John Lemon’s Haunted Jaunt (Creating Dynamic Audio Environmental Systems)
What is the dynamic Environmental System?
The purpose is to create a hyper-realistic horror experience in the game “John Lemon haunt”. Each room will explore micro mechanics hinting at the lives that lived there before, toy with the players’ feelings of safety, and react based on the character’s stress level.
I'd like to talk about how I used room portals, automated mix levels with RTPCs, and coded Scripts to impact the anxiety a player feels. Combining a sensation of hyper-realism and schizophrenia symptoms the goal is to dislodge the player's sense of reality while communicating the dangers one can experience in a haunted simulation.
For the creatives, think of how the system could be improved or be employed in your games. Whether you want to create zany, fun experiences for the player or communicate through audio the looming dread to occur in this specific room as opposed to the other
How does it work? - Ambience
Let’s start with the ambiance. The John Lemon game takes place in one static environment. So the goal is to breathe life into this static environment by creating a world with dimensions inside and out of the level. Similar to how a world exists both inside and outside of your bedroom. You can hear the clicking of each keystroke, the humming of your computer and lights, maybe even a pet inside your home! Simultaneously, you can hear bits of the outside world. Cars driving past, the wind blowing through trees, kids playing, birds chirping, and dogs barking. It sets the tone for a familiar and safe suburban setting. In the case of John Lemon, he’s not safe. Danger looms both inside the mansion and out. So how do we paint that picture? Let’s start with what we know about the setting based on what we can see in-game and what we can infer to gather what characters will play a role in building our ambiances.
It’s night.
Moonlight is shining through the windows so it must be a full moon.
There’s electricity due to the lights being lit, but they are flickering.
It must be somewhere on the electrical grid or have generators to run the electricity in the home.
The generator could be running low on power, the ghost could be absorbing the energy from the electricity,
The house is abandoned and unkept
No one is willing to go near it. Why?
There are supernatural events
Ghosts and gargoyles fill the halls of the mansion.
John Lemon’s Ambience Layers
This is the ambiance chart I created as a response to what I could see in-game. I wanted to set the mood and atmosphere to tell the following story. Storming weather and the sound of looming wolves howling to the moon are the reasons John Lemon sought shelter in a mansion no one is willing to go near. The supernatural events are powered by the electricity in the air and in the house with an audible eerie charge. This energy fills the Ghost with the power to manifest and haunt victims. To tie together the feeling of a night ambiance, I added nocturnal woodland creatures like crickets and owls responding in fear to the strikes of lightning. The owls, as shepherds of knowledge, know something is off. Rats seek shelter frantically when the thunder strikes. The plumbing system groans as it finds use for the first time in centuries. Centipedes crawl through the walls, waiting for their next meal.
How does it work? - Audio Busses & Mix Levels:
I found it important to have each layer of ambiance contain its own sonic identity and audio bus. This allowed me to control what’s being heard outside and inside with a higher degree of accuracy. So when entering rooms, you’ll hear the outer layers dampen, but while traveling the halls, you’ll hear more of the outer layers. The outer layers are fitted with a convolution reverb. The impulse for the convolution reverb was sampled in an open field to give the outer layer a realistic tonality to each creature. The halls were fitted with a chamber reverb to fill in lush and eerie spectrum. I wanted to keep dampening relativity low to keep a supernatural aura and balance immersion. In addition, each room is fitted with Wwise Room portals to improve audio occlusion and add a layer of realism. This way you can hear audio differently in a room based on your angle to the doorway. You’ll hear ghosts outside of your room differently if you’re centered in the room or hiding in a corner.
I implemented an ambient area script that would seamlessly transition ambiences between rooms and hallways to increase immersion for each room’s sonic identity. The script triggers RTPCs in order to fade the room ambience you were previously in as you transition through the doorway. Noises shouldn’t suddenly stop as you leave a room, rather, they fade as your distance increases from the source.
What does it bring to your audience?
In all, the use of dynamic environment busses can allow your games to have an added layer of depth when immersing or communicating with your players. Now that you've seen the system, with your game in mind, how do you imagine dynamic audio environments would elevate your player's experience? Tell me about your game and how dynamic audio environments can build an experience for your players. For example, by using triggers, room portals, and audio scripts you can transform the player experience in a game like league of legends. The jungle can have a different audio profile sending messages to any player entering the jungle. This would give junglers a sense of comfort in their native environment and a sonic texture to cue their jungle item passives are active. The same logic can be used on brushes as well to give that extra hint to let players know they are receiving the benefits of being in a brush.
What do you think?
