Chronautical
Chronautical
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In this narrative-driven sci-fi mystery, investigate across space and time to uncover clues and unravel the secrets of a star system that has disappeared.
In this narrative-driven sci-fi mystery, investigate across space and time to uncover clues and unravel the secrets of a star system that has disappeared.
Here is our teaser trailer, for which I composed the music to create a feeling of action and tension, and get the player intrigued and excited about the game.
Demonstration of the ambient backgrounds and character barks in gameplay.
(Art-wise outdated) teaser trailer, for which I composed the music to create a feeling of action and tension, and get the player intrigued and excited about the game.
"De Amor", Chronautical's main theme, is based on a traditional guitar song from perhaps the 19th century (origins are not entirely clear). I was inspired by the melody and created instrumentation around it, as well as some additional melodic sections. The traditional and possibly familiar tune played on music box gives a warm and antique feeling, which is juxtaposed to the synths and more futuristic instruments. This is the aim of the game as a whole: bringing an warm and antique vibe to the usually cold and futuristic genre of sci-fi.
Ambient Environments
Ambient Environments
Each chapter of the story gets its own 2D timeline and parameter with specific named values for each of the "rooms" in the chapter. "Rooms" are defined as any one space where the room tone would be the same at any one point in time. Time is important to take into account for this game as it involves time travel, and one of the important game feel components of traveling through time is hearing the different ambient backgrounds. These changes are subtle and fairly slow so that the player feels they are in a new place without being fully sure as to why until they explore their surroundings more and see what has changed.
Each chapter of the story gets its own 2D timeline and parameter with specific named values for each of the "rooms" in the chapter. "Rooms" are defined as any one space where the room tone would be the same at any one point in time. Time is important to take into account for this game as it involves time travel, and one of the important game feel components of traveling through time is hearing the different ambient backgrounds. These changes are subtle and fairly slow so that the player feels they are in a new place without being fully sure as to why until they explore their surroundings more and see what has changed.
Dynamic Music
Dynamic Music
Like the environments, the music is dynamic and changes depending on the world and the choices the player makes. For example, when the player moves between times within a "room," a new instrument, melody, and/or accompanying track are switched out to give the music within the "room" a different but consistent feel.
Like the environments, the music is dynamic and changes depending on the world and the choices the player makes. For example, when the player moves between times within a "room," a new instrument, melody, and/or accompanying track are switched out to give the music within the "room" a different but consistent feel.
Each character in a scene also has their own counter melody, which only plays when they are nearby. This gives each song more variation, as well as giving the player subtle hints as to who they can find in this area and time if they go looking.
My process for writing music begins in a free in-browser DAW called BeepBox. This music maker helps me get melody and harmony ideas down quickly and has really helpful loop functions that makes it easy to get a simple song structure down. From here, it is very easy to export it to a midi file, which I then take into a more robust DAW (usually Reason) to make adjustments, add instrumentation and orchestration layers, and do final mixing and production.
When exporting the final mix, I exported different layers separately so that I could link the separate layers to parameters in FMOD. This, like the environments, can be controlled from changes in the game. These can go between any parameter at any time, and flow seamlessly to immerse the player in a soundtrack unique to their gameplay.
Sound Effects
Sound Effects
Sound effects are implemented via Inkle, the plugin we are using for our dialogue system. I worked with our programmer to create custom commands that tell Ink to play FMOD events in certain ways and at specific times, and to change parameters exactly when needed.
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