Sound Design

Culture

• The game's design is pixel-art.

INFO

In connection with our game idea, the sound effects should sound "Abgespaced". Although we have pixel-art visualization, we did not choose 8-Bit sounds. More realistic sounds create more immersion into the game.

HMLS (Layers)

High (orientation)

• Sound effects for visual elements in the player's field of view and interactable everytime and anywhere
  • GUI information
  • Button sounds
  • 'Gravity Shift' vote

Middle (game play)

• Sound effects for visual in-game elements, which are triggered by or in combination with the players character actions:
  • Steps
  • Jump
  • Something falls down
  • General in-game character interactions
• Background music ('Major Dom' Theme Song or other overriding level-specific atmosphere music)

Low (immersion)

• Background Sound effects, which are not necessary for the game to be playable, but add immersion through atmosphere:
  • Rain
  • Water drops and reverb effect

Style (mood)

• Modern version of the game's theme song 'Major Dom' fit to the in-game graphic design and character controls.
• In contrast to 8-Bit sounds, realistic sounds create higher immersion.

Immersion and Feedback for Players

What is happening in the game?

Different sound effects for each action symbolize actions and current situation.

Am I making progress?

• Background music expands while in-game progress is made.
• The more intense the background music gets, the less time the players have left to complete the level.
• Time-pressure creating sounds like "time is ticking" appear near the end of the time limit

How did I do?

Success ("Mission Complete" + "katsching"!) or failure ("Failed" + sad trumpet) sounds arise once the players completed the level successfully or unsuccessfully.

What should I do next?

Visual information by the little foreign alien, are accompanied by an alien speaking sound. Most players won't understand, what he is saying.

Functions of Game Music

Socially communicative functions

• Festive Functions:
  Sounds of success ("Mission completed!") or failure ("Failed!")
• Functions for movement Activations
  Time ticking sound, which creates pressure to complete the level by the next few seconds.
• Community-bonding, group-stabilising Functions
  Motivational background music: "Major Dom" theme song

Individual psychic Functions

• Function of bridging loneliness Atmospheric background music (e.g., rain or water drops)

• Relaxation Function Foreign alien speaking sound.

• Activation and entertainment function Motivational background music: "Major Dom" theme song

Background Music

For each differently themed level design, a themed version of the game's title song "Major Dom" is set as background music.

Atmosphere and Immersion

• Rain Forest Level

  • Background song: mystical
  • Background sounds: rain

• Cave Level

  • Background song: dark, spooky, dangerous
  • Background sounds:
    • Water drops
    • Reverb effect

Needed Sound Effects

The following sound effects make sense for the game:

In-Game:

• Box falls down by shifting gravity
• Box sliding/ in motion:
  Sounds like somebody slides a non-fluid object over a table.
• Design themed background sound effects
  • Rain
  • Stalactite cave: reverbing water drops dripping from the ceiling

Character Actions

• Character's idle state
  • Major Dom: silence
  • Moot:
    • Moot moves in idle state, that means that sometimes a little slime drop drips down on the floor.
    • It sounds like a very quiet single water drop in the shower.
• character's steps
  • General steps
    • Major Dom:
      Sounds like he is walking on brick stones, because he has strong metallic shoes.
    • Moot:
      He is made out of slime. That means, that every step sounds like big slime bulbs dripping on the floor.
  • Step on pressure plate:
    
    • Sounds like clicking a light switch on (step on pressure plate) and off (step away from pressure plate).
  • Character jumps
    • Sounds like the character gathers momentum to jump (Schwung holen), then 'Swooshes' in the air and lands back on the floor, with a hard sounding hit or slime bulb.
  • Character falls down from ceiling (through 'Gravity Shift')
    • Sounds similar to a long 'Swoosh' sound with a hard hit on the floor in the end.
  • Enemy's steps (so the players can hear them coming)
    • Legionary's steps sound similar to Major Dom's steps but more silent. Colossus' steps are louder, because his alien armour is heavier than Major Dom's.
  • Fighting
    • Major Dom's pistol: Sounds like typical laser shooter ("Piu Piu!")
    • Moot's Slime attack: Sounds like an elasticated band stretches out and in to grab the enemy.
    • Colossus: Shield protection sounds like a bullet bounces off a metallic shield. When he hits, it sounds like very heavy and strong wrecking balls or Hulk's fists hitting a wall, which releases a big pressure wave.
    • Legionary: Lightnings out of his hands sound very similar to the lightnings out of the Sith's hands in Star Wars. That creates immersion and positive associations, because lots of people in our target group know the Star Wars movies.
  • Character receives damage
    • Indicated by a scream, groaning or a verbal "Outch!"

Gravity Shift

• Level changes gravity
  • Sounds like the typical "Swoosh" or "Woosh" sound: 'someone swipes a screen' in combination with 'a windy hissing'.

UI

• Time is ticking, ticking gets faster (creates auditive/ sensitive pressure)

  • Sound like a ticking alarm clock or an analogue watch, which makes the players nervous. They want to complete the level very fast, very soon.

• Button Sounds

  INFO

  From the playtest evaluation we have learned, that lots of people have played the game "Minecraft" in their past. That's why we implemented a very similar 'click' sound from this game. This way most of the players could associate what they are doing, even if they do not look at the screen.

• Information Bar (comments and communication)

  • Teammate voted for 'Gravity Shift' (+ visualized speech bubble appears)
    • Sounds like a 'Blob', which associates SMS messages on the phone. Why? Because we want to implement a speech bubble near the 'Gravity Shift' GUI, which reminds the players, that their teammate has voted to shift gravity. That works as an easy method for communication, where no player has to remember any further/ difficult information.
  • Your character has lost a life./ Your teammate's character has lost a life.
    • Indicated by a scream, groaning or a verbal "Outch!" and a "heavy hit" sound effect, which shows that something (e.g., a box) fell onto the character's head.
    • When the character falls down a cliff: the deeper he falls, the verbal feedback gets more silent.
    • Your teammate's character needs medical help, because he died.
      • [no sound, because we want the players to communicate that on their own.]
  • Loading Scene
    • Mysterious background music, which shows the scary emptiness/ lonelyness in space.

WARNING

As you can see, we depend on a oral communication between the players. This emphasizes the goal of our game: Of playing together, solving problems together and having fun together. It's a multiplayer-game to play directly next to each other trying to solve challenges "in-person".

Achievements:

• Level Completion - Successfully
  • Sounds similar to a typical cash registry "CATSCHING!"
  • Male cartoon voice for oral feedback: "Mission Completed!"
• Level Completion - Failed
  • An instrument (e.g., trumpet) playing sad background music
  • Male cartoon voice for oral feedback: "Mission Failed!"
• Collecting items, puzzle parts, collectibles
  • Sounds similar to a typical cash registry "CATSCHING!", but in a different way as "Level Completion - Successfully"
• Defeated enemies
  • Aliens scream or groan as a verbal feedback for dying. Sounds like they are falling to the ground.
• New Level unlocked
  • Same as 'Level Completion - Successfully'
• New World Map unlocked
  • Same as 'Level Completion - Successfully'

Sources

INFO

Most of the sounds are downloaded from the internet. To conform to royalty free license requirements, we used the following sources with a valid subscription for downloading and non-commercially using the sounds:

• Soundeffect Playlist 01
• Soundeffect Playlist 02

Custom Sounds / Songs

The game's title song "Major Dom" is composed ourselves using Logic Pro X and some basic instruments. It allows us to create tension using different combinations and variations of the song. It loops through a modified motive of the well-known "Major Tom" song by Peter Schilling .

Intention and thoughts

• Melody of the song is a modified version of the well-known "Major Tom" song by Peter Schilling.
• Only using the melody of the first verse of the original song in a custom variation.
• By default played in a major key, moving to a minor key to create a more mysterious atmosphere in the audio.
• Chords are based on A minor with a bass line starting at Em, Cm, Am and then resolving to H and H5 (the quint).
• Played in a 4/4 time signature with a tempo of 140 bpm.
• Accompanied by the "Simple Foundation" bass, playing the chord pattern based on the melody bass line.
• Intelligent drummer keeping rhythm added in background.
• Several variations with other instruments for melody => Showing other atmospheres / situations:
  • Analog Fizz Lead
  • Bright Synth Lead
  • Default: Faded Keys

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Downloads

• major dom.logicx