Option 3

THE SOUNDS

Option 3 is a story driven 3rd person action-adventure game. Within 9 months working with Two Pencils UG we completed a vertical prototype that contains the most important aspects of the game. I was responsible for the entire sound department. We needed diverse sound design for close and range combat, movement, animals as well as base defense weaponary and building menus. I recorded and synthesized new sounds and mixed existing ones to fit our purposes. Implementing the finished audio assets was also part of my work.

THE MUSIC

The production and implementation of adaptive music was another big challenge. Due to the short amount of time, we decided to have only two short pieces of music as well as two jingles derived from the main theme. The story of the game is set in a SciFi universe, while the gameplay mostly consists of exploring nature and crafting objects from nature materials. I wanted the music to reflect these two worlds as well. Hence we decided to go for a mixture of analog instruments and electronic sounds.

The first track was the main theme of the game. It is played in the main menu and at important story events. The latter was made possible by creating short jingles with similar instrumentation and melody as the main theme. A mixture of synthesized pads and plucked sounds, blended with woodwinds, strings and guitars, played in the key of hungarian c minor. This track sets the mysterious atmosphere of a foreign planet that feels familiar in some way.

The second track was meant to increase tension in thrilling nightly combats the player has to go through to defend his spaceship. Therefore the combat theme mainly consists of taiko drums and deep base synths to play an exciting rhythm. The special challenge about this piece was to make the music adapt dynamically to certain states and stages of combat. Thus it was made of different loops and instrument tracks that can be played in any order or combination. With FMOD it was possible to make the music change according to the progress of the battle. It becomes more and more suspense once the player's defenses get destroyed or the spaceship is being attacked directly. You can also hear when there is only one enemy left since the instrumentation becomes less dense at this point.