Be able to create sound assets for a computer game following practice

PLAN:

My game theme: a space invaders style game with jets and other aircraft.

Sounds i would like to make for the game:

title song
game song
starting noise
death noise
enemy destroy noise 

maybe a voice over saying begin and each level.

I would like to make 2 types of similar but different music.

One for the 1st level i want to be fast and maybe a little bit aggressive in its tempo and the 2nd level i want to make the music a bit more precise and slower due to the presence of projectiles in that level.

My game is similar to space invaders in the way that it plays. (you have to use left and right arrow keys to move and you have to shoot approaching enemies whilst avoiding projectiles) But visually it does not look retro as you use jets and fight against other jets (i'm aiming for a retro style game with current day themes).


Unfortunately due to a error in game maker i had to convert one of the sounds to a WAV file (it was a originally mp3).

Screenshot of my title screen song

Screenshot of title screen song

Screenshot of title screen song

Bullet sound





The effects i added for the sound when i play the game has been edited. (i forgot to screenshot this) but the effects i put into the song were reverb and a echo effect. I used these i thought it made the game sound a little more retro.

Death Sound

Studio reverb effect for my title screen song

Delay effect for title screen song
i had to remove this because it did not match the overall feeling i was trying to create within my game.

Distortion effect for title screen song

Mastering Effect for the bullet sound

Death sound echo effect

Death sound amplify



Game start noise.

i forgot to add a screenshot of the process of me editing it. I added a echo and reverb effect along with normalizing it. To create it i growled into my microphone at home. I was aiming for more of aggressive start because you get put straight into the action and i believe a growl symbolizes danger and apprehension of a fight. To get this I added it to YouTube then used a YouTube converter to get it in a mp3 file. All of my sounds are in mp3 because it adds to a retro effect. In addition to this all of my sounds are lossy compressed which also adds to the feeling of it being retro.

Enemy death noise echo.

Game song 3 (2nd level)

game song 3 (2nd level)

song 3 mastering effect

Adding reverb to the sound of the jet(start of level)

echo effect explosion

reverb effect for explosion




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k36q8LKkZew


All of These sounds were created and edited by me.


For the start game sound the really deep sounding one I had to upload it to YouTube and use a YouTube converter on it to get it in a mp3 format. I'm not sure of the the legality issues in using these but since i'm using it on my own sound I can't see why I wouldn't be allowed to use this. This method was also used in getting the starting jet sound in a mp3 format.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7qnbSHUFKA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmaCPBiTGd8



When I created and edited the sound the were at 16 bitrate. I did not want to create it and a 8 bit rate sound because i wanted the sound to feel like it was a mix between 8 bit retro games and a few of the 16 bit games later produced. I believe in my game that I replicated the feel to some degree in few of my songs and sounds because despite the fact that some of the sounds were more fluid than what 8 bit sounds and songs were. (I believe they sounded bouncy and a bit chunky which would've been due to the limited access to powerful hardware and software). Luckily for me i have access to more sound recording and editing program than what they ever did. In addition to recording the sounds in the mp3 format i also saved them in a lossy compressed form so i reduce the memory and crispness of the sound like what the sound developers in a game created from the 80's may use. (they didn't have a choice what kind of compression they'd have to use in a game back then because the sound would take up too much memory and processing power and render the game unplayable).


The deep growl what i created was taking from inspiration from main villains in world of warcraft since they always have a overwhelmingly deep voice with a lot of echo effects applied to them. They would use these voices to generate a feeling like the villain is powerful and dangerous and it commands your attention to them. I have gone for a similar kind of feel to that a later on inside the game you find that the voice you hear at the start of the game is in fact the last boss. By using this kind of informationiIgathered from world of Warcraft I have started to believe that this kind of voice for a villain is extremely effective and uses and created ideas of symbolism (the deep voice generates the idea of apprehension as you are about to see or fight a boss) and iconography because I have started to believe that a boss needs to have voice you may not expect or commands your attention to it.

The mood Iwas aiming for was a up beat action/shooter game which is why I did not create any of the sounds to be peaceful and relaxing.

The voices in this game are entirely voiced by me a nobody else. Additionally all sounds were recorded at a bit rate of 44100

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyB5H7_zNuo
The voice for the last boss in the expansion wrath of the Lich King


The Lich King



I started creating the sounds for the game from scratch so the sounds I believe get better as they progress. Whilst editing them I made a few mistakes such as with title screen music I saved over the original copy with the edited copy. You may of been able to tell that it sounded rubbish (this is my opinion) due to the overpowering echo effects I added. If I had the choice to edit it again from scratch I would still keep the echo effects but reduce them to a much smaller level. I believe that you can tell how much better i got at using the software (adobe audation) as it progresses as they start to sound in my opinion better because i more adept at using the program. My favorite sound was the the music I made on level 2.





The programs i used in this project were Soundation, Adobe Audition and freesound.org 



 I used a Compact Zoom Microphone to record the sounds for the "go" sound.

Social, Ethical and Legal Issues In World Of Warcraft

World of Warcraft is the most popular of all MMO'S. At it's peak it was estimated that there were over 13 million active players although the number of active players has reduced to about 5.5 million players. The game its self was released in late 2004 however the Warcraft series was 1st created in 1994.

However with majority the of successful and popular games there will be some kind of issues with the game. Luckily World of Warcraft is not as controversial as call of duty or GTA in some ways however with so many people being "addicted" to this game there are obviously some repercussions.


In a lot of these kind of games it does not matter how much of a good person you are there will always be somebody who is out to ruin somebody else's day. In World of Warcraft there are many ways to ruin somebody else's fun and enjoyment. Such as being to over powered in PVP or blocking off the mailbox so people can't send stuff to there other characters or in some cases stealing a piece of equipment in the the game what may have something like a 0.5% drop chance and you can only do this thing once a day for maybe 2 weeks. While such things may really annoy you, you should be able to distinguish between reality and the virtual land in World of Warcraft. Unfortunately not everybody can.

The estimated time most players play on World of Warcraft exceeds 20 hours a week although Blizzard (the creators of World of Warcraft and other games) have never released a official average of the average play time per account.

Blocking the mailbox in a major city in World of Warcraft

Whilst doing such things in WoW may seem trivial to people like me and you there are people who take this game far too seriously. A few years back i was well and truly addicted to this game, i used to play for up to and over 72 hours a week and from what i can tell there are still people who take the game more seriously than i did. I still play the game so y views may be biased in some ways considering i have been playing the game since 2005 ( i would've been 7 years old when i started playing).

 The video below is compilation of people taking World of Warcraft far too seriously. Although the majority of the people play World of Warcraft with a certain degree of consideration and restraint these people obviously do not. I hate to stick to common stereotypes in but the people who play World of Warcraft in the top guilds probably do not have a job and they devote there lives to play this and be the best. Which is tolerable to some degree but this has obviously got to the point where it effects there social skills. I'm pretty that if you were talked to in this manner whether in a game or real life It'd put you off from doing what ever activity you were doing ever again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWh-2db3ml0


A real examples of somebody who was addicted to world of warcraft:
http://www.blastr.com/2013-6-13/mom-whose-kid-died-while-she-played-world-warcraft-goes-jail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2977817/Video-game-fan-coughs-blood-drops-dead-Shanghai-internet-caf-playing-World-Warcraft-straight-19-hours.html

In addition to these there has been many cases over family breakup due to this game.



However World of Warcraft also has positive effects and some surprisingly useful and interesting scenario's what has been developed since it was released.




The corrupted blood incident:
Back in the 1st expansion for the game there was a disease what you could get in the raid Zul Gurub whilst fighting the last boss. It was only supposed to be active in the raid however when the pets from the warlock or hunter contracted the disease it did not disappear when teleport out of the raid therefore allowing it infect entire cities. As a result all low level players in that were in the infected area died almost instantly. There have been many case studies involving this incident as it resembled a real life epidemic. This event spread to even the starting zones which as a result put off new people from playing.

The corrupted blood incident, Hundreds of skeletons marking where hundreds of players died.

Teamwork and Communication

When fighting the numerous bosses in World of Warcraft you will need good communication skills and teamwork in order to beat them. If you and the leader and all of the other members lack these then it may may cause your whole group to die in one attack. It may be that a member is given a bomb which will blow up the whole dungeon or raid and the only way to survive is by moving away from the group or to the group to share the damage or if a boss is about to hit everything around it and to survive you must huddle together or hide behind cover. If your leader and group lack these two elements then you will fail. Which is why i believe that by playing this game you can learn how to communicate properly with your boss and/or colleagues to confront and beat a problem. The same goes with teamwork since a functioning workforce requires teamwork and good communication to earn a profit and keep there jobs. Both of these two skills are vital when you are at work or if you are not.


Experience

Since World of Warcraft is on a PC it will give you more experience than those who don't use a PC in a job. I'm saying by playing the game it'll aid you but i'd imagine that all PC gamers would have greater experience in using them than those who don't because it'll familiarize them with using the machines. This'll prove to be useful in a workplace because since the technology and usefulness of the PC is always improving we may see PC's becoming more popular in a job than what it is already.


Bonding

In this game there are huge amount of opportunity's to bond and have fun with other players. Some players join guilds for fun and to take part in some of the more difficult raids. Usually guilds are social areas where players can participate in guild chat and the guild can set up special events like dueling arenas or social gatherings. In addition to this there are RPing servers (Role Playing). This where you stay in character when you play. example of a orc "zug zug kill the humans". I've always found that Role playing servers are quite fun when you meet other players. Just be aware of Goldshire (a place in World of Warcraft) there is a brothel *note this is only on role playing servers* and it is really weird especially in a 12 rated game.  That is the reason why i don't let my brother and sister play on a role playing server. My parents and uncle also play this game and i believe that aside from the odd things what happen it is generally a friendly game and family friendly.


Fun

Above all of the things i've put i believe that this is a really fun and interesting game and i would recommend this to anybody. This is because i believe it is a brilliant pass time and so long as you don't make your whole life revolve around the game.

Here we have herd of cow men (tauren's) bowing at somebody. This a RPing guild in a friendly meeting

This is probably what happened afterwards...

brainbox game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIkjCvH5OnA
sprites and backgrounds.
i had to re do my sound part because you couldn't hear me (it's still hard to hear me so described something at the end about them)



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irRjVnZiJnk
playing the game


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rYpo0iArh8
sounds


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YCo-PAig6o
objects

unit 73 sounds for games design assignment 1

kurt bremner                                                                                                    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCxv2daOwjQ

Halo 2:
The music starts off slowly at 1st which gives me the impression like it is the calm before the storm.
The start also gives me the impression that this is the final stand.


At 0.32 the tempo increases and it gives me the feeling that a ship full of enemies has been seen in the distance coming towards your position. At 0.54 this gives me the impression that the enemy ships have just landed and advancing on your position.

The game uses the main song also uses the music for when something quite daring and risky is about to happen. For example when Master chief (main protagonist) boards a huge enemy ground vehicle to prevent from destroying a huge amount of your allies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzx6QG855WY  

I think that the use of a electric guitar in the piece of music is symbolism to a boss fight or another significant event because of sharp sometimes fast paced sounds they can make. The music used is also a metaphor. In this game it is used to generate the feeling of energy since it is fast paced and could also be used to create the feeling of danger. Electric guitars in games can be used to generate a vast array of feelings. For example a very high pitched note in a horror or stealth game to alert you if you've been seen.

They probably hired a band and tasked to create the song for a piece of the profit when it was complete. The consequences of breaking this could mean that the band could secure a large amount of money or request that you not use there music in the game, Either one of these could ruin the game.


Depending on what version of the game you own the sounds will be compressed or uncompressed. I think that the sounds would be compressed if you owned it on the original XBOX due to the fact that there would of been a limited amount of RAM, too many uncompressed songs would take up a lot of space. However if you own the remastered editions you would expect them to be uncompressed because they were made on the later generations on consoles. This is because the higher quality of sounds the higher the bit depth and the higher that is the more RAM it takes up.

If this was the version on the original xbox they may of used a mp3 file because that is a lossy compressed file whereas if it was a remastered versions they might of used a wav for it's higher quality of sounds since it is uncompressed.
In addition to this they most likely used multi track recording for this due to the the sounds what sound suspiciously like a piano at 1:45 in the top video.

The Last Of Us 

Gustavo Santaolalla
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y97u-U0nvJM

To start with, the 1st few seconds of this song gave me the feeling that it was almost a western style song.  However at 0:16 there was low pitched humming noise which contrasts with the other instrument being played. (i think it's a harp). However after that somebody starts using a acoustic guitar which adds on to the feel it's a western style game. At 0:37 it almost sounds like someone is walking. Depending on how you view it it could sound like a cowboy standoff but if you remember the dark humming noise it could potentially sound quite sinister. At 0.42 there seems to be a burst of energy in the music. The strumming of the guitar with the harp(whatever it is) in the background i believe is a contrast of 2 genre's. If you just listen to the harp it could sound like it belonged in a horror film due to the sharp and crisp sounds it makes. But the strumming of the guitar i believe it gives it it's western sound. At 1:22 it almost sounds like someone is running which reflects more on horror genre, At 1:38 the music picks up again but this time because of the blend of the instruments it sounds almost like something out of a action/adventure game.

The music has a unique sound to it because the musician recorded this in his bathroom. It sounds different because it had a high roof.

Compared to halo the music in this game is a lot less upbeat which suggests to me that halo is more combat based and action filled than what this game. The instruments used in halo are a lot more in your face and aggressive. This is due to the difference in pitch and tempo in both songs. I cannot detect timbre in the halo song but i can hear it in the last of us song. I think that the halo music would of used stereo sound because of the time it was made not many people would of have surround sound. Whereas since the last of us was released on the PS3 it may of been surround sound compatible.

The music in the last of us makes me feel like i am in the middle of a adventure. It almost reminds me of fallout because the music on some of radio's is similar to the music on this. Both are in post apocalyptic worlds and both in some ways are action/adventure games.

The creator of the game would of signed a contract with the musician to not use the music from the game in any new albums.

This is listen mode in the last of us. It allows you to to see enemies. I think they could be linked top the horror element of the game.

I believe the horse and the ranch like buildings sort of symbolism the western style.

link...

http://quals.onefile.co.uk/pdf/unit/CMP3_073.pdf

survivor

05/01/2016
film name:survivor


beginning/prologue:
heli get's shot down
2 soldiers get captured
1 gets killed



characters
that kate person...
A 360 no scope assassin dude MLG!!! Aka trevor (watch maker)
bill
sam
that doctor guy
plot twists

bill tries to kill her (and dies).
it wasn't the terrorists

story line
man shot on suspicion of terrorist attacks terrorists look for ways to get real passports etc
The doctor is informing some people of her and states "she may be trouble"
that kate person is suspicious of someone.
she met with some suited dudes and informed them of a possible national security.
It is discovered the baddies have a spy.
she was framed for the death of someone important and had to evade capture or death from a top 360 no scope assassin champ dude .
bills son is captured in Afghanistan. The 1 soldier alive
the main bad guy has been caught out as well as one of his key subordinates.
A baddie is planning on unleashing a large explosion in New York what'll kill thousands
trevor kills the doctor
kate kills trevor
sam isn't dead


Kate was doing her normal job when she bumps into the doctor( a baddie) attempting to travel abroad. The doctor rings up up someone can then says "she may be trouble". She then begins to investigate the man but when she reports it to her superiors they strangely turn it all down. With that she then went to somebody else called sam and then she gets blown up in a diner. The master assassin called the watch maker was hunting her down. She called up someone only too find that they blamed her for the explosion but she found that there was a spy working against her.  

shapeman game

this is my 1st sketch the yellow circle is where you start. The red shapes you see are enemies and that is whjere they were all supposed to start. The white squares are where the walls were going to be but i got carried away and made a lot more walls and when i tried this i felt it was to easy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezpF8EiS_FQ    my youtube clip for showing all my sprites

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbeKeSfmujE my youtube clip showing my objects

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snr3Ms2pDLE my youtube clip of me evaluating my own game








I asked my brother to play and he said this. "the game is simple and it has lots of issues such as being able to only move up down left and right". I didn't think it was a major issue but i will look into adding a diagonal movement as well. Also i'm hoping to add a way too increase your speed as you move. I asked him on the how well the music fit the background walls sprites etc. He said " the music seemed to be quite comedic like the stuff you'd hear in a cartoon". He felt like it didn't fit very well but he also said he enjoyed it because it felt energetic. I asked him what he thought of the other sounds " the sounds was quite funny but there wasn't very much sounds for the game". I plan on adding more sounds such as when you collide with wall and squelch sound when you eat a shape. I asked if he found any issues with the sprites "the triangle is hard to see" this is due to the lighting engine so i'm going to have to consider creating a new brighter colored sprite for the triangle. I asked if he could change on thing in the game what'd be he said he'd make the game more difficult a such as more enemy's and more orbs.




3 things i am definitely going to improve

i'm going to improve the the difficulty of the levels.(more orbs, better orb positioning)

i'm going to improve the sounds (more sound effects such as destroying a enemy)

i'm going to update and improve the sprites to compensate for the new lighting engine. (making them brighter)


how to play
up arrow=move up
down arrow=move down
left arrow move left
right arrow= move right

to win this game you will need to either eat all the orbs or destroy the enemies.
you can only eat the orbs if you stay as the starting shape.
to eat the other shapes you need to move to the flashing shapes.
to eat the triangle you have to become a triangle
to eat a pentagon you have to be a pentagon
to eat a square you need to become a square
to eat a cross you have to become a cross
to eat a circle you have to become a circle (2nd level only)

tips
there are 2 ways to win collect all the orbs or destroy all other shapes.
The unkillablemob sprite cannot be killed...you need to avoid it otherwise it takes you back to the 1st level even if you are on the 2nd level.
the cross tools can pass through walls for added difficults
the circles also can pass through walls and they move at a higher speed so expect it to be difficult.