My name is Snow Gillett, and I am deeply passionate about sound design in games. I believe that sound can either make or break a good game, and should only exist to enhance a player’s immersion and enjoyment. My job is to bring attention to both the narrative and mechanical elements while highlighting the beauty of the art.
My role on this project was mixing and implementing all of the audio assets given to me. The only thing outside of my work was the music implementation and metasound data as well as the implementation of the footsteps within game.
Soul Cave
Soul Cave is a map given to students for the express purpose of audio demonstration. With this in mind, I wanted to stand out and create a soundscape that felt natural. Everything you see has a sound, from the glow sticks on the ground to the wind high above the cave. I implemented each sound using Unreal Engine's metasound system, and linked those metasounds into sound cues for more customization.
Each audio asset has an attenuation, including the footsteps. Using phsyical materials, the footsteps change depending on the player's location. With an additional attenuation asset attached to each footstep metasound asset, the reverb changes depending on how close or far the walls are.
Audio Scope
The use of audio scopes in Unreal Engine is something that is still relatively new to the engine, and something I wanted to explore. The goal of this was to add an oscilloscope to to the player's screen using widgets. Taking a screen capture, even without audio, allowed me to watch back the progress that I made and explore different avenues.
The use of submixes and different sound classes would also mean that certain sounds would be picked up by the scope, allowing the player to detect sound assets via their attenuation and be drawn to that location.