Game & System Designer
Heckspawn
Fight monsters with your trusty bat!
Heckspawn is a fast-paced single player game where the player clears enemies from each level by hitting their projectiles back at the enemies. Players much dodge and adapt to the array of different enemies.
My Role
My role on this project was the sound designer. I sourced all of the audio for the project and created enemy profiles using audio libraries.
I implemented the audio into the game. I went though existing C# code and cleanly implemented audio calls.
The Goal
Work with a game designer to shape the audio profile to fit the vision for the game. Get experience working in a contractor position.
Project Breakdown
The Plan
Meeting with the Client
I started off with having a conversation with the lead designer of the game. He asked me to apply audio to all appropriate game components that existed in the version I was given, which excluded any menus, GUIs etc. We determined that we wanted to create an arcade feeling to the game, as the simple mechanics already lent itself to that genre. An important part of the audio for this project was to avoid audio for audios sake. Therefor a plan was in order, and character profiles would be appropriate before I started.
Boogie Man
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Cute, almost friendly looking
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Non-threatening colours.
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Very round, only two pointy teeth.
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looks mischievous
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Sounds should be softened/muffled
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Maybe shoots large "Spit balls".
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Ball impacts sound "Squishy".
Danger Lips
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Meek but ferocious
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Attacks follow the player
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Very pointy character
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Attacks are smooth and weak, almost liquid.
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Getting hit is like getting a sharp pinprick
Spazzie
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Bursting at the seams, mentally and physically.
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Very volatile.
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unpredictable looking.
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Sounds should be building anticipation.
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Some explosions needed.
Werewyrm
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Menacing
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angry and aggressive
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looks like it packs a punch
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Should be aggressive sounding
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Attacks do tons of damage, and should sound deadly.
Music
The Musical Direction
As mentioned earlier, we wanted to go for a fast paced arcade style game, so we wanted to find music that has a high bpm, resembles chip tune and compliments the gameplay. The development team wanted to release the game on itch within two weeks from when they asked me to assist with audio, so I had to rely on audio libraries.
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I came across a few good audio sets, one with individual tracks laid out as layers, and the other were looping songs, with very limited vertical audio layering potential.
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The layered tracks were very useful for pacing the tutorial sections of the game. When the player is learning a new concept, the music becomes very soft and calming, but when practicing the new mechanic that they learned, some extra layers come in to add a little bit of pressure.
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The high intensity music comes in when the gameplay really kicks into gear. From that point on, most stages get their own track. The goal is to get through a loop of each track before continuing on to the next track.
Silly Goose
by: W.O.WSOUND
Tutorial track
Stage 1
by: Zach Striefel
Level one track
Game playthrough (V1.0)
Take-aways
My personal take-aways
Working as a contractor was new for me, and it gave me some new perspective. It gave me an appreciation for audio implementation and how it should done. This game was a borderline proof of concept project, and components such as implementing audio was never considered by the teams programmer. The lacking of resources to look through were also occasionally frustrating, for at the time, C# was still rather new to me and I was unfamiliar with some more advanced concepts at the time.
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From a programming standpoint, it was clear that when I went ahead and programmed a game, that I should make documentation for other developers.
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The use of audio list is another skill that I developed through this project, the organization of which was very helpful when working with the designer.
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Even looking back at the project, I see some obvious mistakes that were made. Some sounds don't fit the character profiles as much as I may like. Spending more time searching the audio libraries, or sourcing other audio sources could have made a more cohesive piece. There are a few instances where sound exhaustion comes in, and that is mainly due to me not being able to find a sound similar enough to the original track used. I could have been more creative in my solution by modifying that original track to make a few similar versions, or used a 3rd party software such as Fmod, Elias, or Wwise.
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After my input to the game, the developers took it a step further, addressing problems that came up. All video here is of an older version of the game. Check out these links to see the latest version of the game.