Redeemed Devil
Dark Orchestra
The right music for your game
Each game needs its own original music as one of the many artistic and technical elements that will make it stand out in the industry. Depending on the game’s genre, aesthetics, narrative, mechanics, schedule and budget, there’s a specific type of music that will be the most appropriate for conveying the game’s personality and enriching the player’s experience.
Redeemed Devil
Dark Orchestra
Space Routine
1950's Retro Scifi
Space Routine
1950's Retro Scifi
Future Western
Orchestra & Synth
Future Western
Orchestra & Synth
Sci Fi episodes
Ambient synth
Sci Fi episodes
Ambient synth
Escape Doodland
1930 rythmic jazz
Escape Doodland
1930 rythmic jazz
Cubots
Electronic
Cubots
Electronic
Enhanced game experience
Implementation is a key part of game music and sound design. From simple asset organizing to complex, clever musical structures or sound behavior that not only enhances your game experience but also improves your game development pipeline. This also lets the game programmers focus on their specific job and the music producer have creative audio solutions without adding more workload to them.
Sound design under the same direction
Having sound design under the same creative direction and production as music allows for a cohesive game audio experience. You’ll save time in coordination and communication and be able to better focus in other areas of your game’s development process.
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Pix Journey
Redeemed Devil
Orchestral music production
Music production
Sound design
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Dark music for the lost soul
“Redeemed Devil” is a roguelike game about a lost soul on a quest for redemption through various stages, collecting soul fragments of other lost souls to help them become whole. The developer aimed for a creepy and mysterious cartoonish style, which was best suited by an orchestral production featuring dark and quirky motifs.
Recording woodwinds for the game's music
Good old theremin sounds
Recording flutes, oboe and english horns at plutonio studio
Leading instruments played by profesional musicians
Organizing and double checking scores for recording
Recording sessions are intense and fun at the same time
Piano sketching before orchestrating
Enhanced production
Assigning a part of the game’s budget to record leading flutes, oboes and english horns, by professional multi-instrumentist Gabriela Folco improved considerably the overall quality of the game’s music production.
Exploration loops
Exploration levels’ playing time determined the musical structure needed for their looping soundtrack. Music was composed using a progression of different “musical scenes” that together were long enough to avoid player fatigue caused by shorter tracks.
Dark & Quirky
By request from the developer, the game’s leitmotif was composed to give a dark but quirky feel, but also references the core mechanic of exploratory movement with redundant directions of a roguelike game.
Enhanced production
Assigning a part of the game’s budget to record leading flutes, oboes and english horns, by professional multi-instrumentist Gabriela Folco improved considerably the overall quality of the game’s music production.
Exploration loops
Exploration levels’ playing time determined the musical structure needed for their looping soundtrack. Music was composed using a progression of different “musical scenes” that together were long enough to avoid player fatigue caused by shorter tracks.
Dark & Quirky
By request from the developer, the game’s leitmotif was composed to give a dark but quirky feel, but also references the core mechanic of exploratory movement with redundant directions of a roguelike game.
1
Menic Games
Space Routine
Music production, sound design and audio implementation in FMOD
Music production
Sound design
Audio implementation
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Complete audio production
Space Routine is a space family simulator with physics mechanics and a theme influenced by old sci-fi cartoon series like The Jetsons. The music and sound design intentionally evokes that aesthetic without losing the feel of a modern game.
Better production quality with recorded musicians
Adding trumpets to the main theme
No Theremin? No problem!
Upright bass recording sessions
Recording sessions at 440 estudio
Designing the futuristic sounds from the 50's
Music of the 1950’s space family
Space Routine matches the tone of ‘50s and ‘60s sci-fi sitcoms by referencing the use of specific instrumentation and harmony from that time period. Each space station has its own music, working as scenes from a cartoon episode like the Jetsons. This palette of music fragments build the game’s personality.
‘Beeps’ and other naive sounds
Back in the day, sci-fi sound designers had to work within the limits of the available technology. Their creative prowess gave us a recognizable retro sci-fi aesthetic that can be emulated by restraining the use of modern synths. The game’s audio concept defined initially with the developer helped find these technical means to get a result that lines up with the game’s style.
Narrative enhancement in FMOD
Adaptive audio behaviors were used not only as a way to solve repetitiveness and orient the player but also to simultaneously enrich the narrative and semantics of the game. Music layers are added every time a family member arrives at the “home station” to bolster the sense of a family reunion. The space car’s engine has different sound layers that change at different speeds to convey the idea of infinite acceleration and therefore a bigger space.
Music of the 1950’s space family
Space Routine matches the tone of ‘50s and ‘60s sci-fi sitcoms by referencing the use of specific instrumentation and harmony from that time period. Each space station has its own music, working as scenes from a cartoon episode like the Jetsons. This palette of music fragments build the game’s personality.
‘Beeps’ and other naive sounds
Back in the day, sci-fi sound designers had to work within the limits of the available technology. Their creative prowess gave us a recognizable retro sci-fi aesthetic that can be emulated by restraining the use of modern synths. The game’s audio concept defined initially with the developer helped find these technical means to get a result that lines up with the game’s style.
Narrative enhancement in FMOD
Adaptive audio behaviors were used not only as a way to solve repetitiveness and orient the player but also to simultaneously enrich the narrative and semantics of the game. Music layers are added every time a family member arrives at the “home station” to bolster the sense of a family reunion. The space car’s engine has different sound layers that change at different speeds to convey the idea of infinite acceleration and therefore a bigger space.
1
In-house production
Music selection 2019
Music production
Music production
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A selection of music productions
Different games need different music genres and types of productions. Some are purely electronic and others need recorded musicians. This is defined together with the developer to ensure that every important aspect of the game and its development are taken into consideration.
Games featured in this music selection:
Bullet Ville, a third-person shooter with western and urban-themed maps.
Cubots, an isometric minimalist shooter about robots invading a city.
Escape Doodland, a platformer auto-runner with a kooky hand-drawn cartoon artstyle.
Above clouds, a city building simulator on top of high mountains.
Sci Fi Episodes, music for existencial sci-fi games with a gloomy atmosphere.
Spit 2 Win, a casual mobile game with “Simon Says” mechanics about llamas in different South American scenarios.
Bullet Ville, a third-person shooter with western and urban-themed maps.
Cubots, an isometric minimalist shooter about robots invading a city.
Escape Doodland, a platformer auto-runner with a kooky hand-drawn cartoon artstyle.
Above clouds, a city building simulator on top of high mountains.
Sci Fi Episodes, music for existencial sci-fi games with a gloomy atmosphere.
Spit 2 Win, a casual mobile game with “Simon Says” mechanics about llamas in different South American scenarios.
Recording sessions for a better sound
Preparing to record the sax section
Playing aroung with the "twang" sound
Recording violin solos
Banjos for the Dixie rythm base
Modular synth sound design
Mastering tracks for the ost selection
Relevance of game mechanics
Game mechanics usually establish clear limits that help define the right music for your game. A cartoonish runner like “Escape Doodland” benefits from early 20th century jazz’s naiveness and rhythm presence that represent the game’s theme and movement mechanics respectively.
Hybrid musical production
Depending on the music genre, some productions require a mix of recorded and virtual instruments as a way to reap the benefits from both. “Bullet Ville”, “Escape Doodland” and “Above Clouds” are examples of hybrid productions.
Benefits of early involvement
The earlier the music producer gets involved in the game development the better. Incorporating this domain of knowledge from early on can impact organizational decisions, helps you optimize your schedule, and leads to much more cohesive results.
Relevance of game mechanics
Game mechanics usually establish clear limits that help define the right music for your game. A cartoonish runner like “Escape Doodland” benefits from early 20th century jazz’s naiveness and rhythm presence that represent the game’s theme and movement mechanics respectively.
Hybrid musical production
Depending on the music genre, some productions require a mix of recorded and virtual instruments as a way to reap the benefits from both. “Bullet Ville”, “Escape Doodland” and “Above Clouds” are examples of hybrid productions.
Benefits of early involvement
The earlier the music producer gets involved in the game development the better. Incorporating this domain of knowledge from early on can impact organizational decisions, helps you optimize your schedule, and leads to much more cohesive results.
1
Menic Games
Tinytopia
Sound design
Sound design
Audio implementation
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Playing with tiny toys
Tinytopia is a toy city simulator with physics and a piece-merging mechanic that makes chaotic and unexpected surprises part of the fun. I crafted the sound design to convey the right sense of scale and elicit the naive joy of playing like a child by creating ear-candy sounds that range from realistic to fantastic.
SOUND DESIGN
Creating ear-candy
Sound production focused on recording numerous variations from an array of small objects and using them to design cute, simple sounds that are addictive to listen to. This approach helped turn the potential fatigue of repetitiveness that derives from the game’s core mechanics into an enjoyable experience that favors replayability.
Audio Listener’s positioning
Given the particular camera angle used in Tinytopia, a raycast-based audio listener positioning system was developed in Unity to be used instead of the common camera attachment method. This allowed for correct sound spatial positioning and better emulation of the tiny scale volume propagation, which enhanced the game’s narrative.
Taming ‘herd’ sfx’s volume
To avoid adding extra work to the game’s programmers, I used a specific audio channel routing in Unity’s mixer, combined with a couple of native audio effects, as a simple and clever solution to disproportionately volume increases when many instances of an object emit sound. As a result, you get the audio group’s channel volume decreasing proportionately to the amount of objects emitting sound through it.
Creating ear-candy
Sound production focused on recording numerous variations from an array of small objects and using them to design cute, simple sounds that are addictive to listen to. This approach helped turn the potential fatigue of repetitiveness that derives from the game’s core mechanics into an enjoyable experience that favors replayability.
Audio Listener’s positioning
Given the particular camera angle used in Tinytopia, a raycast-based audio listener positioning system was developed in Unity to be used instead of the common camera attachment method. This allowed for correct sound spatial positioning and better emulation of the tiny scale volume propagation, which enhanced the game’s narrative.
Taming ‘herd’ sfx’s volume
To avoid adding extra work to the game’s programmers, I used a specific audio channel routing in Unity’s mixer, combined with a couple of native audio effects, as a simple and clever solution to disproportionately volume increases when many instances of an object emit sound. As a result, you get the audio group’s channel volume decreasing proportionately to the amount of objects emitting sound through it.
1
Ravegan
Dorfs
Sound design
Sound design
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Metal, wood & fire
Dorfs – Hammers for hire is a game developed by Ravegan with mechanics similar to Overcooked. Being a game of up to four players, sound design needed to balance density by having descriptive yet simple, dorky sounds.
A balanced tone
One of the goals proposed by the game producer was to have realistic sounds that don’t get too serious at the same time. A delicated balance between descriptiveness and slightly dorky humour accross the game’s sound palette.
The density challenge
Having up to four players potentially playing the game established the challenge of balancing density by having a specific sound design criteria for each asset: all the sounds needed both to fill the space when heard individually and be simple and distinguishable for when there’s a lot of action simultaneously.
Implementation structures
Although implementation was relatively straight forward there needed to be some fairly complex audio structures in the game. The hoven has three sound layers for each fire intensity and their corresponding “tails” for when it turns off after removing an item.
A balanced tone
One of the goals proposed by the game producer was to have realistic sounds that don’t get too serious at the same time. A delicated balance between descriptiveness and slightly dorky humour accross the game’s sound palette.
The density challenge
Having up to four players potentially playing the game established the challenge of balancing density by having a specific sound design criteria for each asset: all the sounds needed both to fill the space when heard individually and be simple and distinguishable for when there’s a lot of action simultaneously.
Implementation structures
Although implementation was relatively straight forward there needed to be some fairly complex audio structures in the game. The hoven has three sound layers for each fire intensity and their corresponding “tails” for when it turns off after removing an item.
