Research Into the Music and Sounds

In this blog post I will research into the music and sound effects needed for our rally car game.

I started my research by listening to the soundtrack to Sega Rally Championship and studying how it's constructed. Understandable this is our game and we don't want a complete copy of the music, the only copy would be the Sega Rally's theme tune which I plan to edit and put our own voice and lyrics over, but having something that sounds or can represent the music to Sega Rally would be brilliant for our game.

Desert Replay music from Sega Rally Championship: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJxHEgBRqhM

Outcome from music: The music is terribly cheesy, funky and upbeat, it makes the player feel good. Personally I don't see how this music reflects rally, but knowing that this is Sega and the fact the game was made in the 90's explains a lot. The music really helps reflect its time period with its funky feel good music which was around more in the 90's and late 80's.

Conditioned Reflex (Desert) music from Sega Rally Championship: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vcKFwTg8Go

Outcome from music: Japanese rock music is used to create a high pulsing racing feel to the gameplay. The music feels and sounds again very 90's and 80's with it's use of a cheesy synthesizers for leads and guitar riffs and solos to bring out that high energy racing feel to the game.

Power games (Menu Music) from Sega Rally Championship: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0xMiY6mYyk

Outcome from music: A very awesome slapstick bass tune, helps provides a great upbeat feel to the games interface. You know by listening to the music that this is a fun game that is most likely going to provide some funky tunes within it's game, which it does. This is the same feel I want to deliver within our game.

Overall Outcome from research done

From doing the research into how the music is structured and used within the game, really helps me gain a much better understanding in how to approach my music. I will take into account a lot of the music style and sounds used in the game and hopefully make some interesting and cheesy music that would be perfect for our game.

What we want for our game

We want the music to sound very cheesy and 90's/80's using the same sounding instruments and possibly tunes, we don't want a complete copy, we would like our own little taste added to the game, so it's up to me to create and present these idea's and feelings to the music of our game. The main focus is to make something that sounds somewhat retro and nostalgic.

How it's gonna be done

I can achieve these sounds and possibly music by using a range of plugins and apple loops within logic studios, but most of the work will be done by using my Yamaha DJX keyboard with it's many vintage sounds and loops. I can piece all the tunes together to make an very 80's and 90's sounding music.

 (Example of the Yamaha DJX keyboard)

Sound Effects Research

Now knowing how the music is going to sound and work, I need to work out how to construct the sound effects for our game.

The sound effects is something that needs to be suitable for a rally car game that's designed to be cheesy and very unrealistic and none serious. By listening to the sound effects from the game Sega Rally Championship, I can hear all the sounds required for the game.

Sega Rally gameplay footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk9IrR0EHPk

Outcome from watching and listening to the music:

The sounds are very basic, and sound as if they are being generated by a computer sound engine, as the cars engine/gears sounds like a hover craft. There are basic sound effects used within this game from the bumps which sound like someone tapping a car bonnet to the skids on the ground which sound pretty weak. The co-driver sounds like a cheesy American commentator which provides that very possibly over the top American and 90's feel to the game, which personally makes the game funny.

The list below are the sound effects that I feel needs to be used within our game.

Car Engine: The engine sound effects needed, from neutral gear up to the highest gear.
- Car revving (No gear)
- First gear
- Third gear
- Top gear

Could be achieved by possibly just getting one engine sound effect and pitch shifting it up, just like Sega Rally does, it will help represent that same cheesy hover craft sound effect that Sega Rally Championship has.

Gears: Sound of gears changing with clunk sound effect as the gear affects the car.

User Interface Buttons: These sound effects are used when players are selecting and pressing buttons on screen. These sound effects need to represent an in game menu screen sound similar to an 1990’s game interface.
- Selecting Sound effect
- Movement when highlighting an object

Crowd Cheer: A crowd cheering sound effect helps provide that live event feel to the players as they race through the track.
- Crowd cheering
- Crowd reaction to crash

Wheel Skid on dirt: wheel dragging against dirt with possible skid sound effects for extra texture and feel to the sound effect.

Car Bump: When the car within the game comes into contact with light objects such as a barrier, needs a light bump sound like in Sega Rally.

Car Collusion: For when the car collides into a hard object. Using a hard metal smash and braking sound provides a good range of texture which helps to create the feeling of a damaging collision to the car.

Voice Overs: A male voice actor provides instructions on upcoming corners. The voice actor will also provide the count down and splash screen user interface instructions. The male voice has to sound like and reflect Sega rally’s male voice actor of a cheesy American commentator. I'm possibly considering using Matt to do the voice, as he can do some great voice overs that reflect the sound we want.

Summary
From doing this research I feel more confident in making the correct sounds for our game. Having a list like this helps me to keep on track and on schedule when creating the music for our game, and the many possible ways in which I can approach the music and sound effects.

Third Week Of Final Major Project

Monday 22^nd April

Today Tim and me started working on the level design, (Racing track) we both researched into existing racetracks in games and in real life to understand how a racetrack is structured and made challenging while at the same time fun. Examining existing game racetracks such as crash team racing, Sega Rally 3 and Virtual racer I found a very good range of different designs within racetracks. Taking parts that we liked from each racetrack and drawing them out as thumbnail sketches on paper, allowed us to explore different design ideas. Tim and me would both draw 3 to 5 thumbnail sketch’s and choose the ones we felt would work in our game, then combined the top chosen ones together to make a new unique track design that we both could be happy with.  

Example of Tim thumbnail sketches (Track number two was chosen)

Example of my thumbnail sketches (Track Number 4 was chosen)

Final result (Combining Tim's track number 2 and my track number 4 together)

We will use this track design and take it into Photoshop to make a better mockup of the sketch.

Thursday 24^th April 

Today I just got on with drawing a better and neater version of our racetrack within Photoshop, while Matt cracked on to getting our rally car working and programmed into Unity. A pretty layback day, but much discussion was taken place about next weeks task of creating the in game assets needed and how the track parts would be constructed, this will be a different task and with other models happening at the same time, getting correct time management is important. 

From this week I feel we have been able to keep on track and schedule. Being able to see our track design roughly drawn out, really gave me a great feeling in progress within the team. I love the track design, and I feel it will display a great range of corners and driving difficulty for the player to drive around in. I will be starting my audio research for the sound effects and music for our game very soon, this will allow me gain a better understanding into how the music and sound will work within our game.

Concept Art Blog Post

All My Concept Art

Within this blog post I have uploaded all the concept art that I have drawn and created for our game. 

Vehicle concept art

Here is a digital drawing of our rally car. I changed it's colour, and some of it's design to suit my sponsor "Orange Power". The sponsor logo's are not applied as the logos need to be created by Tim. I love the colour work on my drawing, I feel when it comes to editing the models texture file, I will possibly use this colour scheme.

This is my sponsor "Fairy Power" colour scheme, again the logo's have been not applied but the design for the car is there. I wanted colours that represented a car the girls would enjoy to drive as I didn't want to alienate anyone from playing our game. who said rally was only for men?


The next section of this blog is concept art drawn within class, I'm not a very good artist and my drawings are a bit rough, but they sum up my idea's and plans in which we want to create for our game.

This concept art are the idea's we have of how the cardboard cutouts might look, from it's textures on the front of the cardboard to the side and back of the cardboard cutouts. We really want the players to see that the models are just simple rubbish cardboard cutouts.

This is some concept art of how the crowd models might look, from the characters stances and poses, to the models structure and form. You can see that I'm trying to show how the models might look as cardboard cutouts and where they might be placed. 

 

This is just a concept drawing of how the track design and layout might look within the game. This concept just helps show how and where certain models and objects might go within out game.

This is a concept of how the track would look from the side, displaying the hills which separate the track from the barriers within our game, and where some of the models and objects could be placed around the track. 

This is some concept art of how the checkpoints/start line and finish line points will look, and how they might work/be placed, within the game. I got my idea to use a crisscrossed staging bars from music and gig stadiums, these bars are strong and recognisable. 

This is some concept art of how the banner on the side of the track, where it would be advertising one of our silly advert ideas within our game. I was trying to display the banner at an angle so it's nice and clear to the players within the car.

Concept art of the front or drivers view of the race track. This concept shows how the hills work in separating the track from the barriers and where some of the objects and models can be placed.

This is my credit card sketches of my car sponsor logo for Fairy Power, which will be placed onto my girly racing car. The sketch on the bottom left, is the sketch I want to be expanded into a better drawing/sponsor logo, this will be created by Tim. I think it's design is simple and effective, and really sends that feminine message through the use of the butterfly.

This is my credit card sketch of my sponsor logo's for Orange Power. I tried to display a range of different designs that my sponsor could be displayed in. I really liked the design in the bottom middle, as it's is simple and can work as a small logo on a car. I would that concept to be expanded and made into a much higher detailed sponsor logo.

Outcome:
Creating concept art really helps structure and show our idea's in which we have for our game, without the concept art, our idea's are unclear and could easily be misinterpreted if there is no plan or form to follow. I really like my digital drawings as they display a much higher detail of concept for my car designs, but my other paper based drawings that basically are rough, aren't pretty to look at like my digital, but they do however show my thoughts into how and what would work within our game.

Second Week of Final Major Project

Monday 15^th April .

Today was pretty straight forward as we just cracked on with getting our game design document up to a decent standard. Working together as a group to fill out the document allowed us to pretty much finish the game design document to a certain extent.

Matt and me then moved our attention to finding a decent rally car model that could be used within our game. Tim created a Gantt chart for us to follow which will be used to keep us on track to make our game on time and to a good standard. Matt and me looked around Turbosquid.com and found a Subaru Rally car that we all liked; unfortunately that car had multiply problems, and was falsely advertised. After dealing with this problem, and discarding the rubbish Subaru model, we then looked elsewhere on the website and found a Lancer WRC car, which was perfect for our game and for us to manipulate to out needs.

 Our group gantt chart (Click Image to enlarge)

My individual schedule

Our Lancer WRC 

(This was bought by the team, we didn't make it or claim to have made it, but we do own the rights to this model) 

Wednesday 17^th April.

This week was the week we started doing concept art for our game, this is something we all set ourselves to do. After checking through the game design document to make sure everything was good to go, we then went away to do concept art. I went home and started drawing concept art for our game. My first piece of concept art was my sponsor rally car “Orange Power". I will be drawing out concept art in class, which will show some of the ideas I have of how our game will look and is laid out within the game, including some object designs.

My First piece of concept art

A blog post will be made of all the concept art i've created. 

From this week, I feel the progress has been great, we have a car model ready to go, allowing Matt to play around with the car and learn how to use it to our advantage. Having the car model also means we can do concept art around the cars design, from sponsors for the car, to it's colour scheme. Getting the concept art done will allow us to see how our game will look and will be constructed within the game.

Unity Audio Research

Audio within unity 3D

What I need to research?

I need to find out how I can make the music play within the game, for example when the game starts, the in game music needs to play.  I also need to work out how I can make trigger points; these trigger points activate sound effects when the vehicle comes into contact with the trigger point’s radius.

How I’m going to research what I need to know?

The apple store provides/sells a tutorial video called game audio 102. This software can teach me everything I may need to know for our game.

If the information provided doesn’t make sense or isn’t what I’m looking for, I’ll resort to surfing the Internet for the answers.

Starting my research.

I first researched into how I could just simply import audio within Unity. Simply learning how to do this just helps me gain an understanding into how unity’s layout, controls and options area’s work.

On the inspector bar on the right of unity you can find audio listener. The audio listener works as the same functions as your ears does, but within a 3D space. Only one listener is required and is normally attached to an empty play object.

I first need to add an audio source; this serves as the source of sound so unity knows which sound you want to use within a 3D space. Once I have selected the audio I want to play/use, I then have to apply it to an object, preferably an empty object that cannot be seen within the game when in play mode. Once applied, I can then go into audio source under components and select the audio clip I want to use. There I choose the following options, (Play awake and Loop). Within the audio source I can choose a range of options that can manipulate the audio from pitch to distance etc. It is in here that I will be spending most of my time learning about audio in Unity. 

 (Example of the layout within unity) 

(Example of audio source control area)

How to make the music play over in unity

I need to know how to make the music play (Loop) within the game, this is so I can make the in game music play, while the rally game starts.

To allow music to play within the game, all I have to do is apply sound to the controller. The controller is the object that the player moves and controls within the game, in our case it would be the car, so I would apply our music in the same way I would when applying sound to any object. This will allow the music to play when the game starts over and over (because loop is selected) till the game is over. (When the controller will deactivate).

(Example of Controller within unity)

How to set up triggers in unity

Having triggers allows my voiceovers to come into play for up coming corners in the game. I will place my triggers before a corner or event, so that the player can hear the voice over, alerting them in time for whatever is about to happen.

To do this I’m going to have to use collision within Unity, this is when two objects intersect with each other, allowing the game engine to know that two objects with collision scripting are both programmed to have an event, in our case a sound effect.

I need to create an object that has a collider; these are located in the component menu under physics. When a collider is set to an object, I have to make sure the trigger’s option is ticked to insure the colliders can work, this allows me to interact with any game object within unity that also has a collider set to it.

Before it can actually work, I will have to before anything use scripting within unity, this is something I didn’t think I had to do when working with sound in unity, but scripting audio is an important part of game engines. I will have to create a Java script within unity to allow me to script/code what I need.

var Sound :AudioClip;

function OnTriggerEnter() {

audio.PlayOneShot(Sound) ;
}

This code tells the object to play the sound that I want when the controller comes into contact with my objects radius. In this code the audio.PlayOneShot(Sound) ; is set to play an audio file named (sound), this is where I would type the actual audio files name that I want to play within the trigger, for example, Easy right voice over etc. Now I have scripted the code, all that is left to do is to copy and paste the script into the object I wish to have a trigger point, this will allow the controller when it comes into contact with my objects collider, to play a sound.

I must remember that the code audio.PlayOneShot requires a source. So I must place my audio file whatever that is, over the variable in my script and not the audio source for this to work properly. 

 (Example of a trigger point and it's radius)

(Please not all images in this research document are taken from audio 102 video tutorial)

What I’ve learned and gained

Having never used Unity before, I was pretty worried about doing audio within a game engine, but from just simply exploring and learning how unity layout works and is structured can help me understand the format in which unity works. From watching audio 102 tutorials, I feel I’ve gained a great understanding into how audio can work within Unity; of course I would learn much more when the time comes for me to work in unity for our game. But for now from the research done, I feel I am confident to say that I know what I’m doing when it comes to Unity’s audio controls.

First week of Finaly Major Project

Monday 8th April

 

We were presented with the actual brief for our final major project today, having already some idea of what the work is and the learning out comes, it was a simple case of questioning our lecture Rob whether or not our project was possible. Having already done research into our project, with all the possibilities noted, we as a group were confident that out project was doable. Rob explained to us that we would need to wright out a chart for which weeks we would perform certain tasks, from week one to ten. It took us a good while to make the chart, as it really made us think about how much time on certain area’s of the project would needed to be taken in order to get the game we wanted to create up and running. Once we had finally completed the chart, we were even more convinced that our project was possible just by viewing the workload written down on paper.

Wednesday 10th April

 

Going through what needed to be done and handed in at the end of our module, our course leader, Marz, explained to us the first thing we really needed to create and finish was a game design document, this document explains how we are going to make the game, our idea’s, our views, and our process.  We were given a good game design document template to work with on Moodle, but after spending an hour on the document we quickly realised that the document didn’t cover a lot of what we wanted to talk about, and certain sections of the document were very small and not very detailed. We spent some time researching other game design documents so we can find and collect a better framework that worked better for us within the document. This took a very long time, and presented new question to the document, which really challenged our ideas. Unfortunately we only got to complete half the document, we will continue and complete the document as soon as possible as time is not on our side, the sooner we can get working on the game, the sooner we can get it up to the standard we want.

Marz our course leader offered to make us a cabinet and buy our steering wheel for our game, which is great news for us, as we all thought we’d have to go find and buy the right equipment for the job. Having the support such as this really makes us more ambitious to make our game as good as we can make it. 

From this week myself and the team mates are feeling very confident and excited by our idea's. I feel having the support from our lectures and visually seeing how our project would be constructed, allows us to feel safe within conducting this work. I look forward to finishing off the GDD, this will really help show off our idea's 

Arcade Games and Racing Game Research

Arcade Racing Games Research

Here in this blog, I present my research that I have conducted to understanding rally games and arcade rally games. It's clear from my team that our biggest influence for our racing car game is Sega Rally and Outrun.

Knowing that our project is on an Arcade racing game, it's good to understand how arcade racing games work and feel, including racing games in general. 

Understanding Sega and their games

Sega have been making game consoles and publishing home console games since 1983, and already have a phew game titles under their belt, such as Sonic The Hedgehog, Alex Kidd, and Virtual fighter etc. Being a fan of Sega and owning/collecting much of Sega's work I feel I know already a lot about Sega's designs and style. Apart from having their own game console brand in the 80's and 90's they have and still do, a large range of arcade games, some of the biggest being Sega Rally and House of the dead etc.

Sega no longer make consoles anymore but they still publish their own games through today's modern game consoles such as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. 

Sega Rally Championship

First published in 1994 and has since gone onto make four other titles, one of which I own on my PlayStation (Sega Rally Online Arcade)

Sega Rally 1995 Championship Arcade Machine, player could race against each other

Sega Rally Championship gameplay 

Sega Rally Championship has very unrealistic physics and some basic rally tracks, understandably for it's time this was great. However for it's time It does have some of the most important and still used designs that make a rally racing game today, It has all the main function that a rally game needs, rally cars, rally tracks, and basic car physics, and even a good interface. 

The same could be said for Sega Rally Online Arcade which still follows the same theme and style as it's predecessors, again unrealistic physics, and somewhat basic and short rally tracks. However because it follows the same style and theme you know it's Sega, and for anyone who knows the old Sega Rally games will know and love the new rally games by Sega because of it nostalgic designs, still being used.

Outrun

A classic arcade racing game released in 1986 that pretty much had everything, it was a commercial success, becoming one of the best-selling video games of its time. Outrun has a brilliant combination within its game with a in car radio allowing you to choose your own soundtrack to drive to, and driving routes which you can take at the end of each track for a different terrain or driving experience. The whole game is designed with a luxury and relaxation theme within it's game.

OutRun Arcade Machine (it even moved)

Outrun 2 Gameplay 

Outrun 2 brought an even better and up to date version of outrun, still using all of the original classic features of the first game. Outrun gameplay is very unrealistic which makes the game fun and suitable for an arcade racing game. Playing the game on your own or with friends is really enjoyable no matter which way you play the game. Outrun single player mode doesn't just have a race mode, there are other game modes a player can choose from. Heart attack mode is when that player has to perform certain tasks for the characters (The Driver) girlfriend, impress her and she'll reward you with a score which is all added up at the end of the game to make an overall score. Time attack mode is when players have to race against a ghost car, which is someone that holds the current fasted time within the game.

From personally playing a wide range of Sega games, Sega often uses and tries to style itself around what is popular at the time. e.g. movies, music, and fashion. Many of the popular games have been designed around popular icons, e.g. AfterBurner was designed around the time of the block buster film Top Gun. Sega still feels today to me very 90's, though that isn't a bad thing, it helps me to understand their style and design with the added nostalgia theme within their games.

Rally and Racing Console Games

It's a good idea to understand how today's car games work and perform just as much as arcade games do. Understanding the difference in style and theme within these games help sum up the appealing factors to a racing game from a home console game to an arcade game.

Today's popular rally and racing games such as Dirt 3 WRC 3, Gran Turismo, and Need For Speed Most Wanted, are somewhat American, or in some cases to serious. Some of these games focus on the realistic driving feel within a car and where as other games don't. Car physics, graphics and car models are key to today modern rally car games. Owning these games I know from experience that these games focus on the driving side of the game, where your skills as a driver are put to the test.

WRC 3 is the more professional and traditional style of rally car racing, this game follows the rules of rally and designs it's courses around some of the hardest rally tracks in the world. WRC has a wide range of rally tracks on different terrains such as concrete, snow, sand, and mud which all put your driving skills to the test with it realistic physics. WRC is less fun to play with your friends or have a laugh with, because of it's serious approach within the game.

Dirt 3 is very American and less about Rally and more about racing and pulling off stunts. With the focus of the game on Ken Block an American rally car driver, you have to get sponsors and perform certain tasks that aren't always racing to achieve your medals to progress within the game. This game does not follow the rules of rally, and the same could be said about it's physics. Dirt has taken a different approach, however the game is a lot more fun because of it's less seriousness approach to rally/racing. The game is great to play online and with friends, and compared to games like WRC 3 is a big difference in gameplay.

Gran Turismo 5 is popular for it's collection in very luxurious cars and in game graphics. The game focuses on pure driving skills with realistic physics and car handling as the main focus. People who love driving will enjoy this game, however it's racing side can be seen as boring to some. The game realistic physics and style of gameplay, is boring to someone that just wants to race and drive fast. From personal experience this game is very boring if you just want to have a laugh with some friends, this game is way to serious and is for enthusiastic drivers.

Need For Speed Most Wanted is an open world racing video game, the game has won several awards including the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards for best driving game. The game has great graphics and as the reward says a great driving game. This game understands players/drivers that want to get going fast, and the pure need for speed, instead of just a typical racing game. Need For Speed Most Wanted takes on a story within it's game, and has impressive car physics, maybe not as realistic as games like Gran Turismo, but the balance within Need For Speed is just right that make the game fun for everyone.

Arcade Racing Games Designs and functions

Visiting my local arcade, I was able to view and understand how arcade racing games are designed and presented. I played Sega Rally 3 and Outrun 2 with an open mind to understand it's theme and in game design.

How it feels: When playing Sega Rally 3, the game physics on the car, are at a good balance that make it acceptable for a car racing game, it's not realistic and true physics but it's good enough to make the car move and feel believable. Sega Rally 3 has good graphics with a nice usage of colours to help bring out that Sega arcade like feel. From it's colours you can accept that it's not realistic, or the fact the game is trying to be realistic in anyway.
Sega Rally 3 steering wheel and pedals all helped to make me feel immersed in the game, as if I was actually driving within the game. The steering wheel and dual shock controls and resistance to my driving, makes the game even more enjoyable and fun to play with these added extra challenges to my driving.

OutRun 2 feels like a high speed game, where drifting plays a big part of driving. The physics are so unrealistic it's acceptable because of the amount of fun the drifting provides to the player within the game. There is no steering wheel dual shock meaning steering the car is easy, but I feel if there was dual shock, there would of been more of a challenge and a sense of resistance to my steering as I drift around corners. 

How it looks: 
Both games have a nice use of colours and sound to draw the players towards the arcade machine. The artwork used around the arcade machine are impressive and really makes the game look appealing. The steering wheel and chair design all represent a racing cars interior to make the player feel as if there sitting in the car they are driving on screen, it is these themes that all help the player be immersed within the game, along with the sounds and gameplay.

Both games follow a theme, Outrun follows that European and tropical holiday theme of being in the sun all glammer, where Sega Rally uses an artistic and images and slides through out it's interface to make the game look somewhat professional

How it plays: As I have already pointed out both games feel very unrealistic with the games physics controls providing difficult turns and grip within some area's of the game. However it is these features that makes the game fun and challenging to the player.

Arcade Music:
Both games soundtracks never really sound suitable to be used in an arcade racing or rally game compared to home console games like WRC 3 and Dirt which use suitable and high pulsing driving music for the players. Sega Rally 3 and Outrun 2 use cheesy 80 and 90's style music which in someway helps show to the players, that the racing game they're are playing is something not serious  and only a bit of fun.

Outcome from research:
From doing this research into arcade games, I feel I have a good understanding into how arcade games are structure and compiled together to create a unique and fun experience for the player. From this research I've collected, I can see the many ways in which arcade games design and display themselves to their audience, which is all designed to invite the player in and to play. Its important to understand how and why arcades are so loved and enjoyed. I feel I managed to understand how arcade games use a range of creativity in their gameplay and game design to bring out the best game that they can place within a machine.

Outside meet up

Thursday 4th April 

Today we arranged a meet up to discuss our game idea and to finalise it down to a final agreement for the style, theme, and gameplay of our arcade racing game.

Explaining the possibilities after some research had been done, we all agreed that making a racing game in ten weeks would be possible.

Now knowing this, we agreed to make an arcade rally game in low polys (Similar graphics as PlayStation one) with one racetrack, and one rally car.

We also agreed upon our team name and the name of our game. We are now called JÄGA Productions and our game is called JÄGA Rally. The idea behind our name is the play on and to sound like Sega.