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Jonas Tyroller11 Feb 2018

Sound Design Action for My Indie Game Again!

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
Indie developers can produce professional-grade audio using accessible software like Cubase for music composition and Audacity for sound effect recording.
02
Effective sound design relies on a consistent workflow of recording, editing, filtering, and volume adjustment rather than requiring expert-level training.
03
Sound effects can be created by capturing organic noises and manipulating them through layering and reversal techniques to simulate complex impacts like explosions.
04
Composing music directly against imported gameplay footage in a digital audio workstation ensures that the audio pacing aligns precisely with the player experience.
05
Using heavy compression to create a rhythmic, ducking effect alongside simple, repetitive melodies helps maintain an unobtrusive, trance-like atmosphere.
06
Future audio immersion can be improved by implementing stereo panning to ensure audio cues correlate accurately with on-screen positioning.

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Transcript

did you know making sounds is not easy my camera perspectives are just the best the last time the sound creation they failed a little bit so let's not try to create for sound styles this time let's just try to create one let's go ahead and print some nouns I know this is gonna be the one and it's only gonna be one now we have a couple of cool plop sounds and just record them like this it sound like this let's reverse tons of the songs backwards maybe this makes better sound editing sounds here hell

yeah [Music] listen to that I credit some explosions yeah as you can hear I removed the music so we can hear just the sounds I used a lot of the plop sounds here not the new explosion zones but also just plop sounds for the explosions we'll compare that with the actual explosion zones now [Music] so those are the new explosion sounds I wanted them to have a bit more impact also the grading exons are a bit more slimy because I used more clay dolls on I think the songs are going in a very

cool direction the only song I'm not quite happy with is the explosion sound slimy sound [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and for my sound editing process it's really always the same so I think it's enough to show it once I just go to through the entire clip cut out the things that I like and separate them and then I just need to export them one by one adapt their volume of it maybe add a

couple of filters and that's it basically nothing complicated now listen to those sweet new explosion zones for a while what do you think about them a little bit too slimy is it a bit too ugly I don't know I want to start one more attempt to create a cool background music this time I have a different workflow I import the sounds from the game into Cubase so this sounds like this that's just me playing the game and now I think I can try to try the music that fits to those sounds let's see let me walk you through my thought process how I created this music might be interesting basically I wanted to create the trance electro soundtrack that I messed up in the last video watch that if you haven't

seen it I started singing and that destroyed it completely it also we used way too many chords the harmony was too complicated so I didn't really get this Trancy feel that I wanted it to have this time I nailed it much better just start it with one sound and then edit a drum as you can hear there's a ton of compression on the sound so every time the drum hits the rest of the music Ducks down the volume goes down and this really gives it this bumpy and flowy feel actually there are 2 cards but they're so similar you barely realize that they are different I knew more or less exactly what I wanted to create so it only took me 90 minutes to finish the entire song that's pretty fast and now the real drums kick in yeah but obviously ultimate I was only that fast because it's a lot of looping the same stuff

over and over again but there's going to be a bit of melody and this time I didn't sing it I used some real synthesizers so enjoy that as soon as it kicks in obviously I wanted the music to stay in the background so I used some really deep sounds hi sounds have a tendency to get annoying real quick and also the melodies are very simple here we go I'll shut up [Music]

[Music] so yeah there's everything I created I didn't create a full song but now let's enjoy music and sounds together once again I will probably just shut up so you can experience how the game will sound and give me your honest opinion and feedback how you like it okay and here comes the groovy part how do you like the groovy part [Music]

a couple of things I want to do really soon is stereo pending so whenever you explode creatures on the right hand side of the screen you should also hear it on the right and if you make something a slot on the left side you should also hear it on the left side also I want to animate the background I think in combination with the flow music a bit of a 3d ish effect on the background will probably make this look and sound really cool [Music] [Music]

[Music] okay actually quite happy with the result what do you think about the sounds - they sound too ugly do you think you can listen to that any longer than 10 minutes or so do you think the sounds are too disgusting or do you think it's fine I think it's fine personally but what do you think about the sounds and the music what do we need to keep improving what can we keep I think we can keep the music the music I really like music I think it fits the game really well the sounds what do you think about the sounds tell me tell me then other than that make the world your playground and you and the next one

Summary

Sound design and music composition serve as critical components in defining the player experience and atmosphere of an indie game. By adopting a do-it-yourself approach, developers can effectively craft custom audio assets using accessible software such as Cubase for music production and Audacity for sound effect recording. This methodology emphasizes that high-quality audio does not require expert-level training, but rather a consistent process of recording, editing, filtering, and volume adjustment to ensure assets integrate seamlessly with gameplay.

The creative process for sound effects involves capturing organic noises—such as plop sounds or clay-based textures—and manipulating them through techniques like reversal or layering to achieve specific impacts, such as explosions. For music, a successful workflow involves importing gameplay footage into a digital audio workstation to ensure the composition aligns with the game's pacing. Utilizing heavy compression to create a rhythmic, ducking effect and maintaining simple, repetitive melodies helps establish a trance-like, flowy aesthetic that remains unobtrusive during play.

Future iterations of the audio design focus on enhancing immersion through technical refinements, specifically the implementation of stereo panning to correlate audio cues with on-screen positioning. Integrating these audio improvements with visual enhancements, such as 3D-effect background animations, is expected to further elevate the game's overall polish. Ultimately, the development of game audio is an iterative process that relies on balancing experimental sound textures with functional, atmospheric music to create a cohesive and engaging environment.