Here is the new entry in Nordenfelt‘s development log. I’ve spent the last two weeks at the audio battle front. Finding the right sound effects and background music is not as easy as it … sounds …

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Explosion Sounds

As a followup to the new explosion graphics I’ve added some spicy blast effects. Some people complained about the old explosion sounds. No surprise, they were placeholders. The problem with placeholders is that when they are not ugly enough people will see (or hear) them as final. Therefore – as I wrote here – there won’t be any new stuff which is not meant to be final. Make a real job of it and come to an end.

Nordenfelt’s Soundtrack

Nordenfelt will get an epic, orchestral soundtrack. At the moment I have a couple of dozen tracks which may find their way into the game. They come from audio stock sites like www.premiumbeat.com or www.shockwave-sound.com. It’s easy to get preview tracks from these sites and test them right in the game. You may undervalue the interaction between background music and the game itself when you judge them separately. Music heavily influences the game’s atmosphere. So always test the music tracks while playing the game. If they don’t boost the feeling they are worthless.

Game Intro

While I was listening to some intro music candidates my mind already painted (or does a game dev brain render?) a sketch of the game intro itself. It was all about comic-like, steam-powered Star Wars scenes with much ado and whatnot. The usual flight of fancy when your brain skips all limits.

After all this simple screen is what reality dictated:

Reality is cruel, isn’t it?

What the heck, KISS!

Turrets

Last but not least: turrets now leave their pedestals when their heads explode.

In the near future I’ll contact some composers for an offer regarding the soundtrack. I’m wondering how much the whole audio stuff will cost. It’s good to have canned music as fail-safety. A dedicated soundtrack would be better though. It depends on the $$$, as usual.

Cheers,
Thomas