JOHNATHAN HAMILL

ARTIST

Who?

Johnathan Hamill.

Basically the title.

Main Duties on Conjure Quest

I created and implemented the various sound effects in the game. This includes all the UI and gameplay audio cues for player and opponent actions.

I also composed the music of Conjure Quest, for the Main Menu/Trailer, and for during the game.

I used a combination of FL Studio (with the help of Spitfire Labs) and Adobe Audition to create the audio.

Sound Design

I feel like sound design can make or break a game, and good sound design can define the atmosphere and feel of a game, especially when paired with a strong visual direction. And that was one of my big goals with making the sounds in this project.

One of the key techniques I used when designing some of the sounds was to create variations of each sound. Not only does this remove much of the monotony from the repeated tasks players must take during a match, but it makes for a more natural and organic feel.

Some of the gameplay sounds also had "opponent variants," which were filtered, more subdued versions of the normal sounds. This was to create distinction between the player's actions and the opponent's actions, as well as to give more weight to what the player does.

The workflow I set up in FL Studio for designing anything with rock sounds. These rock sounds were all public domain samples taken from freesound.org, and set up for extensive mixing using the FPC generator. This, paired with the piano roll, helped with creating several variations of sounds very quickly.

Build Settlement Sounds

BuildSettlement.wav

BuildSettlement2.wav

BuildSettlement3.wav

Faction Select sounds

On the faction select screen, the player can choose between four different factions. I created four different "faction select sounds" that each correspond to whatever faction the player chooses by using different sets of instruments on top of a click sound. I would go on to use these instruments to

Mushroom Faction

FactionClick_MshR.wav

Rock Faction

FactionClick_Rock.wav

Teacup Faction

FactionClick_TeaC.wav

Ghost Faction

FactionClick_Ghst.wav

Waveform + Spectrogram of one of the Build Settlement sounds in Audition. This is where I'd take the final step and clean up the sound by selecting frequencies in the spectrogram and adjusting them.

Music

I was able to craft this subtle soundscape of mandolins, strings, dulcimers, and other instruments that blended in with and enhanced the fantasy themes in the game. I also made sure the music would not distract from the player experience.

The Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) I used to compose the music was FL Studio, and most of the instrumentation in the music is courtesy of Spitfire Labs, which is a free collection of simple to use, high quality VSTs that just so happen to work perfectly for this project.

Main Menu Music

MainMenu.mp3

The in-game music even has a procedural element to it, where it changes during gameplay. For example, when it's the opponent's turn, the drums play at full volume while the rest of the instruments go slightly quieter, and when it's the player's turn, the drums fade out and the tuned instruments take center stage. This helps with creating minor tension when a player is making their move.

Another part of the procedural music comes into fruition when the player is in first place, and it's the overlaying of faction based instrumentation. Using the same sets of instruments in the faction select sounds, I created an additional layer for each faction that would play based on what faction the player was in.

Some of the other work I have done on Conjure Quest

Clay Tile- Sculpted with Blender, textured with Substance Painter

Teacup Unit - Modeled with Maya, textured with Substance Painter

Portfolio Link: https://sites.google.com/view/jhxc

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