Audio -> Game Audio Implementation

Unreal Engine 3 Audio Implementation Demo


This was my second audio design demo. The difference between it and the first demo is that this demo demonstrates implementing audio into a playable game level. 


My focus on this demo was environmental sounds and atmospheric music. Additionally, I designed my own lighting for the level which helped create a darker mood in the level environment. 


There were three types of sounds that I did not create for this demo: Footsteps, weapon, and voice-over. The rest of the sounds were either taken from The Game Audio Tutorial (GAT) library, or were synthesised by me. These sounds include electric doors, fences, crates, barrels, boxes, water drips, fire, wind, computer electronics, and scary SFX.


The music system is perhaps the most interesting aspect of this demo. The music was split into three styles of music that occur as the player progresses through the level: Ambient, Horror battle, and Dream-like. Each type of music uses randomly selected sound clips that play in an unpredictable order, and so each clip needed to be designed to flow seamlessly into any other clip of the same type. Also, parts of the lighting in the level are syncronized to the music to build tension as the player approaches the battle scene.


This demo was designed in Unreal Engine 3 (I'm using Unreal Engine 5 now). It was created for my Game Sound Design (GSD) module at university.


The Nest


During the third game jam I ever attended, my team created a game that we called 'The Nest'. It's a competitive multiplayer game in which two birds have to build their nest faster than the other bird in order to win the game. The concept of birds building nests was my idea originally, however, the competitive aspect of the game was not (I originally wanted the game to a cooperative experience, but I was overruled).


I did a very simple job of the audio design for this game, and I was also responsible for sound implementation using the Godot engine. The sounds featured birds tweeting and flapping, wind, and ambient animal/nature sounds. Rather unfortunately the flapping sound I created by waving a paper book in front of a microphone sounded like exactly that - a paper book being waved about in front of a microphone. I called it a placeholder and moved on... The audio design for this game is nothing too impressive, but the art for the game was of a very high quality and it's worth checking out for that reason. I had a great time working with such a talented team.


If you'd like to play The Nest, you can download it here: The Nest | Global Game Jam


Note that this video has some sound problems that aren't present in the playable game.


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