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Jonas Tyroller8 Feb 2018

4 Sound Styles in 1 Day??? (Fail)

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
Attempting to develop four distinct audio styles in a single day results in inconsistent, underdeveloped, and technically flawed sound design.
02
The most successful approach involves selecting one promising direction and refining it to ensure it complements the game's specific mechanics and visuals.
03
Future development should abandon rapid prototyping in favor of deep exploration of a single, unified audio style to ensure a professional and immersive player experience.
04
Prioritizing quantity over quality leads to execution errors, such as overly complex chord progressions and ineffective use of processed vocals that fail to match the game's visual aesthetic.
05
Rapid-fire production models prevent the necessary refinement of sound effects, causing them to feel underpowered and lacking in impact.
06
Effective audio identity requires a focused, iterative process rather than multi-directional experimentation.

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Transcript

[Applause] so the same thing we did with the graphics last time we're gonna do with the sound this time so I will create different sound styles and then we're going to choose the best one I think some styles won't X long as graphic styles so let's today first of all I want to swap these match let's use the good Mac PC you got a couple of things that make good sounds spaghetti from the morning the goal is not to finish a complete sound style all of the sounds but just to figure out how the game should sound how we wanted to sound because I have absolutely no idea so I have four different ideas first one is really epic why just white and duck then the second sound style I described with Simon relaxing crunchy then a sound

style that is just draws electro side play then the last one I want to try something completely different is just something funky groovy funny and I want to choose something interesting something very different that still fits the game so that's the ultimate goal finding something that's very different but that still fits the game I really have to admit and on this day I didn't get the results I wanted at all I had some really cool things in mind but firstly I didn't manage to execute them correctly and secondly trading for sound styles on one day was just a bit too ambitious so I ended up with four half-baked kind of weird things I really should just have focused on one and made one good one instead not just for crappy ones there was a big mistake I made so I didn't really get very good results as you can see I use cubase to make music now the first track is the dark white one I think we can

have a listen to it in game let's do that [Music] [Applause] [Music] well though that didn't sound that bad but believe me from here it's all downhill this was pretty much as good as it was going to get next up I created the silent background track which just ended up sounding super weird and makes you feel kind of uncomfortable you just recorded some my sounds [Music]

next up I wanted to create the trois electro soundtrack what I should have done is just using one chord and making some really cool sounds something that really gets you into the flow what I did instead is I chose a way too complicated chord progression not really a complicated one but too complicated for what I wanted to do and yeah that turned it in to a bit of a mess there was too much melody and then what ruined it completely at the end was that I decided to sing over it the lead instrument was still missing I had all the fluff on the

side but there was still a lead instrument missing and I for some reason I just thought okay what's the fastest way to do this let's sing something and then let's put some filters on my voice so it sounds like a synthesizer that did not work it all was a really stupid idea sound so stupid and embarrassing [Music] [Music] [Music] oh yeah that was pretty much pure cringe to listen to in editing if I had done the same lead melody with a real synthesizer I would have been way better don't know why I didn't do that should

we really should have done that but if you think that was already the worst that you have means lean this track oh I think it has a really cool groove so I would listen to it by itself but it just doesn't fit the game at all it feels so out of place it feels like a completely different game just look at this [Music] [Music] [Music]

[Music] so my initial plan was to create different sounds for all four of those sound styles yet I didn't manage to do that because I ran out of time and out of motivation the sounds I ended up using we're egg shells for the eggs the water sound where had the water in my mouth for destroying the enemies and all the sound doesn't really have enough impact yet I think it meets the sound a bit more powerful I'm not really sure about the sounds I think for now that word but I don't know if we can use them in the final game we we might have to rethink that a little bit let me summarize the day for you really quick there's not too much I couldn't handle making separate songs for every sound

style so I just took the sounds I create for one style and took them for all things outside just one time with a lot of echo and reverb one time a more dry version and then we have four different background tracks I think the background tracks the most important component anyway if we can decide on a cool background track I think we can still adapt the sounds or make new songs but let's try to decide on up or a direction you want to take my favorite one is the silent one okay I don't know what I was on on that day I think I ate too much play ball yeah I think the only acceptable one is the dark one I wanted to ask you which one you like the best honestly I think here we don't even need to discuss this so far the dark one works the best yeah I think we'll have to do some further experimentation this is not quite it yet

we'll have to continue experimenting and then maybe we find something that works [Music] make the multi playground and see you next time [Music] [Music]

Summary

The process of establishing a cohesive audio identity for an indie game requires focused iteration rather than rapid, multi-directional experimentation. Attempting to develop four distinct sound and music concepts—ranging from epic and dark to relaxing, electro-driven, and funky—within a single day proves to be an overly ambitious workflow that yields inconsistent and underdeveloped results. By prioritizing quantity over quality, the development process suffers from technical execution errors, such as overly complex chord progressions and ineffective attempts to use processed vocals as lead instrumentation, which ultimately fail to integrate with the game’s visual aesthetic.

The methodology relies on rapid prototyping using digital audio workstations to test atmospheric background tracks and basic sound effects, such as organic foley recordings. The findings indicate that while individual tracks may possess unique qualities, they often lack the necessary cohesion to function within the specific context of the game environment. The experiment highlights a significant disconnect between the intended mood and the final output, as the lack of time prevents the refinement of sound effects, leaving them feeling underpowered and lacking in impact.

The primary conclusion drawn from this endeavor is that sound design and music production are iterative processes that demand dedicated time for experimentation and polish. Rather than forcing multiple disparate styles, the most effective approach involves selecting a single, promising direction and refining it to ensure it complements the game’s mechanics and visuals. Future development will focus on abandoning the rapid-fire production model in favor of deeper exploration of a single, unified audio style that provides a more professional and immersive player experience.