January | 2016 | AlienDx98

Elite Dangerous:

A game with similar sounds to what I want is Elite Dangerous, a space adventure game. The video below plays the audio you would find in one of the space docking stations you can go in. The audio has quite a big echo to it as it is a big area and there is lots of places for the sound to bounce off. My audio loop will feel much more suspenseful and tense than this audio, but it is the same sort of space theme that I want to have in mine. The music is quite quiet and rather classical sounding, to make it sound peaceful. When ships are getting closer to their landing pads the reverberation becomes less wet and more dry making it clearer sounding and the sound of their engines increases drastically. With the announcer voice you can here that It has quite a large echo to it and is wet in the sense of reverb. Here is a list of the sounds that I could identify from the video:

Woman Announcer
Hangar Doors
Clanging Metal
Roaring Machinery
Steam bursting
Electric buzzing
Moving Vehicles (Trucks)
Beeping Machine
Echoing noise
Thrusters of ships

Dead Space 3:

Another game that has similar audio to what I want is Dead Space 3, the audio in this is much more suspenseful and claustrophobic which is closer to the atmosphere that I am looking for, to go in my audio loop. There is a lot of clanging metal, electrical and mechanical sounds, as well as gun firing and alien like noises to give it a slight horror like feeling. The background music is quite fast paced with a lot of loud bits, when you are in range of the monster creatures. It is much more slow paced and quiet when not near the creatures. This makes it feel much more suspenseful as you are unsure when something is going to jump scare you. When a creature is far away from Isaac the sounds that they are making are more washed out, so the reverb is more wet and the volume of the sound is lower to make the creatures sound more distant. This is the same for when say Isaac is getting closer to a machine or voice recording.

Alien Isolation:

A third game that has similar audio to what I want is Alien Isolation, the audio for this game is very suspenseful and nerve wracking. This is very close to the audio that I want in my audio loop. Lots of beeping and moving machines, metal clanging, vents opening, electrical sounds and the sounds of the aliens moving around the spaceship. The background music when you are walking around is very eerie and tense. When there is an alien nearby the music gets louder and has more bass to it. This helps to give the sense that your character is in some sort of peril. In this game I think that the sound distance is shown very clearly and helps to add a lot to the game. When the alien is in the vents you can very easily hear it moving closer and further away from the character with the reverb being very noticeable when the alien is changing its distance from Amanda. Also the volume difference is quite big when the alien is closer or more distant.

My Audio Loop:

For my game sound, I have decided to make it a futuristic, sci-fi, space opera theme. It will be suspenseful, tense and eerie, with a slight claustrophobic feel to it. But it will also be quite retro sounding. It will be set on an abandoned space station in deep space. Your ship has been badly damaged by raiders, you managed to escape by using your warp drive, but it drops you in deep space with only the abandoned space station in sight so you decide that you have had to go on to it get help or parts to fix your ship. There will be a lot of echoing and different reverbs depending where I wanted specific sound effects to come from. A lot of mechanical sound effects will be present; engine noises, electrical sparks, “whooshing” steam out of pipes, clanging metal, automatic doors (opening/closing), voice announcer (Robotic), things falling on floor.

Game Ambience Production Log