Ambient pressure the final map

The project is coming to an end. Now the main area of work consists of polishing the implemented features and artefacts in our game Ambient pressure.

The specific artefact that i’ve been working on, implementing this week is actually a melodic track. And “actually” is because we have made no music for our game so far. Apart from the menu track that contains melody, I have not made any music tracks that plays during gameplay.

So what I’m working on now is the track for our recently implemented final map. This map is supposed to be the most difficult and challenging part of the game. When this map is completed the whole game is finished.

The track is built on pretty basic rhythms and melodies. The phase is based on a constant heartbeat that plays through the whole track without pause. The heartbeat and a crash cymbal are the only percussions that are used. I wanted to keep it simple like this because it seemed like the fewer sounds that I added to this track the better. At first I added some classic house-like drums, my thought was that it would increase the thriller factor of the map, but it proved out to be quite the opposite.

The delinquent soundscape different synths, basses and soundscapes. As you can hear (see link below) one of the first sounds that plays is a “eighties” mono synth. This proved out to add much to the tensed atmosphere.

Approximately 17 seconds from start you can hear a noise, much like a emergency signal. This sound is built on four different types of synths. One bass synth, two analog synths and one distorted. A reverb plugin that is called Valhalla room, gives the sound a nice reverb.

The final thing I will describe is a synth called Detorioration. This one kicks in after 55 seconds. This is the same sound that I used in the menu track. Since the player already have heard this sound before at the start of the game, I thought it would give the player of that things are really about to end. To see if this really would work I asked some of my classmates, that had both heard the menu track and played the, to listen to the song. And it seemed to automatically make listener understand my intention without me explaining it.

The program I have created the track in is Logic Pro X.

Click the link to listen:

Ambient pressure, the flare gun

This week I have mostly been working on adjusting all the sounds that I have made during this course. Much time was spent on adjusting the sound for the Flare gun audio. Today I will describe how I constructed its sound.

So a short description of our game: One plays as a diver who is supposed to explore shipwrecks deep down into the ocean. The goal is to find a specific amount of mutated algae in order to complete the game. While doing so the player has to avoid mutated fish that hunts the avatar.

One of the first sound effects that I made on the project was the audio for the flare gun, which the diver uses in order to light up the map.

The sound that I created was supposed to represent the shoot action. This sound was activated as soon as avatar pulls trigger of the gun. The first thing that happens when this action takes place, is that the projectile leaves the gun at a high-speed. In order to develop this I had to do some research on what it actually would sound like when a real flare gun was fired. But none of the realistic sounds was appealing to me, it did not match the rest of the game. So started on exaggerating the sounds.

The first thing I recorded was me hitting a paper roll. It took a while to develop a technic, but finally the sound that I was searching for appeared, but it did not sound as much as I wanted it to do. This was done to depict the sound of the projectile leaving the tube-shaped gun.

To enhance the sound I added some “exciter” plugins to make it both louder and sharper, along with various equalizers. A kick drum was added above earlier mentioned, which would enhance the ignition effect.
The second audio track consists of actual rocket recordings, available on the hard drive that I got from our teacher Finn Engström. At the same time as the rocket sound occurs, a bubble effect kicks in. This was added to represent the projectile under water. On these two effects I added both filter and equalizer plugins. At the start and the end of the whole track a light match sound was added. This increased the ignition effect. The program that I made all the sounds in is Logic Pro X.

You can listen to the sound, along with some other sounds that I have made during the course, by clicking this link:

The sound of suffocation

This week I have been working on developing the sound for power ups and state artifacts for our game. The one I will describe today is the state-sound for when the avatar lacks of oxygen. Since the avatar is underwater during the entire gameplay, she has a tank on her back that delivers oxygen. The amount of oxygen is displayed on the hud along with ammo and the amount of samples that the player has collected. As time goes, the diver gradually consumes the oxygen and if depleted the avatar dies. In order to survive the player has to find samples that adds to both score and oxygen refill.

The sound effect kicks in when the tank starts to run out. This sound is used to help the player understand that she needs to find a oxygen refill.

When I began to make the sound, one of my first thoughts was: what actually would happen to the body when suffocation takes place. I started to watch some documentaries on youtube that described the symptom. In summary, what I found out was that the heart rate raises and the person starts to hyperventilate, along with other effects. So, this effect consists of two different sounds: Heartbeat and breathing.

Heartbeat.

The first thing I did was to find a heartbeat sound. This sound is quite common in other games to indicate that something bad is happening to the player. We use this in our for the same reason. The heartbeat track duration is 30 seconds. The pace is split up into four different sections. The first section plays with a speed of 95 beat per minute (bpm). The second part plays faster at a pace of 110 bpm and the delinquent two parts contains slower tempo.

With other words, the heart beats fast in the beginning and then it turns slow towards the end.

I decided to design the sound like this in order to indicate the critical state of the avatar. The player understands in the beginning that she needs to provide oxygen to the diver, and if not the pulse slows down and the avatar dies.

Breath.

I actually recorded this track myself, using my own voice/breath trying to simulate the suffocation. But since I am a man and the avatar is supposed to be androgynous I had to manipulate the voice so I did not sound as manly.

I adjusted the voice in a plugin program called Melodyne. This program can distinguish every note value of a track and display them individually. When done so, one can manipulate every note and change its tune. (see picture)

The breath track consists of coughing and wailing breath.

The heartbeat and the breath combined seemed to deliver the feeling that I wanted.

Here it is:

The Audio for Ambient Pressure

The game that our group chose is called: Ambient Pressure. In summary, this is a game about a diver that explores shipwrecks in order to find samples while he is hunted by mutated fish. My main area of responsibility is the audio.

These last couple of weeks I have been working on the soundtrack along with other sound effects for our game. The soundtrack consists of different sounds that I have put together in order to create an atmosphere that fits our aesthetic goals. The game contains no music and is only based on different sound effects. The reason for this was that the group agreed on that it would not contribute to our aesthetic goal if we had music in it. By removing the music, we thought it would give a more tensed and thrilling atmosphere.

When I started to work on the track, the first thing I did was to imagine what it would feel like if I was the one in the game. Questions like What do I feel, what do I hear?etc. Where answered during this part of the brainstorming process.

The Program that I created the track in is Pro Logic X. The main soundtrack consists of: whale moaning, breathing, atmospheric synths, bubbling, base impacts, percussions etc. By putting all of these together it created the atmosphere that I imagined during the brainstorming.

A key principle that I always had to follow during the creation was that the other sound effects would stand out from the main audio so that they would not blend in with rest of the sound. With this in mind I created the soundtrack so that it would not disguise the audio that came from other parts of the game like shooting and enemy roars.

The track is based on three key elements: rhythmic breathing, whale moaning and bubbling. These three features are the most important elements of the track. The breathing represents the avatar just as the sound of the water. The echoing moaning represents the endless ocean which I thought would enhance to the feeling of vulnerability and loneliness that we want the player to feel.

The graphics and the physics in the game are not according to a realistic concept. The sounds are on the other hand closer to reality than the rest of the game. The reason for not adapting the audio to the comic and unrealistic theme, which the game has, is because it created an interesting contrast that would appear to be advantageous to the horror factor that we wanted to achieve.

Here is a sample: https://soundcloud.com/mundari/ambient-main-track-example