Hello,
So, I returned from my family trip and took an additional day off to take care of my apartment and return to the usual Wednesday Dev log.
Let’s get into the Dev Log.
Sound design.
In one of the first Dev logs for Season 2, I mentioned that I would improve the game's sound design.
In an ideal world, a game would be like a movie… However, I don’t have voice actors and would never consider getting them before the games are finished.
So, the "tone of the voice" relies on the reader's imagination. I can only influence it through expressions, music, and the composition of the images.
I personally dislike repeating playlists and would like an additional tool to transfer the right mood.
Contrasts & timing.
If you listen to a song repeatedly, it loses its power.
In future updates, I will implement ambient sounds. Not just random nature or street noises, but precise ambient sounds. There’s a clock in the room, you will hear from where it’s coming.
For example, in Summer’s Gone Chapter 2, Bella and MC are in her kitchen after the heist.
You would hear the room's ambiance, a slight buzzing from the refrigerator, a faint clock somewhere in the living room, etc.
Meanwhile, music would be used to accentuate special scenes. Or I might let it play quietly in the background?
I’ll figure this out and create polls about it. I will also have a scene in the upcoming update where I'll try out some different ideas.
Before I went to visit my family, I ordered the Tascam DR40X Audio recorder and started building my own library. “Why don’t you just buy the sounds?”
Because I’m sick of having to play Minesweeper with licenses and by building an SFX and Ambient library myself, I'll always be on the safe side.
I’ve already made several recordings, and they just need to be edited, dialed in, and sorted.
Don’t get me wrong; the game will still use a lot of music. However, sometimes less is more…
Silence with some faint ambient noises followed by a slow introduction of, for example, Vesky—Aurora has a much bigger impact on the mood of the scene than a constantly repeating playlist.
I’m still in the figuring-out phase, but my wish is that it improves immersion, especially in future cinematics.
And I'm looking forward to your feedback on it.
Season 1 - Chapter 4
Big leaps in development are happening. I've been pumping out renders left and right, up and down.
I've made some Leia renders before I went away for the week that are most likely going to be my favorite renders of the update... Even though, Miru, Helen and Katie have some aces up their sleeves, too.
Yeah, many "smaller" scenes are creeping towards an end. There's a few more smaller ones that I'll be tackling afterwards, and then the end scene. Which is a very big scene with tons of people in it. I'm looking forward to it.
Oh and when I say "smaller" scenes, I'm still talking about 100-300 render scenes minimum.
Preview:
AU
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I’ll see you in two weeks on Christmas Eve.
Ocean
