Week 3 – Developing the sound

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During week 3 I took the time to start to developing ideas for the sound design of the game. Using the design drawing that Rhys provided for me I based my ideas around this. You can see in my research section of this blog that I have started to read about the sound design for the film Alien, during this research I found that the sound designers had developed a unique atmosphere for the rooms in the film. I started to apply this to my sound design and have started to trial out sounds that will help to develop the realism of the room that the game is set in.

Although I believe for this project that a lot of the smaller sounds will play a big part in scaring the user during the game, It is important for me to build up the main sounds like atmosphere and major room sounds in order to bring the game to life.

Below is an example of an alarm that I created using a alarm sound and mixing it will a synth plug-in. The alarm will be used in the game to signify to the user that something has been released into the room with them.

 

During the week coming up I plan to develop the room sounds to near completion and start to think about the sounds I want to create to layer up the sound of the game

Week 2 – The first meeting

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During this week me and Rhys met up to start planning the project. Rhys brought along a hand drawn storyboard to help me get a better image of his design( see below). During the meeting we discussed what we both wanted to achieve with this project. We came to the conclusion that the overall aim of the game was to give the user a virtual reality experience that would scare them and hopefully make the user take the headset off before they complete the game. The experience is set in an abandoned operating theatre, during the game the user will walk around the theatre and will be able to interact with arrange of objects such as the operating table, cupboards and a wheelchair. When the user walks to the operating table an alarm will sound and an alien/monster will be in the room with the user. However the user will not be able to see the alien, sound will be used to convince the person that there’s something in the room.

To accomplish the goal of scaring the person using the device, sound will have to play a big part in the users experience, without sound the visual elements won’t have the same effect. Rhys gave me an example of a film that has inspired the game, the film is alien, released in 1979 and directed by Ridley Scott. Rhys described the use of sound in the film as letting the user know that there is always an alien on the loose. Even though you can’t always see the alien, a lot of the time you can hear it. This will be the approach I am taking with design for this game.

During next week I will be starting to develop sound ideas for the virtual reality horror game, during this time I will also be researching and learning techniques for horror sound design.

Game Room layout

Week 1 – The Plan

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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/