Unit 73 - Sound for Computer Games

Unit 73
Morten Holland
Teacher: Joshua Rai
BTEC Games Design L3 Extended Diploma

Unit 73 - Sounds for My Computer Game

Plan

My game is called "The Greatest Maths Game There Has Ever Been or Will Be" and is themed heavily around maths and dodging enemies to get to the end of each level. My game uses lots of bright and vibrant colours which hopefully people will find appealing. I want to give the game an upbeat feel to it.

I have used a sound for when a red orb hits the wall, I have background music, a sound for when the switch is hit, and an explosion sound for when the spaceships are destroyed.

Some of the sounds such as the explosion and the 'flick' sound from the switch will repeat when the player touches the lever for longer times, which can be very annoying and loud. I couldn't fix this issue.

Music

The kind of music I wanted was an 8-bit slightly repetitive, positive piece to use in a maths-themed maze game. It needs to be upbeat, due to the play style of the game.

The other sounds had been recorded by me and a few classmates on college campus, using college equipment. This means I won't need anyone's permission to use the sounds or my music.

Sound Manipulation

The only thing I did to my sounds is I cut them so I only had the sound I wanted and not the background sounds. I didn't put any effects on the sounds because I didn't find it necessary to.

Here is the song that I have used as background music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLbFI9mZM-s&feature=youtu.be

Here is a video in which you can hear all the sounds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxxK_hCqu1k&feature=youtu.be

I realize the quality of this video is bad, so this is what the notes say:
This is a short video showing the sounds in my game.
I have disabled the music so you can hear the sounds easier.

First, you should be able to hear the sound of the enemies bouncing off the walls.
Only the horizontal enemies though, because I don't want too much noise coming from them.

Secondly, I have the 'flick' sound from the switches in the game.
Sadly, it repeats if I'm still touching the switch.

Thirdly, I have a sound for when the spaceships are destroyed which is an explosion.
This one is kind of loud, so you may want to turn the volume down.

Here's what they look like in-game.

My background music is called 'First (06)' and is a VLC file, but changes to a GameMaker file when put in the game. It is 1.40MBs and is a lossless, stereo file.

My sound for when the enemy orb hits the wall is called 'enemyBounce' and is a VLC file which also changes to a GameMaker file. This is 8KBs and is a lossy, stereo file.

My sound for a switch being hit is called 'sound_switch.sound' and is a GameMaker file, that is 1KB and is a lossy stereo file.

My explosion sound is called 'explosion_sound.sound'. It is a GameMaker file that is 1KB and is a lossy, stereo file.

Evaluation
Overall, I think it all worked out pretty good. The sounds are appropriate for what they are used for and its obvious what they are supposed to be replicating. I also think the music suits the gameplay very well in my opinion. The music wasn't too hard to make and was fun. Its quite simplistic, which works well with my game. Implementing it wasn't too hard either.

I do however, feel that I could have made some improvements. I would have liked to make the background music flow when it loops, almost seamlessly. I would like to have added more sounds too, but I don't think my game has enough content for me to do so. I'd also like to have made and added more music, perhaps each level has a different song. I'm pretty happy with the outcome, considering this is my first time doing this kind of work.