Unit 73 - Assignment 2

Unit 73 - Assignment 2: Creating and applying sounds to a specific game
Be able to create sound assets for a computer game following practice

Disclaimer: Some of the sounds that I have used for the game, I have not created myself, but I have used a Royalty Free sound website and I have made changes to the sounds so they don't sound like the original sound. I also have used my electric guitar to record some sounds for the game and I have also edited them too. 

I got my sound effects from: https://freesound.org
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Brief information about the game:
The game I have chosen to make for this assignment is Space Invaders. In any way, shape or form, I do not attempt to recreate the game and take credit for it.

I have decided to give the game my own style that is suitable for all people. The game has the same concept as the original game; move left and right with the arrow keys and fire the weapon with the space bar to destroy the enemies. 

The sounds for the game:

• Player bullet
• Alien bullet
• Barrier destroyed
• Life lost
• Enemy destroyed
• Bonus enemy
• Game over
• Menu back
• Menu select

Software that will be used to edit:

• Audacity (Windows)

The editing:

Player bullet:
This is a screenshot of the sound effect before it was edited. This sound effect is quite long and also has a lot of wasted time as the beginning and end remain blank:

In this screenshot, you can see that I have trimmed the excess wasted space from the audio:

After trimming the excess wasted space from the audio, I decided to increase the tempo of the audio to make it sound like a gun firing, rather than having a slow delay of firing the weapon:

After many attempts of trying to get the audio perfect for the game I have been making, this is the final outcome. I have tested this in the game and it works the way it should:

Alien bullet:
This sound effect symbolises that the player is in danger because these bullets have been fired at the player.

This is a screenshot of the sound effect before it has been edited. This sound effect is quite long and it has a lot of wasted space:

In this screenshot, you can see that I have trimmed the excess wasted space off the audio so it looks a lot tidier than it did before:

After playing around with the settings, I found the right value for the tempo settings:

After all of the editing, this is the final outcome. I have tried this sound in the game and it works the way it should and it's not out of sync either:

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Barrier destroyed:
This sound effect symbolises that the player is in danger, because one of their barriers have been destroyed. This sound effect will play when the barrier has been destroyed. 

This is a screenshot of the sound effect for the barrier when it gets destroyed. As you can see this sound effect is quite short:

In this screenshot, I am slowing the tempo down on the audio to create an explosion effect. This setting works well with the game:

After decreasing the tempo, this is the final outcome and it has also made a noticeable difference to the sound and it also works well with the game. 

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Life lost:
This sound effect symbolises that the player is running out of lives slowly. When the player has been hit by the bullet from the alien, this sound effect plays and then takes away one of their lives. This will urge the player to play better. 

This is the sound effect for when the player loses a life in the game. This will be played for when that happens. As you can see, this sound effect is quite lengthy: 

After examining the audio track, there wasn't that much trim but where I trimmed it was at the start of the track:

After trimming the audio track, I decided to lower the pitch which in my opinion, sounded better than the original audio track to begin with:

After pitching the audio track, this is the result I got:

As you can see in this screenshot, I have increased the tempo of the audio track to make the player aware that they have lost a life in the game:

In this screenshot, it shows the final outcome of all the editing that has gone into this sound. After placing this in the game, it works flawlessly without any issues or delays:

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Enemy destroyed:
This sound effect symbolises success in the game because this will play when the player has destroyed one or multiple enemies. 

This is a screenshot of the sound before I made the alterations to it:

After importing the sound into Audacity, I changed the tempo of the sound because I wanted it to be a quick sound that played, rather than a sound that was too long for the event:

After changing the tempo of the audio, I then trimmed the excess from the audio to reduce file size and wasted time and this is what it looks like after being trimmed:

This is the final outcome of the sound after making the alterations to it. After testing the sound with the game I have made, this fits perfectly:

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Bonus enemy:
This sound effect symbolises that the bonus enemy has appeared at the top of the game and you have to destroy it to score 100 points. 

This is a screenshot of the sound before it was untouched:

This is a screenshot of after playing around with the settings in Audacity, I trimmed the sound down, ready to loop as this sound doesn't play long enough for the bonus enemy in my game.

After countless attempts of looping, this is the first part of the looping:

After the previous looping attempt, it didn't go so well, so I decided to change the audio into a stereo track and then remove the bottom layer. After I did this, I looped the remaining contents and this is the final result I got:

In this screenshot, I am increase the tempo so that this audio plays in sync with the bonus object in the game.

After when I changed the tempo of the audio to my desire length, I had to loop the audio more which was a slight problem with Audacity. I had to manually copy and paste the segments I needed to be looped and placed them in the correct position. After doing this, I added the effect called "Fade Out" and you can tell that this has been added by the look of the last wavelength.

Game over:
This sound effect symbolises that the player has lost the game, and that they will have to start the game again or quit. 

This is a screenshot of the sound before it was untouched:

In this screenshot, you can see that I have trimmed the excess wasted space from the audio:

After trimming the excess wasted space from the audio, I decided to use the effect called "Fade Out" and you can tell this has been added at the end of the track:

Menu back:
This is a screenshot of the sound before it was untouched:

In this screenshot, you can see that I have trimmed the excess wasted space from the audio:

After trimming the excess wasted space from the audio, I decided to increase the tempo of the audio, because when the button has been clicked on, I don't want a long delay after it has been clicked, just a short sound to alert the player that the button has been clicked:

After all of the editing, this is the final outcome of the sound: 

Menu select:
This is a screenshot of the sound before it was untouched:

In this screenshot, you can see that I have trimmed the excess wasted space from the audio:

After trimming the excess wasted space from the audio, I decided to increase the tempo of the audio, because when the button has been clicked on, I don't want a long delay after it has been clicked, just a short sound to alert the player that the button has been clicked:






















After all of the editing, this is the final outcome of the sound: 






















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My evaluation:

After spending a mass amount of time creating and editing the sounds for my game, Space Invaders, I am happy with the final outcome. The process of creating the sounds and editing them didn’t take that long to make but when it came to documenting the editing process, this took the longest. The documentation shows the trimming and effects that I have used on the sound effects. 

Before I made a video that shows the process of me adding the sounds to my game and showing that they work, I decided to “test fit” them beforehand to make sure that they worked the way I planned it. 

I have made a YouTube video showing the process of adding the sounds to my game and then a short demonstration of the game being played with the sounds working. The video is roughly 20 minutes long which includes the process of adding the sounds and 10 minutes of me playing the game demonstrating that they function correctly. 

To make this process not so lengthy, I could have done numerous things to cut down the amount of time I have spent on this. Instead of using Royalty Free sound effects, I could have made the sounds by myself and they would have been easily created using either a real instrument or a MIDI keyboard with software such as GarageBand, Logic Pro X or Steinberg Cubase.

I am 100% satisfied with the sounds that I have added to my game and I am also satisfied on how well they turned out for the game. 

The YouTube video is unlisted and can be found at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj3Qa_A7fNY – In the description of the video, I have added the time scale of each sound effect, so it makes it easy to filter through the video to either find a sound effect or the game play. 

Unit 73: Sounds for Computer Games - Assignment 1

Halo 2:
Link to YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCxv2daOwJQ

Halo 2 is an exclusive title to the original Xbox console as well as the Xbox One.

The main theme of the game is composed by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori. 

At the beginning of this piece of music, it starts off really slow and then gradually increasing the tempo around the 30 second mark on the video. I feel like this is indicating that the final stand is just around the corner. 

Around the 50 second mark on the video, it gives me the impression that an enemy ship has just landed and it's creeping up on your position. 

The use of the electric guitar in this piece of music symbolizes a boss fight or maybe even another significant event similar to a boss fight. Also, I think it is used in the game to build up that adrenaline rush as it is fast paced. 

Boss fight from Halo 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vmXvQZTbm4


From my perspective after listening to this piece of music, it gives me the impression that the idea of this music was to motivate the player before starting the game, which I think is a great idea. 

Throughout the rest of the game, it more or less follows the same sort of pattern with the music. Depending on the complexity of the game, I think the sounds were recorded compressed because the game was released for the Original Xbox console back in 2004, which could mean that the technology that was used back then most likely didn't support uncompressed recording or they didn't have the facilities to be that technical with the game. I assume it would apply to the voice dialogue in the game too. 

This track sounds really good from my perspective and I also think that it gets the message across by motivating the player. Again, I think the sound from the game would be recorded as mono. 

Demonstration in Audacity of what Mono audio looks like

The Last of Us:
Link to YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y97u-U0nvJM

The Last of Us is an exclusive title the Sony PlayStation. The game came around the year, 2013. 

The main theme of the game is composed by Gustavo Santaolalla. 

After listening to this song a few times, it gave me the impression that it was a western styled piece of music because of the Spanish guitar that was played in the song. 

Illustration from the game showing the horseback riding mission

The style of the guitar that was used to record this piece of music for the game

16 seconds into the piece of music, there was a low pitched humming noise which indicates another instrument is about to be played. After that, the guitar playing comes back the key changes slightly and this gives me the feeling of something bad is about to happen. The key of the song switches between a minor key and a major, and throughout the song, it fluctuates. 

37 seconds into the piece of music, you could hear something like someone walking on an uneven surface, which could either indicate a sense of danger. 

Between the 37 and 42 second mark, the piece of music starts to go quiet and then becomes uplifting and loud. 

Towards the end of song, it begins to get louder again and then it ends fading out quick. 

I quite like the game because it tells a really good story and there is plenty to do in the game. 

Because this game was developed for the Sony PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, majority of the audio in the game would be recorded uncompressed because of the facilities that are available such as the hardware and the BluRay Discs, which are a massive advantage to the Sony PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 because the discs can hold up to 25GB of data so it wouldn't be wise of them not to take advantage of that. 

Comparison of the Blu-ray Disc and the DVD disc

When the PlayStation 4 was released, The Last of Us was re-released as a remastered version. This was a success for Sony as they bundled the remastered version of the game with the PlayStation 4 but not so much a success for the PlayStation 3 as it wasn't capable of running the game because of the hardware that was used at the time. 

When this game was announced, PlayStation 3 users were unhappy that they weren't getting the game due to the hardware limitations of the PlayStation 3. 

BlackJack: Game Documentation

BlackJack Game documentation


The sprites:
Throughout this game, there are a lot of sprite that are used. Without these sprites, the game would not function properly. The sprite creator / editor in GameMaker Studio has made it quite simple and easy to make the sprites. 

Main sprites including AI players:

sprite_main_player:

This sprite that I have made for the main playable person in the game is quite simple. The size of the sprite is 32 x 32 and it just consists of using the circle shape tool as well as the bucket tool to give it the colour. After making the sprites that size, I realized that they were too small, so I placed them in the game room and stretched them to make them bigger. Also with this sprite, I printed the letters "ME" in the middle of the sprite to indicate that, that is you playing.








sprite_ai_player_one, sprite_ai_player_two and sprite_ai_player three:

I made these sprites the same way I made the sprite_main_player, but the only thing different is that I printed the letters "AI" in the middle to let the players know that they are AI players. 

As you can see, I have also given the sprites a different colour each just so it stops the confusion of which AI player is having their go.

Again, if I had more time, I would have created better sprites rather than a plain circle with colour. By doing this, I think it would have made the game more appealing to other people. 

Another thing I should have done was to make a timetable and allocate myself to tasks and how long it takes to complete those tasks rather than spending too much time on one particular task, which for me was the coding. 
























This image shows the player sprites in their own individual folders to organize the game, just in case someone wants to edit the game in any way. I have also done this throughout the game. 


The cards:

For my cards in the game, I have split them into their own individual suits rather than having the cards load from one sprite using sub images. 

I found a set of playing cards on the internet that was bundled into one picture and I dedicated my time to split up the cards and save them in separate folders for the different suits to make it easier to import to GameMaker. This picture does not show all the cards because the list is too long but there are 52 cards in 4 suits. 

The resolution of the cards are 74 x 98. The cards can be scaled down to a smaller size if needed. 









Menu buttons:
In my game, I have created a simple menu with four buttons that have their own individual functions set either by code or drag & drop functions in GameMaker. 
In my game, this is where you can find the menu buttons. These can be edited or removed if needed. I didn't make these buttons by myself, I used a website on Google to make the buttons. I would have made the buttons, but because of the amount of time I have had to make the game, I didn't get enough time to make the buttons myself, even though I would have liked to. 



Functional buttons in the game:
In this picture, you can see the buttons that will be seen when playing game such as the stick button, twist, button and restart button. The busted button isn't really a button and I'm unsure of why I have called it that. That will display when either you or the AI player loses. 

The restart button deals a new deck of cards and also resets the game scores. The stick button, the twist button and the restart button are code based which was easier for me to edit if I needed to make any changes. 

Other sprites:
These really have no purpose of being in the game because they do nothing but display the name of the players. 

The reason I added this, is so that the player that is playing my game doesn't get confused with the players, even though the AI players have "AI" printed in the middle and the main playable character has "ME" printed in the middle. 

The coding side to the game:

My game runs off 90% of code and 10% drag and drop (roughly). I will explain what each script does in the game. 

game_setup:
This sets everything up for the game so things run the way they should. 

shuffled_deck:
This script shuffles the cards when the game starts. 

ai_setup:
This script initialises the AI players for when the game starts.

card_setup:
This script is for the cards. What this script does is, it assigns the card names to the correct suit of the cards, so when they drawn to each player, the game knows which cards each player has so it can't duplicate the card more than once.

Unit 73: Sound for Computer Games (P2 exercises)

Exercise 1:

The aims:

• Understand the methods and principles of sound design and production

Sound file formats:

Uncompressed: .wav .aiff .au .smp .voc

Lossy compression: .mp3 .ra .vox

This is a file format that is used for storing digital audio on a computer. There are different types of file formats and it also depends on what they are used for. The usage of these file formats can depend on the type of project you're working on.

For example; a mobile platform game wouldn't require uncompressed sound because the game wouldn't be that intense and the mobile platform may not even support it or even deal with it as well as a computer would. A mobile platform game would use files like .mp3 because it's small in file size

For example; if I was making a mobile game, it wouldn't be necessary for me to use uncompressed sound files, so the most suitable thing for this is to use compressed audio files such as .mp3 etc... 

For example; if I was making a console game, it would be necessary for me to use uncompressed sound files. The reason for this is to ensure that the person playing the game can experience good quality sound as well as the gameplay. The sound in a game is just as important as the graphics because the sound can tell the story of the game, make you feel what the characters are feeling etc... 


Audio sampling:

How can resolution and bit-depth constraint file size?
Well, the more content that is added to a file, the larger it gets. When the file size gets larger in size, it can tend to be more difficult to work with. 

Explain what the following words mean:

• Sample rate - The number of samples of audio carried per second. This is measured in Hz or kHz (1 kHz = 1,000 Hz)
• Mono - Sound is played through one audio channel, making the sound not so realistic
• Stereo - Sound is played through multiple audio channels, making it sound so realistic 
• Surround - Sound is played through multiple speakers that are placed around in the room to give it that three-dimensional effect 

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Exercise 2:

Audio Limitations of Games Platforms:

How can the following information limit the recording of sound?

• DSP (Digital Signal Processor) - This is called a microchip processor and the main purpose of this is to filter analogue signals. With this doing it's job, it can also reduce the quality of the sounds that have been filtered.
• RAM (Random Access Memory) - This is a vital piece of hardware, because this is where the sound is stored. Now, providing that you have enough RAM in your computer, saving audio files won't be an issue. 
• File format (eg .mp3, .wav, .aiff) - This all comes down to what file type you use for a project. For example; if you were to use the same sound and have them in both, .mp3 and .wav - you will find that the .wav file will be a higher quality sound than the .mp3, although the .wav file will be larger in size too. 

• Audio output - (e.g. Mono, Stereo, Surround)

Mono - This is a singular sound that is produced and intended to be heard as a single channel. 

Stereo - This can be heard as two channels. For example; some songs will use this. You may hear one part of a song through one speaker and a different part of a song through the other speaker. 

Surround - This is most likely found in cinemas or even at home if you have a 5.1 surround sound system or a 7.1 surround sound system. The whole idea of surround sound is to demonstrate a sense of a realism by having 5 or more speakers connected in different areas (front, back, sides, etc...) 

• PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) - This is another feature that is used for analogue signals. The purpose of this, is that it converts these analogue signals into digital signals. This is most likely found on computer systems, televisions and some other devices. 

Audio Recording Systems:
In what types of scenario may use the following audio recording equipment?:

For example; Multi-track recording, MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), DAT (Digital Audio Tape), Analogue, Software Plug-ins, Software Sequencer

• Multi-track recording - This can be used for when putting a piece of music or song together. The reason for this is because it makes the editing process easier. For example; if you were to record everything all together on one track, the editing part becomes virtually and physically impossible. 

• MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) - Some musical instruments such as a keyboard; they come with a MIDI input which allows you to connect the instrument to a computer system and allows you manipulate the software to create realistic music. This can be used to make sound effects for a game or even music. 

• DAT (Digital Audio Tape) - This is a tape that was used for storing analogue sound. 
• Software Sequencer - This allows you to input into a computer by using an external musical instrument (such as a keyboard), and this lets you recreate music in any way without the use of a real instrument (whether if you don't know how to play a real instrument or don't own / can't afford one). There is a wide variety of software out there that you can use (some maybe free whereas others can cost as little as £30 and onwards to £200+) 

ShapeMan Documentation

ShapeMan Documentation

List of known bugs:

• Sprites occasionally get stuck to wall and not able to move until game has been restarted
• Level switcher not working so can't progress on to the next level

YouTube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B17kgl9QD7A

In the video, I show myself playing the game and going through the game explaining how to play the game, how long it took to make the game and why I made the game. 

Also in the video, I had my brother test the game and to give critical feedback, improvements and suggestions. 

Suggestions / Improvements:

• Make level switcher work
• Make the levels more difficult by making the space confined, making it more of a challenge
• Make the pills respawn throughout the level in order to get a high score
• Make the shapes animated 

The game sketch:

This the game sketch for my game, ShapeMan. After making the game, it looks different in ways but has the same concept.


The sprites:
In the ShapeMan game, it uses many different sprites that make the game fully functional. Without these sprites, the game wouldn't function correctly. I created the sprites for the ShapeMan gaming using GameMaker Studio as it has a built in editor for making sprites. 

This image to the right shows the sprite editor in the GameMaker software and this is the wall I made using this part of the software. 

The way I made this was by looking on Google Images for what I needed in order to choose my colour scheme correctly. After many attempts of trying to make the wall, this is the final outcome. 




The objects:

The image to the left shows the main objects that are seen throughout the game. These are created in order to make the sprite do what you need it to do.

This is more or less programming the sprites to do certain things in the game. There are a lot of things you can do with programming the objects. 


game_controller (Object):
Most people call this obj_controller or object_controller, so I decided to call it game_controller which makes it simple for those that want to edit anything in the game.

This object is extremely important in the game and the reason being is because it controls the game. This basically tells the game what to do and from the images below, you can see what you can do by what I have added and the drag and drop options on right from each tab provided.

In the early development of the game, I had this object running from code which complicated something's in the game, so for better functionality, I converted the code back to D&D (drag and drop) so I have a bit more control over the variable in some sense. 

There is a lot of control with the controller if you know how to do things correctly. 

The game_controller sets the score and also draws it on the screen for your chosen position. The most important thing about what I have done in the game_controller is that I have set the score to 0 on Game Start and the reason for this is because it knows what to set score for when either colliding with the wrong object or something else. If I didn't set this and I collided with the wrong object, the score wouldn't reset each time I died in the game. 

Main objects:

The Game Floors and Game Walls both have the same functionality, which practically makes them the same. 

The main purpose of these objects is stop the player getting out of the level or getting bugged.

For each of these objects, I have set collision points up which stop the player going through object. 

These objects don't have any code attached to them, just the drag and drop as standard and the reason for this is because it conflicted with other things in the game. 



The shapes:

In the game, there are five playable characters which are shapes (triangle, square, hexagon, circle and cross)

The image below shows the level layout and in each corner, there are the shapes you have to collect. 

The way I worked around this was to create four lots of individual sprites for the game to work correctly. Each lot of sprites controlled the middle shape changing, the collectables in the corner, the shape you play as and the ones you collect to gain score. 

The image below shows the playable characters and how they are setup to move around the level. 

Each object in this section have their own controls set, the speed they move at, what they can or can't collide with and what happens when they collide with the wrong thing.  

These images show the setup for the triangle playable in the game. Here you can see the collisions with the walls, floors, enemies etc... Also, you can see the keyboard inputs for left, right, up and down at the bottom and they have their speed set. 






The pill:

This image shows the current setup for the pill in the game. The sprite was quite simple to make as it only consists of a circle and some shading of different colours. 

The image to left shows the sprite pill that can be seen in the game. For this to work in the game, I have set it so all shapes you turn into can collect this and this gives a score of 10 per pill you collect. 

There are 35 pills per level and when they are all collected, the score is increased to 350 excluding collecting the shapes. 

After when the player has collided with the pill, the receive a score of 10 and then the instance is destroyed. 



The room:

This is the first level of the game and this is the typical layout of each level for the game. The only thing that is different is that enemies are in different locations and there are more of them. 

Another thing that is different with each level is that the shapes in each corner are in different orders to just to make game more interesting as well as more of a challenge. The backgrounds, walls and floors are also different for each level too. 

Unit 78: Digital Graphics for Computer Games

How will you be creating your digital graphics?

• Consider technical limitations and the screen resolution
• Consider software (Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Fireworks, GameMaker) – also the interface too (work area, tool box, status bar, file information, window control, floating palettes, palette docking, tabs etc…)
• File extensions and compression for the files
• Consider technology (Computers, laptops, peripherals etc…)
• Graphic specification
•  The plan
• Time management – deadlines (production schedule, deliverables and quality assurance)
• Asset management – export file path, file format, compression, file naming conventions and file backup
• Menus (open, save, new, import, export, edit)
• Image settings (size, resolution, colour mode, background, width, height, transparency, aspect ratio and file name)
• Drawing tools (tool options, brush, pencil, duplicate, clone, fill, text, line, shape, zoom, guides and rulers, grid, palettes eg, colour, gradients, layers, object, brushes, history, actions, size, layers, eg copying, saving, arranging; flattening; colour selection, eg foreground, background, colour swatch and eye dropper. 
• Editing tools: selection, eg marquee, lasso, magic wand, magnetic lasso, deselect; transform, eg scale, rotate, skew, cut, copy, paste, crop, erase, undo, fill
• Advanced tools: effects, eg layer effects, filters, channels; image adjustments, eg brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, colour balance, gradients, transparency, invert; masks; paths eg vector paths, converting text to paths; brushes, brush plug-in.
• In-game graphics: head up displays; sprite graphics; gif animation; image textures; asset creation from concept art, eg character, weapon, vehicle, environment backgrounds
• Print media graphics: eg game packaging, box cover, manual, label, poster, concept artwork
• Production stages: original development files, final flattened optimised image
• Aesthetic qualities: composition, colour palettes; typography, creation of meaning
• Industry practice: reflect on finished product (compared with original intentions, fitness for purpose, technical qualities, aesthetic qualities), production skills (ideas generation, graphics specification, workflow and time management, technical competence

Brief | 02 / 11 / 15

Brief                                                                                                     Name: Sean Clark

Task: Using your client's brief (Wayne's Platform or Maze Game), develop your own brief then create imaginative concept art ideas for your specific game.

Wayne's brief: Come up with your own design brief, it should have at least 5 levels, or rooms and one main character and several monsters to avoid. 

My brief: For my game, you play as a pixelated character and the main objective of the game is to collect special items that allow you to move on to the next level. Without collecting those special items, you won't be able to move on to the next level.

Sprites needed: 5 (One for each level) / 3 (Enemies) per level / 1 (Boss) for end level
Sounds needed: N/A at the moment
Levels required: 5 
Elements: 

Artistic style: Pixelated
Age range: 6+ 
Place of setting: N/A 


In my game, there are going to be seven sprites including the enemy sprite and boss sprite.