Why do we care

The aim of a game is to be enjoyed for entertainment. To allow the user to fully comprehend the story and gameplay, it's important to immerse the user within the environment. Music and sound effects are a key way to do this, while also adding feedback for initiated actions. This project focuses on the sound effects, initiated by actions the player takes within the game.

Player Effects

• Getting hurt: Grunt

  • Players can get hit by attacking enemies in quick succession. The wound/health system allows the player to absorb multiple hits, thus a short sharp sound effect is needed. To maintain a consistent mental model with other games (Minecraft 'oof'), a deep-sounding 'grunt' noise will be made.

• Getting severely hurt (wounded): Heartbeat

  • Unlike the Getting Hurt sound effect, this has to be noticeable so that the player knows the attacking enemy has dealt critical damage. Currently, this is a deep heart beat that plays whenever the player is wounded. It's similar to the grunt effect, but longer in length.

• Generic Melee Attack

  • Swinging in air: Undecided

    Possible percussive swoosh, with different pitch corrections to depict different weapons and their intensity, but have yet to find a suitable source to generate this.

  • Contact with enemy: Undecided

• Ranged Attack: Slingshot sound

  • For the ranged attack, the player shoots a rock. The sound effect used simulates the release of a slingshot.

Item Sound Effects

• Bandages

  • Picking up: Backpack shake / shuffle At the current moment, we're going to use a generic shuffle noise to convey picking up items and coins. There is limited items to pick up, so there is unlikely to be any confusion.

  • Using: Harp Treble-G

    • The effect of bandages is to heal the player. The characteristics of the harp can be described as "gentle, "full-sounding" and "mellow" Source, which encompasses the applied effect of a bandage.

• Coins

  • Picking up: Metallic jingle Players, from their existing mental model, usually associate a metallic jingle with picking up or using coins. Coins are one major aspect to advance the game, so a unique sound effect distinguishes picking up coins from other items and / or weapons.
  • Using: Undecided

    Experimented with different sounds comprising of metallic objects. From informal user-testing, none seem to fit the post-apocalyptic theme.

• Upgrading armor / weapons: Ping

  • Generic two-tone rising ping sound indicates the player picking up armor or weapons. It's distinguishable from other events.

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User Testing (Informal)

Participants were asked to test the game, and evaluate the sound effects in:

• relevancy: how does it depict the desired action?
• detectable: how easily can it be heard from the background music (Level 1 only) and / or other sound effects
• theme: does it fit within the overarching theme?
• nuisance: is it a nuisance / annoying if activated multiple times in succession?

2 users were asked of their thoughts:

• Bandages succeed the detectable, but fail the nuisance test. "Too sharp" said one participant.
  • Subsequently dulled / mellow-ed down from a Violin to a Harp.
• Other sounds are adequate.