Sounds for the game

[groteworld]

I've been thinking about this lately,

What is everyone's thoughts on sound effects for the game? Before I go as far as add sound functions, I want to get the community opinion.

[Continuities]

I'm not opposed to sound, per-say. Assuming it's good and unobtrusive. I'm undecided on whether or not it should be enabled by default.

[Geczy]

I say yes

[SimonDarksideJ]

Definitely but has to fit the theme of the game. Especially good as background, different for each scene and the areas when exploring

[groteworld]

After some deliberation, I believe "finding" sounds that match, blend, and are authentic to the theme of the game is not possible or easily done. I, instead, would purpose the creation of sounds by someone to ensure a uniform experience. In my head, it's "8-bit"-like or tinny (low resolution, low sound level, maybe metallic sounding)

I'd be interested to know other's thoughts to ensure we all have a similar theme in mind. I just felt this fit will with an low-res, ASCII game

[Continuities]

Lo-fi suits me just fine. Now, we just need to find a sound designer... =)

[eazellou]

I am a sound designer studying Performing Arts Technology at the University of Michigan, and am really interested in working on this project. Here is my soundcloud. I have been working on both traditional recordings and creating electronically based music and sounds, as well as sound effects for animation.

From my first run of the game and looking at your comments, I am imagining very subtle background sounds and maybe some event sounds for more significant happenings.

Please let me know if you are interested in working together!

[groteworld]

Please do! I would encourage you to try to be transparent in your work as possible by updating this thread with questions and sound clips. This way the community can continue feedback on the pieces. I'd hate for you to work hard on great sounds and have them not liked :)

Thank you in advanced, this is great news!!

[eazellou]

Great! This will be a fun project. :)

I'll be sure to update as I make new things so everyone can give feedback and help shape the final product. I'm finishing up some sound design for a friend's animation, but will start working on this this weekend.

[Geczy]

I can't wait to hear what the Performing Arts Technology has in store for this game :+1:

[Continuities]

Hey, that's awesome! I'm looking forward to hearing what you come up with.

[eazellou]

Hello everyone, Just wanted you to know I haven't skipped out on you. My grandfather died recently and his memorial service will be Saturday. I do have a couple of questions for you, however.

For the fire sound: A big part of the fire is that it gradually falls from blazing to almost out, and stoking the fire makes it burn again. Ideally the fire sound would react with these changes, so that it sounds less fiery when the flames are going down and builds up when the fire is stoked.

I can imagine accomplishing this in two ways.

1. I would create 3-4 different loopable samples of the fire at different levels, and the program will trigger them as the fire's strength changes. Essentially the fire would lower in steps. I'd make sure the files were similar enough that the switch wouldn't be jarring.
2. I create one longer sample which decays at a steady rate which matches with your timing for the fire dying out. It will play until the fire is stoked again, at which point the sample would start over at the beginning where the fire is strongest.

From my end either option is pretty similar work-wise. Method 1 would be a little more tricky, but not unduly so. Number 2 might sound slightly better, but not by too much. Would one of these approaches be easier to work into the game than the other?

[groteworld]

Since the fire (should be) constantly burning, maybe it would be better as a single-serving sound. When you perform the stoke fire action, a fire roar sound happens one time. It may make it not as obtrusive, but I'm one persons opinion, so I look forward to others thoughts.

[eazellou]

Are you imagining silence between the stoking of the fire? I was imagining a very low level "fire" crackle sound that sortof acts as a backdrop. This is an approach I hadn't thought of, I'd also like to hear others' thoughts.

[ajslater]

I think either approach might work. I think I lean towards silence between fire actions as it (to me) fits the starkness of the game better. A sufficiently innocuous fire sound could play continually while you're inside, though.

Maybe intermittent wind outside?

On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 4:48 PM, Emma Azelborn notifications@github.comwrote:

Are you imagining silence between the stoking of the fire? I was imagining a very low level "fire" crackle sound that sortof acts as a backdrop. This is an approach I hadn't thought of, I'd also like to hear others' thoughts.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/Continuities/adarkroom/issues/78#issuecomment-43831047 .

[Continuities]

I think either direction could work. If there's a persistent sound, it should only play while in the room, and should probably not play when the tab is out of focus.

WRT a long sound vs several: clean looping is actually a serious pain in HTML audio, so short loops should probably be avoided. We could easily define timestamps for each level of the fire in a longer sound and jump between them as necessary. This would reduce the number of HTTP requests too, which is good. Audio sprites ftw!

[Geczy]

A single fire sound, then when you stoke it, you play another sound that makes it roar louder for a second or two, then back to that single sound

This is my idea

[ElMesa]

I like the idea of the game having the choice of having sounds.

@Geczy approach seems simple and affordable.

@eazellou thank's for your interest and my deepest condolence about your grandfather decease.

I did not dive into the code, but maybe it's possible to attach music to internal game events. If so, the sounds could come in bundles with a file linking sound files to events to easily admit user made bundles interchangeable in a sort of "sound mod" like graphic tile sets can be interchanged in many roguelike's.

[groteworld]

I would love to hear an update, @eazellou, if there is one.

[eazellou]

I'm sorry I haven't responded for so long. Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to work on this project any longer. I really think that the style of adarkroom really lends itself to silence, it fits with the retro text-based game feel for there to be no sound effects in my opinion.

If you do decide that adding sound is the way to go, I hope you are able to find someone who shares the same vision for the game as you. To send an email to all of the Performing Arts Technology majors at Michigan, just email cpat.majors@umich.edu. There are a lot of talented people on that list, and maybe someone will be interested.

[AndySky21]

Hey there. Would you mind having sounds coming from an open source library? I doubt I can record them on my own, but I found something online and I could take it for me if you are interested. @Continuities, I know ADR is one long deafening moment of silence, but I like the original idea. Short sounds for commands (e.g. fire, traps, buildings), dungeon entrance, enemies appearance, maybe room/outside events, and possibly attacks.

[Continuities]

I'm not opposed to sound, so long as they're classy and optional.

[vankasteelj]

Here's a website grouping some sample and loops that could be used, http://www.universal-soundbank.com

[gitupofftheflooranddosomework]

Is this something that we want to do ?

[muuvmuuv]

You should have a look at games like "Don't Starve: Shipwrecked" and "Don't Starve: Pocket Edition", they bove has good sounds for its game

[orsi]

Hi all, late to the thread.

I've been working on implementing audio for the game at https://github.com/jorsi/adarkroom.

My plan is to have ambient background music for each area:

1. A Dark Room - ambience changes based on fire value
2. A Silent Forest - ambience changes based on number of huts (i.e. each title change)
3. A Dusty Path - one static song
4. World - one static song
5. Ship - one static song
6. Space - idea is to change backing music on each atmosphere change (possibly every other)
7. Ending
8. Each event, landmark, and encounter would have their own mini track.
9. Sound effects for all main buttions: build, craft, buy, gather wood, check traps, embark, etc.

So far I've programmed the majority of code I'll need to play the audio. Next is working on the actual sounds. You can run my repo now and see all the audio working in the proper places, but the audio itself is definitely not what I imagine --all the audio is currently random sfx/loops that I used as placeholders.

I don't think it should take too much longer to do the sound design. Will update as I go!

[orsi]

Trying to keep it lo-bit like Atari but with a modern twist. So far have rough ambience and sound effects up to and including the world screen.

Not sold on the village ambient tracks -- very much need to dial them back a lot. The room and path ambience I think is more what the overall vibe should be.

If anyone is still looking at this thread, would love to hear feedback. You can hear what's happening at https://jorsi.github.io/adarkroom/.

[SimonDarksideJ]

I think this will be awesome if it can be pulled off. Just tricky within the current JS framework.

[orsi]

I already have a js web audio version in. Needs some polish but it’s working fine enough now.

Just finished a bunch of melodies for room events and a lot up to the space scene.

[orsi]

@groteworld Any interest in this feature still? If not, would it be alright to if I could host a version of my own and call it A Dark and Quiet Room? :D

[ajslater]

jorsi this all pretty good. i think i agree about the village tracks and more ambient tracks.

[orsi]

All sound effects and music implemented in the game now. Audio engine has been polished as well.

There are handful of musical themes I'm looking to improve: https://github.com/jorsi/adarkroom/issues.

If anyone wants to go through the game easily to see all the sounds, you can open up the browser console and type Engine.enableGodMode() to open up all areas, have all stores, and high health/water. You'll need to wait until after the builder is warm enough for it to work properly.

https://jorsi.github.io/adarkroom/

[ajslater]

A) The sounds are great and add a lot of charm to the game.

I haven't played all the way through yet, but.

B) The 'beeping' during "A Raucous Village" makes me hit the mute button. Should probably replace that one.

[orsi]

Appreciate the feedback, the village themes have been some of the more difficult ambiences to get right. I'll take another shot at that one.

[orsi]

Realized chromes autoplay policy was preventing music starting without a gesture. Fixed and finished basically the audio I imagined for it.

[Continuities]

Just wanted to chime in and say that this sounds really great! We might want to consider stopping audio when the game isn't in focus so as not to bother people while they're idling. Then again, changes in sound could prompt people to tab back and look at the game. Thoughts?

On Wed, 10 Jun 2020 at 16:22, Jonathon Orsi notifications@github.com wrote:

Realized chromes autoplay policy was preventing music starting without a gesture. Fixed and finished basically the audio I imagined for it.

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/doublespeakgames/adarkroom/issues/78#issuecomment-642237063, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABFIQA5VULWV3PNTZPPMRZTRV7TSBANCNFSM4AN3PV3Q .

[orsi]

I think that would be reasonable. It would avoid people muting the tab and then wondering why there’s no audio when coming back to it as well.

[orsi]

Turns out there was a lingering error in Safari preventing audio playback. Fixed it and it should work in all browsers now.... hopefully :P

[esaruoho]

since sound now works as per @orsi 's work, can @groteworld close the ticket, please?