Dread Rally is a racing / demolition derby game set in a futuristic dystopia. Players must race, drift, trick, and destroy other cars in order to satisfy the bloodlust of a live audience, keeping their ratings high while racing through each course as fast as they can. They must maintain a certain amount of speed to make it through speed gates on time, but also must consistently perform tricks or destroy other cars to keep ratings high, or risk being destroyed by the host of the Dread Rally. 

I worked as a Sound & Systems Designer for this game. Some of my main roles was working alongside the Lead Sound Designer in order to compose the soundtrack for the game, I worked on a song for the Satellite Graveyard level in the Mars rally for multiple weeks, including composing and mixing the song in FL Studio. I also created several sound effects, both used and unused, using both FL Studio's tools as well as foley. Taking on this role as a Sound Designer lifted off a lot of the pressure off the Lead Sound Designer's shoulders, allowing him to make more music, and allowing us to expand the soundtrack beyond what we thought it would be.  

I also used the pre-existing systems created by the programmers in the previous semester in order to set up the flyovers that play before certain levels. While I only did some of the levels, others were done by other developers, this was a task that allowed me to get much more comfortable with Cinemachine in Unity, a plugin that I had only dabbled in previously, as previous projects didn't really require it.

From working with a dedicated Sound Designer, I learned a lot more about music composition. I learned that I wasn't as skilled as I thought I was at the time, and there was always more to learn, and more ways that I could improve my music. More than anything, I learned a lot more about mixing, how to mix appropriately so sounds don't overlap, as well as general rules of thumb for panning and the like. I learned a lot more about effects such as EQ, Compressors, and what each one did, which I hadn't done as much of in previous projects. From the feedback received from my peers, especially the producer and Lead Sound Designer, I pushed my music skills to new heights, and I got a much better ear for fine-tuning music when it comes to mixing. This really pushed my career as a music composer to new heights and allowed me to do more, making a much more polished song. 

I did concept and try to greybox a level, but the level I created ended up going unused. However, in doing so, I learned about spline systems, which is something else I hadn't messed with at all in Unity before. This project taught me more about Unity's engine and allowed me to understand it that much more.