Sound Design

The production of sound was my job, meaning I will create or source all of the sounds used within the project. For this project, the sounds and foley will follow the main theme of the project. In order to do that I knew the theme had to be within the Horror/Thriller Genre.

The next stage was to complete research into different sounds and music used within popular Horror games and to identify any similarities they possess and decide whether this would be a good fit for our own game, or if I should be looking in a different direction.

The majority of the game takes place in a warehouse and laboratory style room. This gave me a good direction to work with, now knowing what kind of sounds I needed to be looking for. I wanted to stick with a mechanical and eerie sound, something that would sound almost as experimental as the enemies within the game.

Production Start

Starting the production meant sourcing different sounds and different music to use. There are many free websites out there that offer usable music within projects. I have used three that have always given me great sources; PurplePlanet, Incomptech and Freesound.

Using these sites allows me to create a comprehensive and detailed piece, as well as source smaller sounds for the finer details. It also allows me to get a wider audience for these websites and offer places other developers or music artists can visit.

Purple Planet is the first site I am using samples from, it gives me a wide variety of sounds and genres to choose from. I decided to go for a track named Desolation, it has a very mechanical, eerie undertone to it and it allows me to experiment with adding different sounds and also adjusting the original soundtrack.

The song fits well with the overall theme of the work, meaning it will be perfect to use as a theme song. This is the plan. Now I will take it into a few music software and create a more detailed track.

The first place I import the music into is a software called LMMS. It is a free sound and music software that allows manipulations and creations to take place. The use of this software is to create a simple baseline and small adjustments to the song downloaded previously.

Once those were completed, I saved and exported it as a different file, so we could have the option to use both, one with the base and one without just in case it no longer fit the theme.

I wanted to add in more sounds to the original as I felt there was still some things missing. I wanted to also try adjusting another song to see if anything new would happen.

The other song chosen was one called Shadowlands, it had more of a mystical and thriller sound to it which instantly sparked my interest with things I could do to add to it.

I did the same steps as last time, taking it into editing software and adjusting levels, adding in effects and other sounds to the whole track.

I took the new track into a software called Audacity, this allows me to add simple effects and create custom audio levels for each track I import into it.

It gives me complete control on the tempo, fades, pitch and equalizer throughout the piece and also lets me watch the changes in the waveform as I apply each modifier.

After adding a few simple effects and some new sounds I was already liking this new sound more than the last so I decided to continue with this one, still documenting the old version, however.

(Finished Wavelengths in Audacity)

Sound Effects

The sound effects followed a very similar collection process as the sounds for the main theme. I knew I needed them to fit the overall look and feel of the game, as well as have their own distinct sounds for people to know what they were.

Many of the sound effects were large ones, things like Doors opening and closing, footsteps and locks undoing. Each of these was simple to source, however, I wanted to give the team options so I picked multiple.

Each effect I chose had a different atmosphere and feel to it, allowing the others to put their vote into which one would be included in the final game. This resulted in a lot of sourcing and a lot of searching but it allowed more free range when completing the atmosphere for the game.

The effects were all sourced from the Freesound website and some went through a small editing process, cutting the effects or sounds down to a shorter time or adjusting the volume or pitch ever so slightly. This once again allowed changes to be effective and minute to add to the game.

I wanted to keep the sources as clean and crisp as possible with their sound quality, which resulted in me spending many hours going through various sounds of the same thing to find the perfect few to use.

Once all of the sounds were created and stored, I uploaded them onto the Google Drive that the team have, allowing everyone to access them and put them where they needed to go within the project.

I also kept in as much contact with the team and the Marketing Lead as much as I could over the process, making sure I noted any changes and restructuring of the project. Once this was all done and the sounds were uploaded my job within sound design was completed.