I am ready to share my first progress update on my UE5 game “Tourist Trap” a first person retro sci-fi wave shooter that I’ve been developing since June of 2024. There’s a lot more to cover beyond this introduction video or it would have ended up being two hours long so stay tuned as I continue to share features and audio design tidbits from this project.
Huge massive thanks to my brother for helping me with some of the 3D modeling on this project!
Introducing Impactizer! A Snap Heap preset that turns any audio signal into a stylized impact. Available now for free/donations if you’re feeling generous! natemaudio.gumroad.com/l/Impactizer
I had a ton of fun designing some presets for Kilohearts latest PhasePlant content bank SFX Pro 9000. Check it out here: SFX Pro 9000
I’ve been hard at work on my latest Unreal Engine 5 project. A first person shooter that mechanically takes inspiration from horde shooters such as Call of Duty Zombies, while stylistically shoots for retro Sci-Fi with a bit of a western Route 66 twist. There’s a lot to show and the project is still a work in progress! Check back as I continue to show off the features and progress especially on the audio design front. For now I hope you enjoy this video of the first 13 minutes of gameplay!
Had a lot of fun making a quick “Lightsaber” like patch in Serum today.
Had some fun designing charging Ki Blast sounds today!
Special thanks to the VFX artist that made this awesome vid! You can find more from them here: https://www.artstation.com/eurekathurston
In this video I am using my Zeppelin Cortado attached to a mason jar as a live input into my DAW and then running it through some various processing chains. I love being able to "perform" sounds, I think the slight imperfections that come from human input can lead to character and happy accidents.
Thanks for watching!
Zeppelin Cortado Contact Mic: https://zeppelindesignlabs.com/product/cortado-mkiii-contact-microphone/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwvb-zBhCmARIsAAfUI2uGdbzaILF1k2Qo_qJE9bm5LUP1SpAjJYV4_bMqJJLxZGz_UtAW68caAqZTEALw_wcB
This week I spent some time recording some various small motors using LOM’s Elektrouši. Electromagnetic fields are all around us and silent to the naked ear, using an electromagnetic sensor we can hear these fields and even use them for some creative sound design.
Elektrouši: https://store.lom.audio/collections/elektrosluch-accessories/products/elektrousi?variant=4542167089184
This week I wanted to share another demonstration of some of the features I have been adding to my Unreal Engine 5 project. My recent focus has been on enemy AI behaviors as well as beginning to implement more audio events for testing. It’s been a ton of fun and I will be sharing a more detailed deep dive soon, but for now I hope you enjoy this short video demonstration. This is just another small teaser, there’s a lot more in the project I haven’t shown yet, stay tuned!
I’m excited to announce a blog series of demonstrations and tutorials focused on Unreal Engine game design and audio implementation!
I like to think of myself as game developer who specializes in audio. I believe that learning as much as you can about every discipline of game design makes you a better sound designer. I’ve been building a first person project in Unreal Engine 5, and I am excited to start giving a small glimpse into some of the features and systems. There’s a lot to go over, so I am going to do some deeper dives slowly over time.
Recently, I spent some time experimenting with AI behavior trees and building a custom dialogue management blueprint that allows quick and easy set up of conversations with NPC’s, as well as an option to interact with an in game shop.
To start I built a friendly NPC AI. Depending on which booleans you enable, the unique instance of the NPC has 4 behavior tree modes:
- Wander within a set range
- See and follow the player
-Stop moving to talk to the player when within range
-“Chat” or allow the player to shop when the interact button is pressed.
Next, building upon my existing checkpoint and objective system I set up a conversation blueprint. If the conversation boolean is enabled on the NPC blueprint when the player enters the interaction collider volume and presses “Interact” the NPC blueprint will then check if the player is within the conversation manager volume and grab the corresponding array of dialogue lines.
Once the array of dialogue lines has reached its end, or the player walks away from the NPC’s interaction volume, the conversation widget closes, and the player regains full control of the first person character. If the “Gives Objective” boolean is checked on the NPC, the conversation blueprint also sets a new objective for the player at the end of the conversation.
If the “Is Merchant” boolean is checked on the NPC, the interact button will pull up a shop widget where the player can purchase a set array of items or upgrades.
You can also set the NPC’s name, which is then grabbed by the on screen widgets.
At the moment the game only uses temp test sounds, but over the weekend I was approved for a full WWise license for the project, which releases me from the pesky 200 sound limit.
This week I am going to add the ability to play a unique voice line that corresponds to the dialogue text.
If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed. Much more to come!
This week I spent some time experimenting with Elektrouši, which are a type of recording device that allows us to hear electromagentic signals in everyday household objects. It’s pretty fun stuff to mess around with.
This week I have been doodling on some scenes from Tron Legacy here and there. Love the style of this movie and after a recent re-watch I noticed a few scenes that would be really fun to redesign. More to come soon!