Hi Dark, Okay, you have a point that we audio game developers could do more to custom create our own sounds, but unfortunately it requires a creativity of a different sort. Something like breaking an onion to make it sound like a cracking bone just is not something that would occur to someone like me. Although, I suppose learning how to do things like that might just require practice and suggestions. However, having the know-how to make sound effects isn't enough. If I want top studio quality sounds then I am going to have to pay for a high quality microphone and probably get something professional like Soundforge for editing. That's certainly doable, but not a small investment by any means.
As far as voices for games goes I guess it all depends on if the developer is concerned about amateur, semi-professional, or professional voice talent. As for myself I prefer to hire someone for a game from voices.com because I am likely to get semi-professional talent for a reasonable price, and I don't have to go through a bunch of amateurs who may or may not have the right kind of recording equipment. A more important reason is simply that I've already tried three times to hire a female from the VI community to do Angela Carter in Mysteries of the Ancients and in each and every single case the voice actress baled on me part way through production. So I pretty much said, screw it." >From now on I am going to take money from sales and spend somewhere between $100 and %$500 and hire an actress with a contract to do the voice overs for my games because I am likely to get exactly what I want with decent recordings from someone who knows what they are doing rather than picking someone at random and asking them to try out for the part. As far as Phillip's new Elias Engine it is not a music creator. Its a mixing engine that allows a game developer to set triggers to fade in certain music tracks, fade them out, or switch musical scores based on the triggers in the game. However, it is absolutely useless unless a developer has a composer compose and create the music tracks for the game. Hiring a top notch music composer costs big bucks. Cheers! On 10/6/13, dark <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Tom. > > To be honest, the problem does not just seem lack of finances. AFter all, > indi developers, while not having the cash for huge, fullmotion 3D graphics > > have created some amazingly atmospheric and workable games, (just go check > out the charts on a site like gamehippo and you'll see what I mean). The > problem seems more one of the limitations of audio. > > If your an indi developer and you want a wall dripping blood in your game, > well you find a pixel artist to draw you one, then animate it, ----- indeed > > many indi companies are a pixel artist plus a coder. > > With the sort of animation software freely available to handle sprites, it's > > quite possible to get a game that looks as good as anything produced in the > > mainstream 10 years ago, and of course since your artist can just draw you > stuff from scratch, well you pretty much have no content limits. > > Want a slavering monster? fine! want a wall dripping blood? also fine! want > > an undead zombie cammel spitting clouds of poisonous gas, ---- well that > might take a little creative drawing, but still the right person and the > right animation software and there you go! > > This is just not possible in audio simply because you can't create sound > effects from scratch. > > However one thing I've always wondered is why don't audio sound designers, > instead of perchicing expensive libraries turn to the sorts of techniques > people like the Bbc used to use 50 or 60 years ago. > > For example, you want a sticky sound of footstpes in blood? Well if you > can't find an expensive library, why not just fill a small bole with mud, > position your mike (probably in a waterproof container), next to it and > dabble your hand forceably up and down. > > Since the vast majority of noises the human ear detects are essentially > identified more by context than by absolute, instant identification such as > > images, then the context will fill in the blanks, ---- I know some devs have > > done this, such as Ryan strunk and his use of splitting raw onion to > simulate bone cracks. > > Lastly, regarding actors, well I've heard far too much good quality internet > > indi produced audio drama to convince me that you need to pay massive > prices, not to mention having met several amazing ameter actors myself, ---- > > heck, I'll admit I'm myself working on a voice acting project at the moment, > > (though admitedly it's not precisely for an audio game). > > If a person's acting skills aren't up to the task, well that is why you hold > > auditions, and also your responsability as director, ---- heck I learnt more > > about acting myself by stage directors just telling me "I want it done like > > that" before I even had one class in performance, and even though I have > studdied performance a little, I'd still considder myself primarily a > singer. That however doesn't stop me voice acting. > > While I am quite aware just how expensive things like sound libraries are > (I've checked myself), at the same time, since there is no way in Hell an > audio game developer is ever going to get their hands on a free million or > so for development we, and that's as much the community as the developers > should really start thinking a little more creatively, --- -and not just > with writing code. > > As I said, I've voice acted myself and would be happy to do it again. I also > > wouldn't mind doing monster or animal sfx. > > While I don't personally have skills in sound editing or really any > recording devices that would do well with anything bar voice, such is not > true of others, look at all the topics in the offtopic room of > audiogames.net about sound editing and sound creation. > > So if we have some people who act, and some people who sound edit and some > people who write code, ---- well isn't it a little stupid not! to make use > of all of these people's tallents? > > And lastly it goes without saying that tools like Philip's new music creator > > will be great aides to anyone in such endeavours. > > I know this point has been made before, but sometimes I just feel a little > frustrated with a discussion yet again ending with "if we only had the cash > > and there's nothing we can do about it" > > Well we're not going to get the cash, but maybe we, as a community could! do > > something about it. > > All the best, > > Dark. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Thomas Ward" <[email protected]> > To: "Gamers Discussion list" <[email protected]> > Sent: Sunday, October 06, 2013 3:01 PM > Subject: Re: [Audyssey] More Halloween type games. > > >> Hi Dark, >> >> Very true. I've been thinking of some horror type games for a long >> time, perhaps something like Silent Hill, but I don't have the >> finances to create a truly horrifying audio experience. Just something >> as changing the sounds of the footsteps from a slosh to a sticky slush >> probably would cost more than I have to spend. Then I'd ave to have >> the dialog that has the character identifying the substance as blood. >> On top of that then add in the musical score and its beyond the budget >> of a blind audio game developer. >> >> All I can say is we could probably do a lot with audio as you said, >> but we need a bigger budget to start with. Plus we need a bigger >> market to finance such games. There is a reason audio games seem >> cheaply made, and that is because there is not much money to be had >> from creating audio games. No money means no big budget horror >> thrillers like Silent Hill for the blind. >> >> Cheers! >> >> > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > [email protected]. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to [email protected]. > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. 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