The game I will be making/applying sounds for is my remake of the original Space Invaders. Space Invaders is an old game (made in 1978) and involves the player controlling a laser cannon along the bottom of the screen. The player has to shoot a wave of aliens that move from top to bottom. They have 4 barriers that provide cover, however if the aliens hit cover 3 times it will be destroyed. There is also score, and lives.
Sound Plan
Space Invaders is quite old and therefore doesn't use a wide variety of sounds. It has sounds for shooting, killing the aliens, the player dying etc. And it also has a repeating track playing in the background that only uses 4 different notes. I want the sounds to be similar to the original, however I probably won't be able to get them exactly the same.
The sounds I plan on creating are:
- Player shooting sound
- Background music
- Alien death sound
- Player death sound
- Bonus spaceship sound
Recording Methods and Software etc
In terms of recording, I will most likely be using my USB microphone that I have at home. However, the sounds I recorded at college were recorded with a small portable recorder (I do not know if I will be using the sounds I recorded at college.)
The mic I have at home is an MLX USB .006 Mic. I will put the specs below:
Frequency response: 20Hz - 20 kHz
Sampling rate: 44.1kHz, 48kHz
Bit-depth: 16-bit
I will use stereo recordings.
I will be using Audacity to edit sounds, and maybe even to create my music tracks. Audacity isn't designed for creating music from scratch though, so I will probably record sounds individually then use Audacity to put them all together and make a track. I could also use Soundation which is a drag and drop music creation software that can be used for free on Google Chrome.
The Final Sounds
The sounds that I did make in the end were a player shooting and death sound, and alien death sound and a background track, so all of the things that I planned. I will go through what I did for each one.
Player Shooting Sound
For the player shooting sound I used a sound that I recorded in college with the portable recorder. None of us actually know what the sound was, as it may have been something in the background or something we did and forgot about. It sounded kind of like someone kicking or hitting a bin. I added a wahwah effect to this sound which made is sound like a laser. This sound is an MP3 file, is 86kbps and is 4.62kb in size.
Background Music
The background music is actually me humming! I used a silence feature in Audacity to cut out the slight background noise between each note. This also made each note cut in and out a little less smoothly, so it wasn't as obvious that it was a voice, however you can still tell. This is an MP3 file, is 47kbps and is 85.7kb in size. It was recorded with the mic I mentioned previously.
Alien Death Sound
The original Space Invaders uses quite simple sounds, so I wanted the alien death sound to be quite simple. The sound is just a beep from the touch screen of a college printer. it is an MP3 file, is 165kbs and is 2.11kb in size.
Player Death Sound
I wasn't really sure what to do for the player death sound. In the end I decided to go for a simple explosion-like sound. To create the sound I hit the top of my bed sheets. It sounded more like a slap sound so I brought the bass up and got it sounding like a mini explosion, or muffled explosion. It is an MP3 file, is 153kbps and is 4.88kb in size. I didn't want this sound to cut out suddenly so I added a fade out effect. It's quite subtle but makes the sound a lot nicer.
Exporting The Sounds and Additional Editing
I exported the sounds using Audacity's built in export feature. To be able to do this I had to download the LAME encoder, which is a .dll file that allows files to be converted to MP3. I also merged each sound to one track, to make the files smaller.
Importing the Sounds to GameMaker
In GameMaker I went to sounds, clicked on "create sound." Then I clicked on the folder button next to the sound name. I then selected the mp3, named it and pressed OK. I did not change any settings because GameMaker automatically sets them.
After doing this for all the sounds I gave them simple names starting with "snd_." This is usually what you do in GameMaker when creating some sort of asset. If you create an object you start it with obj_, if you make a sprite it starts with spr_.
Gameplay Video
Below you can see a video of my Space Invaders remake with the sounds applied.
Evaluation
I managed to do almost all of the sounds that I planned. The only one I missed out was the bonus spaceship sound because I didn't really know how to recreate it. I used the same methods of recording an editing that I included in my plan, which was to use my USB microphone and edit the sounds within Audacity. For the background music, however, I didn't plan on using my voice, but that's what I did in the end and it turned out quite well. I think that the sounds fit the game well, and its good that I managed to take random sounds and make them work. Humming the background track turned out better than I expected since the original game had music that was created electronically, and sounded quite robotic. Luckily my version sounded fairly similar. Overall I think that this assignment turned out well, and I stuck to my plan well enough.
In terms of recording, I will most likely be using my USB microphone that I have at home. However, the sounds I recorded at college were recorded with a small portable recorder (I do not know if I will be using the sounds I recorded at college.)
The mic I have at home is an MLX USB .006 Mic. I will put the specs below:
Frequency response: 20Hz - 20 kHz
Sampling rate: 44.1kHz, 48kHz
Bit-depth: 16-bit
I will use stereo recordings.
I will be using Audacity to edit sounds, and maybe even to create my music tracks. Audacity isn't designed for creating music from scratch though, so I will probably record sounds individually then use Audacity to put them all together and make a track. I could also use Soundation which is a drag and drop music creation software that can be used for free on Google Chrome.
The Final Sounds
The sounds that I did make in the end were a player shooting and death sound, and alien death sound and a background track, so all of the things that I planned. I will go through what I did for each one.
Player Shooting Sound
For the player shooting sound I used a sound that I recorded in college with the portable recorder. None of us actually know what the sound was, as it may have been something in the background or something we did and forgot about. It sounded kind of like someone kicking or hitting a bin. I added a wahwah effect to this sound which made is sound like a laser. This sound is an MP3 file, is 86kbps and is 4.62kb in size.
Background Music
The background music is actually me humming! I used a silence feature in Audacity to cut out the slight background noise between each note. This also made each note cut in and out a little less smoothly, so it wasn't as obvious that it was a voice, however you can still tell. This is an MP3 file, is 47kbps and is 85.7kb in size. It was recorded with the mic I mentioned previously.
Alien Death Sound
The original Space Invaders uses quite simple sounds, so I wanted the alien death sound to be quite simple. The sound is just a beep from the touch screen of a college printer. it is an MP3 file, is 165kbs and is 2.11kb in size.
Player Death Sound
I wasn't really sure what to do for the player death sound. In the end I decided to go for a simple explosion-like sound. To create the sound I hit the top of my bed sheets. It sounded more like a slap sound so I brought the bass up and got it sounding like a mini explosion, or muffled explosion. It is an MP3 file, is 153kbps and is 4.88kb in size. I didn't want this sound to cut out suddenly so I added a fade out effect. It's quite subtle but makes the sound a lot nicer.
Exporting The Sounds and Additional Editing
I exported the sounds using Audacity's built in export feature. To be able to do this I had to download the LAME encoder, which is a .dll file that allows files to be converted to MP3. I also merged each sound to one track, to make the files smaller.
Importing the Sounds to GameMaker
In GameMaker I went to sounds, clicked on "create sound." Then I clicked on the folder button next to the sound name. I then selected the mp3, named it and pressed OK. I did not change any settings because GameMaker automatically sets them.
After doing this for all the sounds I gave them simple names starting with "snd_." This is usually what you do in GameMaker when creating some sort of asset. If you create an object you start it with obj_, if you make a sprite it starts with spr_.Gameplay Video
Below you can see a video of my Space Invaders remake with the sounds applied.
Evaluation
I managed to do almost all of the sounds that I planned. The only one I missed out was the bonus spaceship sound because I didn't really know how to recreate it. I used the same methods of recording an editing that I included in my plan, which was to use my USB microphone and edit the sounds within Audacity. For the background music, however, I didn't plan on using my voice, but that's what I did in the end and it turned out quite well. I think that the sounds fit the game well, and its good that I managed to take random sounds and make them work. Humming the background track turned out better than I expected since the original game had music that was created electronically, and sounded quite robotic. Luckily my version sounded fairly similar. Overall I think that this assignment turned out well, and I stuck to my plan well enough.
