UNITED CRAFTS

IN MOTION

Johnny Chang

Narrative Designer & Audio Producer

Sound Design

2020

Going Home

Sound design documents I made during “Game Project 3” at Futuregames.

In this case, I made the documents in order to help myself find sound inspiration and to work as structured as possible, but also to help limit myself and work with what is only neccessary in order to achieve the desired result.

The document could also be used as a means to communicate with someone who is supposed to do the sound design and wishes to better understand the game and what kind of emotions the various aspects of the game are supposed to envoke within players.

Planning the Forest Theme

Origin of inspiration:

Place

Number of instruments:

2

What instruments:

Flute and maracas

Song length:

30 seconds

Composing method:

Chords-first

What I hear in my head:

Creepy, lurking, uneasy calm, not at home tune.

The Result after Executing the Initial Plan and Adapting it to Gameplay, using FMOD and Layers

Some instruments (especially flute) didn’t fit into the composition and feel of the game pace, so I had to change up quite a bit.

Please, click on the image to play/stop music.

Note: According to decisions made during early planning, the aim was to envoke an uneasy and horrific feeling while playing the game. However, while writing this sound design document, playtesting the game had, for me, proved to project feelings resembling more like the pictures shown above, which although pretty as it was, raised some concerns. I naturally brought this “mismatch” up at the following standup meeting for other team members to consider for the next SCRUM meeting and possible reassessment of the tone we would like to go for.

Game Character Theme Plan

Character Bio

Character Image:

Name:

Mickey

Age:

Gender:

Male

Appearance:

Good looking, light brown

Personality:

Cautious, compassionate, intelligent

Role in the game:

Scavenger

Skills:

Running, gathering

Goals and motivation:

Live a stable and secure life

Short story:

Mickey lost his parents when he was very young. He has since then learned to manage on his own. He knows very little about the outside world, but what he knows, he knows very well. He’s very good at the things he does. Mickey lives a pretty simple life with fixed routines. He often dreams of a better life, but at the same time understands the dangers of the world outside, and that he’s most safe sticking to what he already knows.

Character Theme Song

Origin of inspiration:

Character

Number of instruments:

3

What instruments:

Flute, violin and drums

Song length:

1 minute

Composing method:

Melody-first

How the song will sound:

Calm and safe, to represent Mickey’s need for security but also bring out his feeling of loneliness. The sound transitions to a feeling of urgency and insecurity, to represent the inciting incident, which brings the character to something bigger than ever before. So, the song ends in a way indicating something big is about to happen, giving a sense of curiosity and hope.

Note: The character of Mickey underwent several changes during the course of production, thus this version of Mickey is not quite the same as the one seen in the final release.

The character theme song was planned because of the initial idea of having Mickey as more prominent main character of the story.

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