Over the last month I worked with the SFX asset sheet, that I had previously created a couple of months earlier and finished 70 SFX. Working on Sound files and creating ambient atmospheres (Caves, Forests, Palaces) is probably my favorite work among all the other stuff I do. I have no words for how relaxing it is to listen to different sounds of recorded thunderstorms and rain sound files and use them to piece together a coherent atmosphere for the game world.
I also fought a lot with myself about how to implement music during daytime when Jonah is traveling through different outdoor segments of the maze. I recorded several pieces of music on my pianos and wrote a couple of guitar underscores, but they would constantly battle with all ambient SFX and when I started working on the boon SFX it became obvious, that the gameworld needs silence more than anything else. I don't want to plaster music and sound everywhere and so I decided to give boons and gems individual notes played by orchestral chimes and crotales. They are all part of the same C#minor scale and every time when Jonah picks up an elemental a different note corresponding to its type is played. It sounds a little bit like wind-chimes .... very peaceful .... I like it much better this way. I will still use music inside the dharmapala cathedrals, but will refrain from doing so in any outdoor locations. This way all the sounds I worked on (frogs at night, insects by day, rivers, waterfalls, trees a.s.o.) can be heard and won't be buried underneath layers of score.
I keep listening a lot to Bon Iver these days. I used to listen to their songs a lot when I was studying in the Netherlands and I think I really should stop doing that, because even though this music is so heartbreakingly beautiful it sometimes makes me a bit depressed. But at least I'm making great progress on all fronts of my life at the moment. It's tough, but it's always tough when you're trying to do something big. Next month I will finish all boon SFX and UI SFX. I also hope to finish some dharmapala SFX and if I keep my pace up I will be able to finish the entire sound by Christmas including implementation. It will still be necessary to add more SFX later, since I hope to add more dharmapalas and enemies soon. But by that time I will at least have a playable coherent demo with sound, start menu, UI and music.
