Being one of only two people working on this game has required me to wear many hats over the years. Which is good because I love hats.
But one hat that I haven't worn in a long time was the sound effects hat. This is sad because sound effects have such a huge effect on how a game feels. Sound connects the player to the world in a way that only it can. It brings personality to the game world and communicates more to the player in many cases than the visuals alone allowing the player to feel more connected to the world.
The content in the game has grown considerably over time and was in dire need of many more sounds. We didn't have enough time to include the sound update in 1.23 so we decided to complete it now before we move on to other things. So I'm very happy to report that we have added a ton of new sounds to many aspects of the game for version 1.24
Sound design is not really my area of expertise however I have attempted to really immerse myself into the process and have worked to try and pick nice quality sounds that enrich the game experience. I also have had a close friend who is learning the sound engineering ropes lending me a hand. The initial results have felt very good and have made the game world feel much richer and more alive, and also much more humorous at times.
We have updated many aspects of the sound effects including...
Characters Idle Sounds
Each character in Adventure Craft has a slot for multiple Idle sounds. This is a collection of sounds that they can make when they are just hanging around, helping the player to become aware of their presence. We had a look at nearly every character and faction and have updated their sounds to give them more personality.
So now for example when you are near Punks you will hear them make little Negative "Heh"s or when you are near Special Forces you will hear their radio chatter calling out Bravo! Echo! etc. Cockroaches and spiders hiss and skitter and Lumberjack Mechs rev their chainsaw engines.
More dangerous enemies like werewolves have a warning sound slot, so you may hear a howling sound when one is near.
Character Attacks
We have updated many enemy attacks to have new sounds like slicing sharp blade noises and crunchy and booming impacts to bring extra impact and weight to their attacks.
Weapons
We have updated the swinging and impact sounds for many weapons so that hitting someone over the head with a pipe sounds different than hitting them over the head with a wooden sword.
And there is more to come.
It is still a work in progress so there is plenty of room for further improvement so please leave me any feedback about how the game sounds now so that we can continue to enhance the sound over future updates.
Twitter: @iENDERi