There is a part in this book when the author provides you a part of a screenplay, which describes a scene & then asks "What to listen for?". Its quite brilliant really.
In that example 4 main things will help enhance the Audio aspect of that scene (or in our case, level)
1- People, objects & actions.
2- Environment.
3- Clues to the emotions.
4- Physical or dramatic transition.
Here a scene for us to work on.
Lets say the level you are working on has your main character running (people) on a grassy field (action) towards the town's ringing bell (object).
Lets use the above theory to break the scene down for sounds:
1- People, objects & actions
Just by this description, you would like to have 3 things:
-Panting, the fast breathing sound of your character (people).
-Squishing, the sound of feet on grass for the running part (action).
-Bell, different volume levels of a bell (object), I say different levels because you can use the volume to provide the aspect of distance to the player, plus this will come in handy in the future I promise, stay with me.
2-Environment
Obviously it is outdoors, now we have to determine a few other things:
-Is it day or night?
Both characteristics have different sounds associated with them.
If its "Day", we can add sounds of birds for example.
If its "Night", we can use the sound of crickets and/or frogs.
-Are there any special features near by this grassy meadow that make sounds?
Trees?, add the sound of leaves softly blowing in the a breeze.
A stream?, the sound of softly running water.
An active volcano, have some rumbling sounds that appear now and then.
3-Clues to emotions
This is a little tricky, because in a way it kind of merges into the "Environment" but in deeper detail. We know that the character is running towards the town's ringing bell. Lets say its Day time, why is the bell ringing? lets say its indicating the beginning of the business day.
The emotion here should be something related to Hustle & Bustle, so you would create the sounds of the town to convey that emotion, for example:
-Many voices talking at the same time, or making phonetic sounds as if they are talking.
-Should be in a mid-rang pitch, with some minor high & low voices.
-If there are people on bicycles weaving by.
-If the ground that people are walking on is concrete or stone.
ect...
4-Physical or dramatic transition
You have to let your player/audience know that they have entered, or transitioned, into a new "Space". We just had a character "transition" from two places with different sound needs.
Place One: The Grassy Meadows
Place Two: The Town
Transitioning from Place One to Place Two should work with the "Game Play" of the level:
A)-Is there a gate that the character has to walk through to get into the Town?
B)-Or is the Town open into grassy meadows with no barrier?
If its option "A".
Then thats easy, you will just need a sound for the Gate, then the sounds will change once your character enters, or transitions, into the new space.
If its option "B".
Then you will need to mix the audio a little, allowing the sounds from the Grassy Meadow to slowly fade out, while simultaneously increasing the sound of the Town.
This mixing should be determined by the distance of your character to the town.
Remember the "Bell", the Object from the #1 section? Remember how I was recommending to have different levels or volumes of the Bell to determine distance?
Well, this is where it comes in handy, as you find your self using the louder levels of the Bell, that would mean that you are closer to the town, therefore you can use that to help you decide when to start fading out the sounds of the Grassy Meadow.
I hope this has been helpful, my next and final post on this short Game Audio series, will be about recording, and how fun and easy it can be.
Till next time.
Much Love
Mosno
