MATTHEW BOGAN
Sound Design | Film | Television | Video Games
REDUCE, REUSE, REVENGE
Game Jam | GJL Game Parade Summer 2021
During the summer of 2021, I was contacted by a friend about joining a small development team for a two week game jam. This was my first experience of game development outside of University, gaining an insight to how game development students operate within projects.
This experience was unique for myself as not only was this my first game development project, but it was complete remotely due to the Government guidelines. This allowed the team to maintain contact and work together at various times throughout the working day.
The event ran for a total of two week, giving teams one week for idea generation, programming systems, recording audio elements, and creating a working title. The second week was for polish, bug fixing and quality-of-life tweaks.
This board was used during production, all of these elements required an independent / unique sound effect.
MY ROLE
Sound Effects and Music.
For our game, there were two main areas that must be complete for player experience and feedback: Music and Sound Effects. Without these, the demo would not be enjoyable and have any desireability. My process began by researching music that related to the given theme of 'One Time Use'. This instantly tied with the themes from King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard's album 'Infest the Rats Nest', tackling the problems with self greed, climate change, and the destruction of the environment.
The nature of video games require soundtracks that may easily be adapted in accordance with game events, therefore when composing I focused on looping elements that build in an equal succession - allowing for the music to alter using interactive music systems.
Working in conjunction with the team, I made a list of all animations being created for the player and enemies. With this, I created a list of sound components that needed to be created. It was decided that the player would become a large monster made of single-use plastic and waste that would destroy the world, however enemies would try to shoot and stop the player from achieving their goal of world destruction.
All foley elements were recorded using my TASCAM DR40X and everyday objects, these were then processed and layered using Pro Tools to create effective player-feedback audio. Music was mixed and mastered also using Pro Tools, and recorded using midi keyboards and my own guitar collection.
THE FINAL DEMO
Please find a trailer for the final demo. This was submitted as our teams entry into the GJL Game Parade Summer 2021.