Spatial Audio Design / Task 4 / Game Audio

5.12.2024 - 5.1.2025 (Week 11 - Week 16)
Elysa Wee Qi En / 0355060 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Spatial Audio Design
Task 4 / Game Audio

LECTURES

Week 12 / Game Audio 

Linear media production:
We know:
- When
- What kind of sound 
- How loud
- How soft 

Games are not linear. 

Things happen based on a player's:
- Choices
- States
- Actions etc.

But we can predict what will happen. Like when the player walks, opens a door etc. 

This is called 'event mapping' = determine all possible actions that would require sound or change in sound state. These are called 'triggers', 'cues', or 'events'.

• Art style is important because it can give you a feel of what the SFX should sound like. You can relate it to other media you've seen as well and reference them. 
• Can use pitch shift to reuse SFX in different areas in the project

INSTRUCTIONS

Fig. 1. Module Information Booklet

Project 4: Game Audio

For this project, as Spatial Design students, we were told to download Unity and the 3D Game Kit from the Unity Asset Store. Our task was to create the sound effects necessary for the beginning, tutorial section of the game.

Here are some notes that our lecturer gave us during our briefing for this project:

• Individual sounds should be exported separately (walking sound, grass sound etc. and then you layer them)
• Also look at the detailing when you attack or hit something, look at the effects of what's happening (like if you shoot an arrow, have sounds for drawing back the arrow, shooting and the bow rebound and then what material the arrow is hitting etc.) (personal note: luckily we're gamers heh)
• View the video several times, focusing on one element at a time (e.g. main character and what they're interacting with then next round focus on the enemy) 
• Can create an audio storyboard (a spreadsheet that looks like the multitrack layer lol)
• Also reminder to RECORD EVERYTHING YOURSELF no downloading

After downloading what I needed to and trying out the game, I had a rough idea of what sounds I needed/ wanted to include, and I went to the sound recording studio with some classmates and our lecturer to supervise.

Fig. 2.1. The audio recording software and equipment at the sound recording studio (20/12/2024)

Fig. 2.2. Me recording my foley sound effects (20/12/2024)

Fig. 2.3. Me helping my classmate to record her sound effects by managing the software (20/12/2024)

After around two hours, I was able to get all the sounds I felt I needed. 

Though the first sound effect that I made was for the dropship. I wanted there to be some humming, so I generated a tone in Audition. Then I created a new audio source in the Unity project like how our lecturer taught us and inserted the audio clip.

Fig. 3.1. Creating the dropship humming sound effect (2/1/2024)

During this project, I seemed to have used the Pitch Shifter and Parametric Equalizer effects a lot. They were useful in helping me increase impact of some sounds by making them a lower pitch or by increasing the bass. 

Fig. 3.2. Examples of me using the Pitch Shifter and Parametric Equalizer effects (2-3/1/2024)

I also used the Echo effect in editing the Dying Growl SFX. This was to make them have a more special feel, so the player would know a critical action has been completed (killing the enemy). It could also serve to make the SFX more dramatic. Unfortunately, this SFX ended up not being very audible in Unity, but it's still useful knowledge for the future.

Fig. 3.?. Adding the Echo effect to the Dying Growl SFX (5/1/2024)

The last sound effects I made were the voice clips for Ellen, the main character. I simply used my own voice for these. Since I used a condenser microphone to record the audio, there was a bit of background noise. I anticipated this and recorded a bit of this background noise alone before I started making the noises, so I would be able to capture the noise print in case I needed it. 

However, the Dynamics effect was really helpful. Instead of using the noise print method, using the AutoGate feature helped me cut out pretty much all the background noise already. All I had to do was remove some of the lip-smacking and reverb, and I was able to choose the sounds I liked most as usual.

Fig. 3.?. Cleaning up the voiceover recordings (5/1/2024)

That isn't to say I never used the Capture Noise Print feature to do my noise reduction though. It proves useful for when you want to remove a specific sound. When editing the environmental sound of water, this effect helped me remove the specific white noise without removing any small detail of the water moving around.

Fig. 3.?. Using the Noise Reduction effect with a captured Noise Print (3/1/2024)

For this project, I worked in sections. I made some sound effects of a 'group' (like footsteps on grass and dirt together) and inputted them into Unity straight away. This helped me manage my progress and be aware of what other SFX I still needed. It also helped me manage my time, as I was able to experience how long each process took and be more careful. Additionally, I was able to test the sound effects group by group, so I could adjust them properly before moving onto the next group.

However, there are some sound effects that are just not as audible in Unity. I should take note of this for next time and be more careful in the future. There are also some SFX I made that I ended up not being able to figure out how to replace. Such sound effects include the sound of the pressure plate triggering and the giant door opening. Next time, I should be more careful to see if these sounds are replaceable before making them, so I don't waste time. 

After inputting all the SFX I could and testing them all again to check for any final adjustments needed, I was finally able to record the gameplay video and create the necessary documents to meet all the submission requirements.

FINAL Game Audio Submissions

Fig. 4.1. Audio Asset List (6/1/2024)

Fig. 4.2. SFX Grouping and Audio Journal (6/1/2024)

Fig. 4.3. Gameplay Video with my sound effects (5/1/2024)

REFLECTIONS

Experience
This project was an overall fun experience. I have had interest in foley for a long time, so being able to try it out myself was definitely fun. I could even put to use the knowledge I gained from watching ASMR videos on YouTube. Editing the raw audio files was challenging, but I ended up being impressed with some of my final results, like one of the growls made by the enemies as they attacked the main character. I even had to check that they weren't the original files. 

Overall, this managed to grow my respect for sound designers even further. I truly find it so interesting how people can come up with sound effects like that, yet in this project, I was able to do it myself. With more practice, time, training, equipment, experience etc., I might even be able to reach their level. 

This project even taught me how to use Unity. Even if it's just the basics and I didn't learn any coding, I can now sort of navigate the software, which is a step already.

Observations
Unity is quite a well-thought-out software. You can select multiple entities and adjust their values or change their files at once, which is a really nice quality-of-life feature that makes things faster and easier. Not only that, it isn't that difficult to learn or navigate. I didn't learn any coding, so I can't exactly comment on that, but for a complete beginner, I managed to understand how to replace audio files without much difficulty. I even managed to figure out how Overrides work and use the feature in my project.

Findings
Speaking of that specific SFX of the enemy attacking the MC, that SFX didn't even require me to layer multiple raw audio clips, it just made use of the Parametric Equalizer effect. It shows that big things can be achieved even through simple means, and reminds me too that sometimes less is more. Again, I also learnt of the usefulness of the Pitch Shifter and Parametric Equalizer in editing audio clips to turn them into good-sounding SFX. 

Furthermore, I learnt that layering the right audio clips help to create a more well-rounded sound. An example of this is in the footstep sounds. I took the clips of the deeper sounding, thick plastic bag and layered them with the higher sounding, thin plastic bags, and this created the illusion of dirt + grass to make the footstep sound more realistic (as there is dirt under grass) and fuller.