Last afternoon the team met to create the final mix of the video game. Each team member brought their part of the sound assets and everything was combined in the session. This mix down session required a lot of team based decisions towards the final aesthetic of the game. We collaboratively discussed what sounds would be of more importance and what sounds will be sent to the back, playing a more background role to create the atmosphere of the game. All of us agreed that dialogue and UI sounds had to be very present in the mix so the story line would never be unclear, these sounds where also the only ones to be placed in the middle of the spatial field. Music and foley where sent to the back as mentioned before to play a more atmosphere role, in the sessions we did also some last automations with the volume and space position of music and foley, just to make it more cohesive with the narrative of the video.

Not a lot of processing was needed for this last session, everyone in the team did a great job in their task, so little touches where made to the assets. I was very impressed with how professional my team was and how all the sound assesses managed to fit quite well together even though each of us created them independently.

A couple of weeks ago I booked the Oculus headset from the technicians, I got a small induction and then took it back to mine to test it. The main objective in getting the oculus set was to manage to play The Phone Box on it, but when trying to get the file from the MA students they told me that their game could not be exported as an APK file, meaning that the only way I could play the game was by getting the Unity file. Unfortunately my laptop doesn’t have the storage space to download Unity, so at the end I only used the head set to explore different 360 media. Finding out of this incompatibility of files was a bit discouraging and honestly a lack of communication between us and the MA students, because it meant that I would never have the chance of experiencing the finished game and test my audio on it.

With the headset I mainly explored 360 You Tube seeing a wide range of videos, from projects released by experimental music festivals, to aerial tours of cities. One thing that I noticed from my experience with the set was the poor frequency range of the integrated headphones. While hearing a bass heavy 360 music performance, I noticed that the bass was notably weak, this make sense as the technology its mainly visual orientated and sometimes audio can be neglected in such industries. This made me realise that when mixing the music of The Phone Box I should not give great emphasis is in the low range. Try to make it present but not vibrant, in contrast with other mediums such as film and music I tend to mix low frequencies quite loud and penetrant.

Last week as part as the Collaboration Unit I went to visit Otherworld Hackney, a VR video game arcade. The place contained over 10 pods containing a headsets and space to experience VR, it also had a cafe/bar for people to relax before or after playing in the pods. When we went there, we got an over an hour slot using the pods. The VR game had the form of a virtual island, a digital designed land that could be explored by the players. Also the visiting groups could meet inside of the VR realm, communicating to each other and playing games together. When we got there and we where assigned a pod, an individual one for each member of our group , we where placed in the island and we where given headphones and microphones to communicate with each other. The island had different sceneries with different themes, when we started playing we where situated in the middle grounds and we where allowed to explore the different worlds. I paired with a couple of friends and decided to go play a couple of games together. We played first a shooting game, where we battled collectively with zombies, then we switched to an animated game where we swinged ourselves from tree’s to complete the missions of the game.

In reflection I thought the experience in VR was very interesting but not very pleasantly. We played for over an hour that is more than the recommended play time (they didn’t tell us that it was no idea to play for that long), and when I got out of the pod I felt extremely dizzy and in a great corporal discomfort. I think that one of the biggest factors that caused me that discomfort was that there was no visual break from the game, in contrast with screen based video games VR doesn’t allow you any sensorial break. There was always something to see and something to hear, I found this extremely overwhelming. I felt that body uneasiness the whole afternoon, it was quite weird that it didn’t go away until very late.

To be honest I did not pay a lot of attention to the sound while playing, I thought that visual was so vast that I never thought on analysing or focus in the sound. I guess this is something effective from the sound design of the games I played, as they helped a deeper immersion with the game and didn’t drag the players attention away from the story line. What I did found very distracting was the constant audio of the other sound art colleagues that where playing, it was very unorganised and I could hear everyones voice at the same time. My experience in Otherworld re-assured me the importance of not making the sound for The Phone Box too present or intense. It should function more in a Musak way that only accompanies the visual. Also I reflected the great importance of ambisonic sound in VR, because of the 360 visual content, every sound object should also be position in the correct spatial position.

One of my favourite video games ever is PS2 Deus Ex: The Conspiracy launched in 2002. What I love about this game is both the soundtrack and its early digital aesthetics, as this game was developed 20 years ago its digital animations are quite primitive compared to modern day games. It almost seems comedic and surreal the graphics of the game, but as they where developed so long ago they seem to me extremely original and outstanding. Even the foley and sound effects sound so unreal, the steps sound like a shovel hitting gravel and the SFX such as shootings and grunts sounds childish, but because the sounds seem so different to reality it creates great character and uniqueness to the game. The music is inspired in 90’s electronic dance music, using mainly synths and digital drum machines, creating a futuristic landscape that provokes momentum to the game. The music also supports quite effectively the story line of the game, the game is situated in a digital futuristic apocalyptic landscape, where technology dominates human relations and plages torments society. Music with its low bit nature, support the creation of the digital wastelands and attempts to imagine a world such as the one created in the game. The narrative of the game was also quite pioneering as it is one of the first games that allow the gamer to choose between storyline paths. During the game the gamer has the responsibility of choosing the actions of the character, resulting in a different outcome depending in the decisions made.

As the soundtrack of Deus Ex is probably my favourite video game sound track ever, I wanted to include some similar aspects to the music for The Phone Box. Both games also have somewhat a similar digital aesthetics, as because its their first VR game of the MA students, their graphic design is not as sophisticated, and in my opinion looks a bit similar to the one of Deus Ex. Because of Deus Ex, I decided to compose the music for The Phone Box mainly using synthesisers that have a quite digital aesthetic. For example a couple of the drones I created where using digital FM modulation and wave table manipulation, creating overtones that only digital technology can achieve. At the same time I thought of including a repeating rhythmic synth sequence, similar to an acid bass line, characteristic of early 90’s electronic music. This sequence would give the game some momentum and hint an electronic environment.

When we met for the first time with the MA students, I asked the guys for some reference, any video game they liked or that they where inspired by to make the game. They told us that their main inspiration was a video game called What Remains of Edith Finch, a 3D game released for multiple consoles and that won multiple awards including the BAFTA best game award in 2018. This was a bit unexpected because I thought they where going to suggest a game in VR instead of this one in 3D, but then I saw the movie and gameplay of the game and noticed that even though it was 3D it had such immersive qualities that could even seem it was made for VR.

The game is a collection of different tales and stories revolving a family in the US. Edith is the last surviving member of her family, in the video game Edith investigates into her past experiencing the life of her family members, with the objective of finding an explanation to why she is the last one of standing in her vast family line. The game takes through reality bending journeys across Edith family tree, dealing with hard situations and death, as each single story line finishes with the death of that family member. In the video game’s web page it states the objective of the game as ‘Ultimately, it’s a game about what it feels like to be humbled and astonished by the vast and unknowable world around us’. This relates a lot to the narrative of The Phone Box as their objective is also to create live like experiences that uncovers the nature of life, more specifically the nature of mental health. As well as What Remains of Edith Finch, The Phone Box is not afraid of crossing into sensitive territories. Through a sound perspective I have to be careful into not being overly triggering, as sound always mirrors the themes and concepts of a narrative, while discussing mental health and hard situations paired with intense music could provoke in the gamer an overwhelming experience.

The music of this game is composed of quite mellow strings and winds, bringing a textural pulse that is never too intense or too quiet. I would say that the music has quite a melancholic character, hinting a sense of introspection and nostalgia. When seeing the first sketch of The Phone Box, I thought of designing the music to be quite dark and present to represent the void and darkness of the visual. But after hearing the soundtrack of What Remains of Edith Finch I though that maybe this darkness and intensity of my original idea could drift the attention away from the narrative. I decided to keep some aspects of the original dark ambient drones I composed, but mix them with some melancholic aspect to create a similar effect as the theme of Edith. To achieve this I though of including a generative melodic line in a minor scale that develops slowly and randomly through the game. The sound of this melody would have a more pleasant aesthetic than the rest of the drones, making the music less intense for the gamer and hint a slight sense of melancholy. Also I thought including some generative aspect to the music was quite adequate, generative music is widely used in video games (for example Minecraft) because it is self developing and it does get repetitive to hear.

Following my idea of using the concept of memories and the past by sampling a radio, I bought a small portable radio that also had a cassette player. This was the first time I actually had a radio, every time I had listened to the radio in the past was streamed through the internet. At the same time I had never used a cassette player before. I found this extremely exciting and quite alien to me, it took me a while to figure out how to actually play a cassette. My main objective with the radio was using it as an instrument for the composition, I sampled it through my Octatrack and added gates to let the input in, the gates where triggered randomly, by this I had no control when the radio was actually going to be hearable. The gate had also an ADSR envelope that was being modulated by a random LFO, so the length of how long would the radio be hearable was also unpredictable. With this sampling technique I recorded a quite random sound scape of multiple radio stations and frequency, filled with static and faint voice of the programs. I also decided to use cassettes as an instrument. I bought a bunch of random cassettes in a charity shop and recorded a collage from them, I also modulated the pitch and speed when recording. Finally I layered both radio and cassette player in to one composition, creating a weird hectic scape, full of mysterious voices and decaying tapes.

Above is a small recording of the sketch I did when experimenting with the tape and radio. I thought the final result was extremely interesting, it was an atonal work that creates an anguished and chaotic aesthetic. But after listening to this recording I figured that it would be better if I spread the sound sources through time to make it more compatible with the game. If the music is slower and less evolving, the sounds of the radio will enter in a smoother manner, hinting better memories and thoughts. This idea of spreading more the sound objects came from a meeting of our collaboration group. I showed the recording to the guys and Hywel pointed out that it would be more effective if it was more passive and extended that chaotic. This way the gamer could navigate more freely through the VR game without being tormented by striking sound sources and radio recordings. I agreed with Hywel and went my way to use both the radio and the tape in a more time stretching manner. Also for the final project, I will place the music in a surround ambisonic manner with Envelop, this will add space and depth to the VR game.

When researching for conceptual ideas for The Phone Box project, I found this curious news about a phone box used as a grieving place in Japan. In a hill in Otsuchi a remote town in Japan, a white phone box was placed after the Fukushima disaster of 2011 with the purpose of becoming a place of solace for the survivors of the tragedy. The phone line does not actually work, it has a symbolical meaning. The visitors that are normally friends and family from the victims of the disaster, come to the ‘wind phone’ and use the phone to communicate with their passed loved ones, with the purpose of grieving and dealing with their loss. As our collaboration project deals directly with mental health issues and a phone box, I found this video extremely familiar to the concept of the project. Our phone box in the game is also a place designated to discuss and grieve unfortunate events that has happened, communicating you with old characters that relate to that past. In contrast with this case, our phone box has the capability of demonstrating how the trauma and problem can be worsen through the use of communication. This is as mentioned before is an attempt to de-taboo mental health problems.

Even though our game has a more extreme use than this case in real life, I found the ‘wind phone’ to be incredibly poetic and inspiring for my project. It has a massive mysticism aspect to the situation and a great connection with the past and memories. To translate this concept to our project, I thought of how could I incorporate the aspect of solace and grieving into the music. My initial ideas was to make the sound texture completely different from when the gamer is outside and inside of the phone box. This way I will give a character to the space and let know to the gamer that they are in a place of sensibility and introspection. As the game contains a great factor of memories and connection with the past, I thought of including some sort of window into the past through sound. The way I thought of achieving this was by including recordings of the radio, entering and leaving quite quickly in the soundscape, mimicking the nature of memories and thoughts.

As its my first time working in sound for video games, I explored the different softwares and mediums used in the industry with the purpose of getting a base knowledge of what tools are available. I researched into Unity, FMod, Envelop and the FB360 plug-in, all of these tools have surround audio elements that are quite useful for VR audio.

FB360 – is a collection of plug-ins created by facebook with the purpose of creating interactive spatial mixes for 360 sources. It compiles a set of filters, EQ’s, reverbs and spatializers with a straightforward display, towards placing sounds in a 360 field. FB360 can be added into effect chains and can be automated by the DAW, this is very effective towards designing sound for a video as it can be carefully manipulated to sync the visual. Unfortunately you cannot use FB360 directly towards video games, as it is not compatible withe a game engine. To use this sounds will have to be first designed in a DAW using the plug-in and then export it to another game engine.

FMod – is the middle point between a DAW and a video game engine. Audio files can be imported into the software and be edited down to be in the best form and format possible to be exported to a video game engine. In FMod sound libraries can be created where everything is clearly structured to be used in the engine, at the same time it contains audio effect and synthesis effects such as envelopes, reverbs, spatializers and equalisers in able to manipulate the sound sources and give them the character need for the video game. When the FMod project is finished it can be exported into video game specific formats that can later be easily opened in Unity.

Unity – is an actual video game engine, where multiple mediums such as scripts, visual design and audio, come together in order to consolidate a video game. Unity can be used to design 2D, 3D and VR video games. In regards of audio, sound can be placed within the game both as sound sources and music. A mixer interface is also available in order to mix and manipulate all the sounds of the game. Some effects are also available in this stage, to add last touches to the game and giving characters to such sounds.

Envelop – is a set of max for life immersive audio tools, containing panners, mixers and effects created with the purpose of integrating ambisonic sound to Ableton. At the same time the company Envelop promotes and sponsors listening spaces dedicated for ambisonic sound. As this multi-channel plug-in is an integration to a mainly stereo DAW, some sort of signal manipulation is needed to translate the channel information, this could be considered the only non straightforward thing about this tool.

In conclusion I will focus in only using Envelop, as I am an Ableton and Max user, it’s integration to my work flow would be the most compatible. I would love to learn how to use Unity and FMod in the future as they are industry standard tools, but as I’m pretty new to the audio for video games world I want to keep it in field of knowledge for this project, exploiting the tools I already know how to use in a medium that is new to me.

Even though Dan was in charge of doing the foley for the game, he need help from me and Hywel to record the foley in the studio. We came together one afternoon and recorded pretty much all the sounds we needed. Unfortunately the composition studio was booked when we where using the foley room, so we used a multi-track field recorder instead and a boom microphone to record everything. I operated the multi-tack, Dan operated the microphone and Hywel was the foley artist. As pretty much the video game is quite obscure and visually limited, there is no specific visual floor and clothes material, so we had to improvise how the clothes and floor would sound. After the session all our recording where edited to be one-shots, preparing the samples for the Unity project. Apart from the foley, we experimented with an old telephone microphone that Hywel had to record the dialogue. This microphone recreated the aesthetic of the telephone audio, but because it was a bit old it needed a powerful pre-amp to make the recordings loud enough, and at the end the result was too distorted to be used, but experimenting with the microphone was great fun and quite interesting; I had never in my life seen any microphone like that one.

For the collaboration unit, we where paired with the MA Game Design students to create the full sound design of their end of year project. The Phonebox – is the the title of their VR video game, a game that explores difficult mental health situations through a narrative in VR, aiming to exemplify these hard experiences and try to come up with new solutions and perspectives to mental health issues. In a way this game attempts to de-taboo mental health, bringing the topic to the clear and finding solutions.

The complete team consisted of MA Video Game students: Abhimanyu Chattopadhyay, Yantao Tang, Filip Norkowski and James Graithen. In the sound team: Daniel Pakdel, Hywel Pryer and me. When we met for the first time with the MA students we found out that they had already a clear idea of what sounds they needed, they even had already music for the game, limiting our tasks to diegetic sound and atmospheres. This was somewhat discouraging, it seemed that we where working for them instead than working in a collaboration. Even though of this we proceeded to outline a work plan and a spreadsheet to record and arrange the sounds they needed. As the video game is situated in a phone box, we decided to carefully choose and design the sounds to fit this space, for example we did field recording inside boxes around London to make it as real as possible. We compiled a complete library of the sounds they needed and handed it over for their deadline. As we didn’t had much creative opportunity in this part of the work, us the sound group decided to change as much as possible for our hand in, including our own music and our new more ‘experimental’ sounds. We divided the work in the following way, Hywel was in charge of recording dialogue and UI sounds, Daniel was going to do foley and atmospheres, and me the music and non-diegetic sounds.