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Collaboration (VR)

Atmosphere Design

When I eventually got round to designing the atmospheres, I intended to create immersivity using the sound of howling wind. I found this changed the entire nature of the black space in the game, turning it into a more threatening and confusing place to be, echoing the mental state of the character. Keeping in line with the narrative of the game, the dialogue goes on to explain how the main characters loved one died because he drove into a storm and I thought recreating a storm like condition, would not only increase the feeling of isolation, but almost act as a foreshadow of what we are about to told, or rather a memory that the character cannot seem to escape from.

Inspired by the hand turned wind machines used by Ben Burtt in the animated film Wall.E I was tempted to create wind from foley somehow, but given the time constraint I had, and the potential inconsistencies in sound this method might produce, I decided to take more of a sound design within Ableton approach. Using a plugin called Audio Wind, I was able to fashion the sound of the wind and tailor it exactly how I wanted, giving it a howling/ whistling feel in order to enhance the eeriness of the game. I felt like, not much else was needed in the parts of the game that involve the black space, as I wanted to avoid making the sonic environment too busy, as I was aware that Inaki’s music would also have to overlay my contribution.

Sticking to the original recordings of the phone booth I had taken before the first crit, I chopped and crossfaded sections of it that I deemed suitable for contextualising the non-diegetic sounds that surrounded the Phone-booth. In order to maintain continuity however, I found myself sound designing the sound of a car, automating the volume, filter and reverb of the designed sound in order to introduce distance, albeit manually, as well as to glue to the ambience together.

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