortion

Monster audio edit

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/monster-audio

We had to make noises and edit them to resemble a Monster. This was our opportunity to learn audition and experiment with the different effects. I experimented with different effects to help my audio piece advance to what it is.

Radio audio edit

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/radio-audio

This is a screen shot of the audio where I distorted a recording of my voice. I transformed the original audio file so that it sounded like it was being broadcasted from a radio in a war. I opened the file in audition and began the editing by cutting out the unnecessary space on the audio file. I cut some static noises from the audio clip and added it to points in the audio file. I added a radio announcers voice effect onto the original audio file and I then added an AM radio effect which made the audio clip work better.

themed audio edit

I recorded 7 audio clips in order to create an audio piece. I recorded a draw opening and closing, spinning coin, TV remote battery cover opening and closing, turning a door knob, dropping a small tin, hitting a plastic card on a desk, scraping a piece of metal on a desk.

I took all of these audio clips together and edited them individually and selected the clips that worked well and combined them to form an audio piece. 

https://soundcloud.com/matteo-sardu/themed-audio-edit

Video game audio history, Induction & composers

Audio timeline

In 1972 Nolan Bushnell released the first ever game to feature sound. This game was Pong. It was based off the game created in 1958 by William Higinbotham. The game only featured a blip sound caused by the ball when hit to its opponent.

1978 saw the release of space invaders which featured basic shooting and explosion noises along with a tempo that increases in pace as the enemies become closer.

Pac man is one of the most well known and most popular games to have been released. The 1980 release featured sounds which are known well with many, the sound of collecting the dots as you move and the sound when you fail is too one of the most recognisable sounds within game audio history.

The Nintendo entertainment system (NES) was available in 1985 and it came with an 8 bit system and it used a Motorola 6502 processor which was also used in the Atari 8-bit family, Apple II and Commodore 64.

Also in 1985, Nintendo released Super Mario Bros for the NES. Koji Kondo is a Japanese video game composer. Kondo has been praised for the audio produced. The audio tone changes to match the gameplay on screen, this creates a unique synchronisation between audio and visual. The audio created for this game meant that game audio was becoming a more vital part to the game itself.

Nintendo developed the next advancement in video game history with the Gameboy. The handheld games console featured four channels for sound where you were able to play the audio out of the left, to the right or both of the speakers.

Nintendo continued to release ever better products with the release of the 16-bit Super Famicom in 1991. It housed a dedicated 8-bit Sony SPC700 sound chip with eight separate channels.

1995 has significance as the Playstation was released with its 4-channel sound chip provides CD-quality stereo sound and has built-in support for digital effects such as reverb and looping.

1996 saw Nintendo release the 64. It had a cartridge-based 64-bit system which required a powerful CPU to be able to play the music and the sound effects.

The next step in development saw Sony release the Playstation 2 in 2000. The console featured a 128-bit Emotion engine CPU. It had 48 channels of sound and it also had 2MB of space specifically for the audio.

2001 saw Microsoft and Nintendo respond to the release of the Playstaion 2. The Xbox was Microsoft’s first console. It was said the Microsoft promised movie like audio and that the system would allow audio designer more power to enhance the gaming experience. The Xbox had a 64-voice I3DL2 audio processor, 64MB of unified memory and 200MHz bandwidth to the CPU.

Nintendo’s release was the Gamecube which was also to have said to be rather powerful. It had a 16-bit DSP sound processor powers 64 channels with a 48KHz sampling frequency.

Zoom recorder

We recived an induction on how to use the Zoom H4n recorder and microphones to capture audio. The Zoom recorder has two built in omni-directional microphones. These can be set to either 90 or 120 degrees angle depending on what you want to capture. this could be wide or narrow like the shotgun and rifle microphones.

Microphones

Rifle microphone
The rifle microphone has its name because it has a very narrow pick up and rejects sounds from other directions. Therefore, it is used when you want to capture a sound directly as it does not have much spread whilst capturing.

Shotgun microphone
The shotgun Microphone has its name because it has a wider spread on the audio pick up so it will pick up more audio that

SM58 Microphone
SM58 Is a professional microphone which is commonly used in live vocal applications. This microphone reduces pickup from the side and rear  which helps to avoid unwanted feedback with on-stage performances.

SM86 Microphone
The SM86 is widely used for a lead vocal artist as this is most suited for performances on-stage but is also equally as good at home for use in the studio.

Composers

Hans Zimmer and worked with Lorne Balfe on the music for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which was his first video game project. The music in this game for me has always been memorable to me whilst playing the game despite the game being released in 2009. The music in this game gives a great atmosphere whilst playing, whether it be tension or action, it makes you feel immersed in the game. Music created for this game has such an impact that it makes the player want to replay the game and experience it again with the storyline.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXLY_5xaYFo#t=136

Hans Zimmer

Hans Zimmer has composed music for over 150 films, including film scores for The Lion King, The Last Samurai, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, 12 Years a Slave and Interstellar. He is also the head of the film music division at DreamWorks studios. He also works with other composers through the company that he founded, Remote Control Productions.

Through his career, he has picked up four Grammy Awards, three Classical BRIT Awards, two Golden Globes, and an Academy Award.

Lorne Balfe

Lorne Balfe is a Scottish composer and musc producer. He has provided music for some top video games which he has become best known for. He provided for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Assassin's Creed III and Revelations, and the Skylanders franchise.

Balfe is currently working under Zimmer's company, Remote Control Productions and has collaborated with him on many projects. One of which being Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which has some of my favourite music from a video game.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare audio creation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etId92Qk1nE