A huge congratulations to ERIC HOGAN on finishing this big project.  Erik is a talented indie game designer from Auckland NZ and he has developed Derelict in his spare time over the last 9 months.  You can download Derelict for free from his website.

Notes on sound design for Derelict.

I came into this project as it was nearing completion, there were already a lot of sounds in the game from various soundbanks, and already three tracks of music from the other musicians Samuel Gavin, Edward Clombe, and Bill Norris.  I wrote two additional tracks and began working on the sound effects.

One of my favorite effects is the sound the teleport module makes in the game.  The teleport looks like a cylindrical blue forcefield, and monsters are transported onto the ship through them. I created the sound for these by plugging an instrument lead into my recording interface, and moved my thumb about on the hot end creating sounds like electrical hum.  Then I just chucked in a little phaser, a touch of reverb and that was it.

The sounds the monsters make in the game were a lot of fun to do.  I used my Digitech Vocal300 vocal effects processor to pitch shift the signal down and my old reliable Audix OM2 dynamic mic.  Just recorded snarling and lurking and scary breathing all pitched down, again a touch of reverb to replicate the sound of a big deserted spaceship.

The footsteps were the most challenging sound for me.  Because these sounds were recorded at home not in a studio to keep the budget down as this is not a commercial project, keeping out the background noise was a bit of an issue.  Especially when weather is involved.  But if it’s not weather it’s dogs barking, neighbors mowing the lawn, or people driving past.  In the end, I found the best way for me was to use a dynamic mic instead of my condenser, and to manually silence all the sound between the footsteps.  The dynamic mic was a tough choice because I had to get it much closer to my feet for the recording than I had my condenser, so it was tricky to walk realistically in one spot while being careful not to kick the microphone or tread too hard so that vibration traveled up the mic stand into the mic.  All in all, I’m reasonably happy with how the footsteps came out.

Here are the music tracks I wrote for Derelict.

I am doing sound for a NZ indie game called Derelict. It’s a first person shooter, where you control five different characters. Which at first can be a little confusing but once you get the hang of it it’s very cool.

My very short retelling of the storyline would go like this – “You’re on a space ship, there are monsters. Kill them all.” There is in fact a lot more too it than that, but I won’t go spoiling it for you. You can download a beta copy of the game, and read the development blog for it at http://earok.net/. The current version doesn’t have any of my sounds in it yet, but I’ll keep you posted as to when I’m done.

Anyway, the coffee is gone so I better get started.

P.S. Portfolio updated. I have added some music from another game I have worked on recently. I can’t say any details about that game at this stage though. Secret Squirrel.

Yesterday I spent most of an evening recording sounds for my friend Joshs indie game Caverns of the Underkeep. It’s a rogue-like game, which according to geeks I know, is a game where the map is randomly generated each time you play. Josh claims it’s not a RPG – but it sure does look like one It’s done in Java, so you just play it in your browser. It’s different every time you play which is cool. Especially at the moment while it’s still being built and is constantly being updated. /Plug for Joshie.

Anyway, for some reason we neglected to utilize the Digitech vocal 300 which we used in the previous set of sound effects. But, it’s doesn’t really matter as we had already done the orcs and manly sounds for which the pitch shifter was necessary.

So we recorded a bunch of sounds like “pick up money”(rattle piggybank) and “evil water tentacle dying” (Josh gargling a glass of water). We also used my new favourite VST plugin CosmoGirl2 for a few magical sounds. The fun bit was trying to make the sounds as short as possible to keep down the overall file size of the game.

I imagine Josh will have the new sounds loaded into his game sometime soon, so if you want to hear them you must go check it out at http://www.tinyfrogsoftware.com/cavernsbeta/caverns_of_underkeep.html. A special tip… don’t try to pat the bunnies. They are bad. Just kill them or run away!

P.S. The stupid noise that sounds like a snare drum in the game… Thats one I didn’t do. Blame Josh. It’s supposed to be a whooshing sound of someone missing with a sword.

As far as useful sounds go, it’s about as useful as the average guitar multi effects pedal (e.g. GO BUY A DECENT AMP YOU MORON!) There is a tube pre-amp modeler, which is, pretty crap. A grunge distortion which is, basically, also pretty crap. There is an overdrive too, which I assure you, won’t make your day. So does buying this ridicules purple monstrosity make me some kind of moron? No. Definitely not. Not a moron at all….

You see, the highlight of this pedal is not the things which could be of some use, but the things that initially seem silly. With effects like “Dark side”, “chipmunk”, “robot”, “wizard” “älien” and “monster” to name a few, this is the perfect accessory to an impromptu sound effects studio. On Sunday you may have read that me and Josh from Peachysoft (doesn’t that make you sound important Josh?) recorded some sounds for his latest game. Well I’ve been having a play around since, and boy am I glad I bought this thing! Two years down the track, it doesn’t seem like such a waste of money after all. Good on ya Digitech

Recorded orc grunts using a Digitech Vocal300 vocal effects processor to pitch shift down two octaves. This absolutely terrified my dog who was hiding under the desk growling

Used my Audix OM2 dynamic mic to record so as not to get too much background noise from my computer/dog etc. Did swords crashing together using a BarbieMate clashing on a steel knife sharpener lol. Lucky we didn’t have to do hoofsteps, because I totally forgot the coconuts!

Trying to get the sound of a girl being hit in a fight, so had Josh punch me in the arm. Unfortunately I make a really stupid noise when hit, so ended up having Josh trying to make a girly squeal noise. All in all was a lot of fun, though I think I may come up in a bruise.

Josh promises to have the sounds working in the alpha demo of the game by later this week. The URL is www.peachysoft.com/javarogue but it’s a work in progress and not open to the public and may not actually work, so don’t tell Josh I gave you this link!

Press play for sneak preview…