We then had to play the demo of 'Amnesia' which is a horror game I have always wanted to play, but never got the chance to until now. The point of this task was to analyse the sound and see what affect it had on the gameplay. From playing the game with earphones I found the experience to be exceptionally atmospheric and tense as every action had a reaction in terms of sound; every footstep echoed in the halls and all the doors creaked when you opened them. Lighting candles, breaking things and treading through water all made the associated sounds. What especially worked well was the fact that every object had weight, therefore the sound each one made when banging into surfaces or falling on the floor was convining. In fact, it was more scary when nothing visually happened as it was the sounds that made you paranoid and not the invisible monsters you encountered later.
We were then asked to open up UDK in which we practised with Wave format audio. This included changing the minimum and maximum radius of the sounds in order to find out how sounds work. E.g. when you enter a radius max range you start to just hear the sound, whereas when you enter the mid range it starts to get louder. This matches how sound works in general as the closer you get to the source of the sound the louder it becomes.
We then had to incorporate sounds into a quickly made environment that you can see below.
The scene itself included the following sounds that played when you got close to them.
- Generators running.
- Fire burning.
- Waterfall pouring.
- Grass rustling when walked through.
- Birds chirping constantly to make sure some background noise was always heard.
- Player feedback helps to tell the player that they have done something. Whether that be activating something or winning/losing a match.
- The audio experience can be as important as the visual experience.
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