GAME SOUND PRODUCTION Samuel Justice
aesthetic and make it your own, not try something too clever that might prove hard to communicate). In a lot of horror there’s an emphasis on strange other-worldly sounds, but they can feel out of place in the space they’re presented in (especially in games). I wanted the horror sounds (which reflect the psychological damage of your character) to be placed in a believable audio world with the player constantly questioning whether sound was in their head or in the game. I wasn’t interested in designing sound effects in isolation – I wanted everything to feel glued together in the world.
“I looked at every scenario
from a high level – the setting, the point in time of the narrative – and then formed a plan. I did an ambience and background pass on the maps to get an overall feel then moved to the big audio events. After that came the more granular detail and working out what small stories I could tell through sound. This production didn’t have a large budget for effects, characters, actors, a lot of which are usually key to driving player- action within games. So I had to help find solutions to push the player forward. I made a lot of little stories out of
sounds and placed them in the world to help move the player forward – out of curiosity. This was a hard balance as I wanted the sounds to reflect the narrative, be spooky, though not overly scary so as to deter the player. So say on the first level the player needs to make their way to the top of the house, we have ‘sound stories of children playing above. There are also key narrative points in the same area, so it was a timing issue, ensuring these navigation sound stories did not play within 10-20 seconds of the narrative events in case the player thought they were linked. “Another example of story- telling is a nursery with two cots where the player’s children once lived. I thought wouldn’t it be nice if, as the player is looking at the doll house nearby, they hear the distant cries of the children coming from the cots? There are tonnes of these little stories littered
throughout. Thanks to the game team’s attitude, I had free reign, and I was able to script these sequences myself without having to ask permission. “I took a huge amount of influence from modern-classic horror films such as Alien for the mix. In film, the mix control available allows you to build volume as the story intensifies, something I absolutely wanted for Pigs. After the intro, the game starts off very quiet, getting progressively louder and more intense as the narrative unfolds. “I used some boutique
library content, such as stuff from Frank Bry, Michael Raphael, and Tim Prebble, but I recorded 60-70 percent of the sounds myself, mainly with handhelds. I was walking in a field one day and came across a pig farm. Out came my trusty recorder and I was capturing some fantastic sounds until the farmer appeared and chased me away – presumably he thought
I was going to steal a pig!” Throughout the year-long
development, Justice and composer Jessica Curry worked closely to facilitate sound and music harmony: “Music plays a vital role in expressing the narrative so when we felt it should lead, I ensured it wouldn’t be compromised by sound (and vice versa). We talked frequently, bouncing ideas. Her raw talent is incredible and she absolutely knew the power of sound design while I heavily respected her composition skills. It was easy for us to try out ideas – a true collaboration which I’d jump at the chance to repeat.” Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs
proves, once again, that it is raw creativity and the creative application of sound, rather than technology alon e, that really matters in today’s game audio productions. The reviews speak for themselves.
www.thechineseroom.co.uk
www.audiomedia.com
November 2013 33
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