This section of my blog will feature my thoughts on my own individual learning during this project.

My Roles:

Throughout out this project my goals are to successfully design, create and record sound for this virtual reality horror game. I will be acting as Sound Designer for this project and will be in charge of developing all sounds used in the game.

Week 1

I decided after the success of my last Audio Project that it was important to start the project as early as possible. After agreeing with Rhys Clarihew to work with him on his virtual reality game we decided to meet up straight away and start discussing ideas. This, I believe, was useful to both of us, it allowed me to get a good understanding of what I would need to do to provide a good sound design for Rhys. Having good communication is key when working with someone who you haven’t worked with before, so meeting and developing ideas with Rhys is very important and will no doubt help me provide the best sound possible.

Week 2

I new at the start of this project that Rhys had to create the game while I was creating the sound. This made it difficult for me to get a good image in my head of what Rhys was creating. To help with this we decided it was important to keep in touch as much as possible with updates on the project. Simple ways to do this was creating a facebook group that we could use to post updates and developments. We also created a shared dropbox folder. This, although it may be a simple idea, has helped me in my role a lot. I’ve learnt that using these new formats available for communication has helped me to get a good understanding of what Rhys is doing week by week.

Week 3,4,5 and 6

I have decided to write about these weeks together as I felt that my reflective summary could be linked with all of these weeks.

So far I feel that the project is going well, however at the minute it is making slow progress. Its hard to say if this is a bad thing or not. It is good to be able to take the time to plan the sound development for this game. Because the project is quite ambitious  and very unique I feel that the sound design needs to be planned out carefully. Taking these last few weeks and experimenting with sound recording and design has helped me to get a better understanding of what needs to be recorded and included in the game. Without taking the time to do this I may have ended up recording the wrong sounds or sounds that didn’t fit very well with the project. Planning is perhaps one of the most important aspects of sound design, especially when working with a client. I feel that my planning so far has worked well. I have a list of sounds that I need creating and by asking Rhys for the games running order I have also been able to think of additional sounds needed, all without actually seeing the proper game. This again was a major problem for me, creating sound effects without actually seeing what they are for was very difficult. I feel that I have overcome this problem well by communicating with Rhys and asking for any design plans he has. I also feel that by researching other games this has helped me to realise the types of sound used in horror. My past experience with recording Foley has meant that I can quickly recorded sounds to a high quality, this has helped me a lot as I haven’t had much time for the actually recording process.

Weeks 7-9

As the project has drawn on the development of the game has been very slow paced. This has caused many difficulties for me, however I believe I have got around these problems very well. For example the room that the game will be set in has not fully been designed yet and all I have so far is a screenshot (which you can see in blog post six). In order to allow myself to progress I have continued to create sounds that will be able to be used as atmosphere and Foley sounds. The problem with creating atmospheric sounds without the game being made is that I don’t know the length that the recorded tracks has to be and I don’t know all of the objects in the room. I will continue to create as many sounds as possible as it will be better to have to many sounds and not use some then to not have the right sounds. I still feel that in order to be able to complete a good interactive sound design for this game I will need at least two weeks in which I can trial the sounds in the game. My interaction with Rhys has still been good, however their isn’t much more that he can tell me, I need to be able to see the game working now in order to continue the project.

Final Weeks + Project Summary

Due to the slow progress of the games design I decided to create a new way to showcase the audio that I have created. I decided to record a play through of the game. Over the final weeks my decision to record the game and add the sound has paid of well. The video allows me to show others how I believe the sound should be incorporated and mixed into the game. This also allows me to show Rhys in the hope that he will programme the sounds into the game like I have in the video. Throughout the project I believe that my interaction and organisation with Rhys and the project have worked very well. The slow development of the game may have impeded the sound slightly, however I think that I managed to overcome these obstacles and they have taught me a lot about client interaction.

There are some parts of the games design that have made the sound design difficult. For example Rhys has set up the sound triggers to be manually triggered by pressing certain keys on the keyboard. This creates two major problems, the first being that Rhys has to memorise when each sound needs to be played, and he has to make sure he is in time with the visuals. The second problem is that if this game was ever to be sold/released the people playing it would always need someone to control the game why they play it.

There are a few changes that I would have made to the game if possible. I would have liked there to be more interaction within the game, allowing the user to explore the room more. I would have also liked there to be more objects in the room. All of which would have allowed me to explore the sound design slightly deeper. I would have also changed Rhys doing the voiceover parts and got a professional actor in. However this wasn’t possible as the experience of the game officially starts before the virtual reality device is worn. So Rhys is the person introducing the game and is supposed to then also be present during the game.

Overall my weekly plan created in the first week has changed a lot. This is mainly due to waiting for the client to complete their parts. A step I decided to take early on was to make goals each week rather than weeks at a time. This allowed me to get as much done each week as I could and to use my time proficiently.