APOCALYPSE
I worked with Level Designer Frans Alexanderson using Unreal Engine 5, FMOD Studio, REAPER & Git Hub to integrate and create a full gameplay sound experience with inspiration from The last of us.
My responsibility was to create, integrate and program sounds and their functions, focusing especially on player emersion. I took ownership of all audio, from creation to the final in game experience.
Gameplay Walktrough
video coming soon
In Engine wind
I wanted wind and wind related spatialized sounds (like rustling trees or crashing waves) to dynamically match.
So I built a system for controlling two global FMOD wind parameters with seek speed to smoothen the value transitions.
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​​​Parameters:
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Wind_AMT for overall wind intensity and movement, slower seek speed
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Wind_Gust for a quick burst of extra wind, fast seek speed
video coming soon
The Process:
These blueprints generate random but controlled float value's for the parameters
1.
I created a proof of concept where the Wind_AMT parameter varied slightly from its previous value.
2.
​Then I refined it by adding randomised timing between changes, failsafe's and other details that felt needed for more realism. ​
3.
I moved to the next part and made Wind_Gust by going through the same process but tailored to the new context.
Making sure to test edit and iterate on the system accordingly throughout the process.
Footsteps & Interactions
Wet condition
Expanding on the water depth system, I wanted the character to sound wet after walking through water. I added a ''wet'' timer that starts when leaving the water and entering deeper water = longer “wet” duration. While ''wet'', FMOD adds wet sounds to the footsteps.
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The system is simple but full of potential. Wetness could be based on time spent in water, and depth could affect gear differently, like a backpack dripping or a weapon clogging at certain levels.
A feature I would like to add: a more dynamic fade-out for the wet footstep sounds based on how long the player stays wet.
Materials & Water depth
To manage workload for this project, we limited movement to walking, crouching (same sounds), and running, allowing me to focus on material variety. Footsteps use line traces to detect physics materials below the player on specific animation frames. For walking in water, it also adds depth detection based on water height vs the player’s feet, editing a FMOD parameter with different sounds and effects depending on depth.
Object sweetener's
Inspired by The Last of Us, I created a system where nearby objects react to the player. The lockers rattle when the player walks close by. This works by using invisible collision boxes around the player and lockers, when they overlap, there's a chance a rattle sound plays with each footstep. this could easily and effectively be expanded to other objects and sounds.
Sound Volumes & Mixing
This experience spans multiple environments, with the player moving through various houses and rooms of different sizes. with three outside areas: forest, beach, and shipyard.
Each area required distinct soundscapes and reverbs/echos, using Audio volumes and FMOD snapshots I can quickly add, iterate and test the mix of each gameplay aria as well as their transitions.
Objects & limiting active voice's
Rain is constant in the level, allowing for spatialized rain sounds on various materials which improves immersion and gives a strong contrast in feel between indoor and outdoor gameplay. This also meant that me and Frans Alexandersson needed to collaborate closely to balance level design decoration and audio workload.
Almost all ambiances are spatialised and placed in the world. This results in many overlapping sounds, especially all the different rain material sounds. Limiting active sounds is key to performance and staying within voice limits. I addressed this by stopping silent sounds, assigning appropriate priorities, and setting instance limits.
Traps can be shot to drop barrels on zombies. When activated, barrels become movable, with rain and rolling sounds that follow them. The rolling sound's volume and effects vary by velocity. An impact sound is also triggered when the barrel collides with the player or other objects.