I am a third year Audio production Student and for my Audio Project 2 I will be creating sound for a virtual reality game experience. After talking to Rhys Clarihew a third year Media Production student about his project he asked if I would be able to be the sound designer for this project. Rhys made it clear what he wanted from me as a sound designer, I will be creating all the sounds in post production as there is no live recording. The aim of the virtual reality experience is to create a Horror game that scares the user. The experience is set in an abandoned operating theatre, during the game the user will be pushed around the theatre in a wheel chair and will be able to interact with arrange of objects such as the operating table, cupboards and a wheelchair. Rhys new the importance of sound for this but has left the overall sound design to me, giving me complete creative freedom on the project. The game will last between 3-5 minutes, depending on how long the user can last using the experience. The Oculus Rift headset will be used for the virtual reality experience, more information on the product can be found in my supporting materials section
My aim for the project is to research and expand on the skills needed to work in game sound and also horror as a genre. I will look into recent released games, films and academic written work to inspire my project. Some examples of my research that I plan to undertake are the horror game Dead Space and the film Alien. I will update and talk about all my research undertaken in the research section of this blog.
The objective of this project is to complete the whole sound design in time for the deadline for this virtual reality game thats being produced.
Timescale –
Week 1 – Meet up with that game designer to discuss project aims and objectives. Develop an understanding of the game.
Week 2 – Plan out potential sounds and discuss ideas from Rhys regarding sound development.
week 3 – Begin Foley recording for natural sounds such as foot steps.
week 4 – Complete Foley and basic room recordings
week 5 – By this week Rhys hopes to have complete a basic design of the operating room. This will allow me to start designing the sounds that will add the horror aspect to the game.
week 6 – ADR recording. I will hopefully record some voices designed to act ghostly to scare the user. I will use voice over actors that I have used for past projects.
week 7 – Mixing Foley recordings and adding any effects needed.
week 8 – Creative sound design. I will create atmospheric tracks using synths and natural recorded sounds to bring the game to life.
week 9 – Create any small sounds needed to add a horror aspect e.g sounds that you can not see like the alien that is supposed to be in the room with you.
week 10 – finalising and bouncing of all sound files
week 11 – Mixing the sound and adding them to the game
week 12 – Game testing and making sure all the sounds needed are in the game
week 13 – completion
I will use this blog to update my progress and my research. You can see Rhys blog here http://rhysclarihew.wordpress.com/