Game Design 1 Week 3 Audio

For week 3 of our game design course, we focused on audio. For our assignment, we had to make sounds for the moving platform, the falling platform, the keys, the doors, and two environmental sounds. Let's dig into each one!

For the moving platform, I knew that the period of movement was exactly one second. I also knew that I wanted to make a techy sound to the platforms. I thought this would be explanation enough to why they move. I also knew that the techy noise would contrast really well with my other noises so it would be clear what sound is which. So, I generated a plucking noise in Audacity, reversed it, and played with EQs and other filters until I got what I wanted.

I'm most proud of the falling platform, which I made 3 different sounds for each state. The "Activated" sound is just an edited Drum noise I generated in Audacity. This gave just that bit of feedback that tells the player something is going to happen. The second "Falling" sound is 2 of the edited drum sounds one after the other. The second drum is pitched down to denote both, "Bad," and, "Fall." Finally, for the coming back up sound, I reversed the first drum part over the course of 3 seconds. It was really nice feedback to let the player know what's happening. I'm really happy with the result of this part.

The keys were really just a recording of me jingling my keys. It's a recognizable sound, and it's very telling what just happened. You picked up your keys! Sometimes simplicity is all you need.

The door locked noise is just me jiggling the handle of a door knob at home. Like the keys, it's a really recognizable, simple, and telling noise... I wonder if my roommates were thinking while I did all of those takes to get the sound I wanted?

The door opening noise is two layered noises. One is me twisting a door knob and opening a door, but this didn't really feel like enough for a noise. Players need feedback! Then, I remembered that my dresser makes this really beautiful (or annoying, depending on the mood) creaking sound. So I recorded that, too. Layered them... et voila! Really great feedback to opening a door. It makes it extra satisfying to get that key and open that door.

Finally, I added to environmental sounds to the scene, one for the lava, and one for the boombox. I wanted these two noises to contrast each other. One should feel safe and the other should feel dangerous. I found a free to use Lofi song (because what could be safer?) sound for the boombox, and a free to use, low, rumbling lava sound that screamed, "Watch out!"

The Song: https://manhattan.sourceaudio.com/track/52233783

The lava sound:  

Thanks to both!

All of this audio recording reminded me of when I was making games a few years ago. I was trying to make a really good hit and impact sound effect, and I was trying to get a good meaty punch. I ended up at a point where I kept striking a wood baseball bat into the palm of my hand (not so hard it hurt, to be clear). I got some really good audio from that, but when I left my room that day, my mom looked at me and asked, "What the hell is going on in there? It sounded like a fight!" So I knew I was on the right track.

Honestly though, looking around my room and seeing what two things I can hit together to get a good noise is one of my favorite parts of game development. I got a lot of respect for audio people!