Design inspiration

Background music and sounds:

Background music:

Music in a game can set the tone, raise energy, and punctuate epic moments.

As the RAGNAROK RACER game is set in an apocalyptic world, we should use a kind of music that can create tension as the background music for the game.

The choice of background music was inspired by the background music in temple run. Its fast paced beats create a sense of urgency.

Of all the music resources we found, there are two music tracks that satisfied our needs. The first one is the In EDM made by Olexandrlgnatov. It kicks listeners off with an explosive package of synthy shredding and hard-hitting bass. It is described as “a relentless tune that will serve you well as a high-intensity background track”. The second one is a sound effect called “tension”made by Bertram with FL Studio. It was made to simulate tension. Bertram described the sound as “a sound to simulate tension or anything you like.”

We tested both music in the RAGNAROK RACER game and found 10 new players to play the game with different background music. 7 of them thought the second music was more suitable for this game because it generates stronger energy. In addition, the drumbeat of the second audio is more in line with the monster's moving speed. Therefore, we decided to use the sound made by Bertram as the background music for this game.

Attack sound:

The character's default weapon is a knife. When the user presses the spacebar, the character will wave its weapon and try to reduce the nearest enemy’s blood. Hence, we decided to use a knife stab sound effect for the attack animation. The sound we found was made by Cai. It was simulated by stabbing a cabbage.

Touch Sound and Debuff sound

When the character touches an enemy or obstacle, the character will lose one heart. So, we use the sound made by Lezbet which simulates the sound of a man being attacked as the debuff sound.

Buff sound

When the player touches a bread or firstAidKit, the player’s health will be increased. The buff sound we designed was inspired by the increasing health sound in Arena of Valor.

Collect coin sound

When the character touches a coin, the coin will be collected by the character. The collect coin animation is similar to the coin collection animation in super mario. The sound effect was also inspired by the super mario coin sound. We used the super mario coin sound as the base and added a collection sound effect to simulate both touch action and collection action. The final coin collection sound is like dropping a coin in a coin container.

Death sound

When the player loses all hearts, the game will end and the death animation will be played. The player cannot recover anymore Therefore, for the death sound, we use a longer version of touch sound which simulates the knife stab effect.