Game Audio
This is the work I did while working towards recording, synthesizing and implementing audio for a test game, from DAW (Ableton/Pro Tools) to the middleware (FMOD) to the game engine (Unity).
Below can be found an audio que sheet of all of the sound for the game.
| # | Category | Sound Cue: | Scene | Type: | Sourced from | M/S | 2D/3D | Implementation | Notes |
| 1 | Ambience | spaceshipamb | 1 | Ambience | Synthesised | M | 3D | One Loop | pink noise with EQ applied |
| 2 | Ambience | jungle_amb | 1,2 & 3 | Ambience | library | S | 2D | 2 Loops + scatter instrument | layers are different lengths playing in async |
| 3 | Player Character | ellen_footsteps | All | Foley | Recorded | M | 2D | > 5 variations needed | pitch being modulated using randomisation tool |
| 4 | Player Character | player_jump | All | Dialogue | Library | M | 2D | > 5 variations needed | |
| 5 | Player Character | player_hurt | All | Foley | Library | M | 2D | > 5 variations needed | |
| 6 | Player Character | laser_attack | All | SFX | Synthesised | M | 2D | > 5 variations needed | pitch being modulated using randomisation tool, made using wavetable in ableton |
| 7 | Player Character | melee_attack | All | Foley | Library | M | 2D | > 5 variations needed | volume being modulated using randomisation tool |
| 8 | Environment | acid_loop | 3 & 4 | SFX | Library | M | 3D | one loop | |
| 9 | Environment | acidsplash | 3 & 4 | SFX | Library | M | 3D | > 5 variations needed | |
| 10 | Interaction | boxslide | 1 & 4 | Foley | Recorded | M | 3D | Looped to sync with box being pushed | |
| 11 | Interaction | crystal_on | 2 & 4 | SFX | Synthesised | M | 3D | one variation needed | synth made using collision in ableton, also plays for door In zone 2 |
| 12 | Interaction | health_pickup | 3,4 & 5 | SFX | Synthesised | M | 3D | one variation needed | synth made using collision in ableton |
| 13 | Ambience | zone5_amb | 5 | Ambience | Library | S | 2D | loop + scatter instrument | reverb applied in FMOD |
| 14 | Environment | moving_platform | 3,4 & 5 | SFX | Synthesised | M | 3D | one loop | synth made using wavetable in ableton |
| 15 | Ambience | cave_amb | 4 | Ambience | Library | S | 2D | one loop | |
| 16 | Interaction | key_pickup | 2, 3 and 4 | SFX | Synthesised | S | 3D | one variation needed | synth made using meld in ableton |
| 17 | Environment | door_open | 4 | SFX | Library | S | 3D | one variation needed | |
| 18 | Interaction | enemy_fs | 3 & 4 | Foley | Library | M | 3D | < 5 variations needed | many needed due to the amount of enemies in one zone |
| 19 | Player Character | ellen_death | All | SFX | Library | M | 2D | one variation needed | |
| 20 | Interaction | wall_break | 2 & 3 | SFX | Library | M | 3D | 3 sounds layered | |
| 21 | Music | menu_song | Main Menu | Music | Synthesized/lLibrary | S | 2D | 3 instruments within ableton, looped | made up of wavetable synthesizer, Kontakt 5, India Spotlight Collection sample instrument, Kinetic Metal sample instrument |
| 22 | Interaction | staff_pickup | Zone 3 | SFX | Synthesized | M | 2D | one variation needed | made using collision in ableton |
An explanation of how i created the more complex sounds -
Spaceship Ambience:
This was done in pro tools, I used the noise generator in Audiosuite to generate pink noise, in FMOD I then filtered out everything except the low end of stuff below 1000 Hz, while letting through some frequencies at around 5 kHz, I also boosted the low end.
I got it to loop within FMOD, I set the distance attenuation to be quite high as it is a big object producing this sound.
Jungle Ambience:
the Jungle Ambience was made in pro tools, it is made up of 2 jungle ambience tracks acquired from SoundQ which i set to loop in FMOD, there is also a scatter instrument, which plays sounds at different intervals, ranging in volume and location within game (panning).
Player Footsteps:
I recorded the footsteps for the two different material types, grass and stone, both of which were recorded with a Rode NTG2, I captured multiple footsteps and then picked the best out of the recorded ones to use in FMOD.
Video of the grass footsteps recording:
Video of the stone footsteps recording:
Laser Attack: I created a laser using wavetable, I used envelope 2 to automate the frequency of each of the filter bands, giving it that laser sound, i used pro Q to cut some of the loud low frequencies and a particular frequency around 300 Hz that was too loud. I used the utility tool to turn it up since it was very quite, after getting a few recordings of the synth, I put them into a multi instrument in FMOD, I then automated the pitch slightly to make each shot from the laser more unique.
Box Sliding sound:
for this I dragged a piece of slate off another piece of slate, I then pitched it down after recording, I made it loop in FMOD, it loops until the player stops touching the box in game, FMOD then plays after the sustain point made on the timeline.
Music:
The wavetable synthesizer is a simple sine wave, first there is a high pass filter being automated by the amp envelope generator, its a subtle change that makes the synth sound a bit more interesting.
I then made use of Kontakt 5, and particularly the Indian Spotlight Collection, which has samples of many Indian instruments, I used the Dhol drum for the music. as the drum fit the theme of this game which is mostly set in a jungle.
For the final instrument within the music, I again used Kontakt 5, the Instrument was the Kinetic Metal instrument, which creates unique sounding textures, I used the Aluminium Scratches texture, it sounded like some ambience you'd hear in a Sci-Fi movie based in space, which fit the feel of the game, which is seemingly based on an alien planet.
I made a 16 bar loop of the song in ableton, and bounced the audio into FMOD, where I then made the audio loop.
LUFS:
After playing through every section of the game, my loudness meters intergrated LUFS came in at around -23.9 LUFS, my target was -23 with a leeway of 0.9 LUFS.
To head to my final artefact, click the button below.