Audio For Games Evaluation

This module was aimed at creating, editing and implementing audio for games. We were tasked with creating audio for our UDK levels and editing it to fit the theme of the levels. Then we had to place the audio around our levels, and using the sound cue editors and effects within UDK, create atmosphere to our game level.

With this project, one of the highlights for me was learning how to edit audio. This was completely new concept for me, as I have never touched on anything like this before. I found using Adobe Audition to be easy and effective, and I really enjoyed the teaching method used in our lessons. Once I had learnt how to edit audio, I found it particularly easy to get things sounding how they wanted. I found it particularly easy to mould abstract sounds into sounds that I wanted. Once in UDK I felt equally as competent. I found it easy to place audio, and modify settings such as the attenuation. I didn't really encounter any issues whilst building a sound cue.

Like with every project, there were issues. One such issue was with placing a sound cue on a trigger or object via kismet. Whilst linking the sound to the trigger, the sound would play once you walked through the trigger. However, none of the attenuation settings that were applied to the sound cue would have any effect.  This is something that I feel needed to be expanded on during our lectures.

Another issue I had during the project was allocating time to edit the audio. I recorded enough sounds to go in my level; however I didn’t edit or even use some. I think this was due to the fact that my attention was focused on other projects, and as a result, I didn’t have as much edited audio as I would have like.

The last issue with my project was when I came to placing the sounds within UDK. Placing and positioning the sounds was fine, however when it came to figuring out the volumes of everything. For example, I have a radio model in the scene that has a trigger to play music. Where the model is positioned is near some other triggers that are linked to sounds. If you end up hitting one of these triggers whilst playing the radio, the sounds meld into a mess, because of the volume levels. I couldn’t figure out volumes for each item.

Overall, I feel that the audio did the job. Whilst playing through my level I did get the effect of being in a mine shaft. I feel though that some of the effects could have been tweaked slightly to sound better. For instance, the falling rock sound sounded a bit more like fireworks than falling rocks. I think the project could have benefited from being a couple of weeks longer, allowing me to tweak and maybe even edit the audio some more. If I were to do this project again, the main thing that I would change is the amount of focus I gave this module.