Area Design III | 11.29.09

Building 101 - Area Design Part 3 PART 2 RECAP In our last entry, we took the time to define the area and broke it down based on the four corner rule. That is, to offer the player something to do in all four corners of our area. This is so the player doesn't feel they're wasting their time exploring what we've created and to offer an event of some kind to keep the player interested. "Not every corner needs to POP out at the player but it should offer something. Even the most basic text display describing a strange looking tree or finding an empty bottle floating in the swamp creates area depth. All that's been done so far is the creation and layout of the area, which consists of two hills, one in the bottom left corner and the other in the top right corner. The rest of the area is split up between land and water. We've also determined that the player will transition to the hill in the bottom left corner of the area. They'd be coming here because of rumors they heard in the village close by of people coming into the swamp to hunt for a rare fish not returning. Some speak of finding villagers, friends and family members turned to stone." Finally, we've defined the area and what we're going to offer the player to do and find while exploring it. NOTE: No lighting or placeables have been placed in the area at this point. CREATING AN ACOUSTIC SYMPHONY Sound is very important and should always be made available when creating an area. An area that has enough placed sound pieces and area background sounds can go without music, creating a different type of atmosphere for the player. Sounds that play at specific hours are a huge bonus to adding a little extra that the player may not have heard during their first visit simply because they were not in the area during those specific hours. An Owl that hoots every 30 seconds during the night is one sad and desperate Owl. What female is going to respond back to a guy begging for a mate all the time? Wolves, Dogs, Cats, etc., fall under this rule. Continuous sounds are those that always generate sound. Waterfalls, rushing rives, windmills, etc., would fall under this rule. NOTE: Try to avoid using the "Plays from a random position each time it is played" option in the POSITIONING TAB of the sound. The main reason for this is it can cause a noticeable hiccup when the player enters the area. Each time the sound is played, the engine needs to determine from what random location within the specified Volume Distance it will fire from. It will then determine how near that sound is from the player, which then needs to determine the volume of the sound before it fires. "Plays from a specific position" is always your best option. SOUND PLACEMENT So what does this area consist of? Swamp like sounds of course. The majority of what you see in the screenshot above is that of water sounds. Know that every sound placed in the area is set to "Plays from a specific position" to avoid the random hiccup that can be generated, as noted above. When placing sound, think of what you want the player to be able to hear in that part of the area. In the case of water sounds, they're placed along the edge of the water where it meets land and a few in the middle of the water where the player can walk through. So here's the full area breakdown for sound, which only consists of ambient sound. No music is available in this particular area. Area Properties Wind Forest [Area Properties - Ambient Sound, Day] Wind Forest [Area Properties - Ambient Sound, Night] Forest [Area Properties - Environmental Audio Effects] Placeable Sounds Water Pool Small (34) [Area Location: Varies] - Plays from a specific position. - 15.0 Volume Distance. - Play at all times. - Seamlessly looping play style. Water Pool Splashes (4) [Area Location: Random] - Plays from a specific position. - 25.0 Volume Distance. - Play at all times. - Repeating play style. - Random play order. - 30.0 second interval between splash sounds. Fly (11) [Area Location: Random] - Plays from a specific position. - 5.0 Volume Distance. - Play during the day. - Repeating play style. - Sequential play order. - 11.0 second interval between fly buzzing sounds. Thunder Claps Far (1) [Area Location: Heard Area Wide] - Plays everywhere in area. - Play during specific hours [AM: 1, 4, 7, 10 PM: 12, 3, 6, 8, 9] - Repeating play style. - Random play order. - 60.0 second interval between fly buzzing sounds. Swamp Sounds Day (1) [Area Location: Heard Area Wide] - Plays everywhere in area. - Play during the day. - Seamlessly looping play style. Swamp Sounds Night (1) [Area Location: Heard Area Wide] - Plays everywhere in area. - Play during the night. - Seamlessly looping play style. Rock Crumbles (1) [Area Location: 4] - Plays from a specific position. - 10.0 Volume Distance. - Play at all times. - Repeating play style. - Random play order. - 32.0 second interval between rock crumble sounds. Ship Creaks (1) [Area Location: 4] - Plays from a specific position. - 10.0 Volume Distance. - Play at all times. - Repeating play style. - Random play order. - 35.0 second interval between ship creak sounds. Wooden Beam Creaks (1) [Area Location: 4] - Plays from a specific position. - 10.0 Volume Distance. - Play at all times. - Repeating play style. - Random play order. - 12.0 second interval between ship creak sounds. BRINGING IT TOGETHER The next steps we'll be covering is placeables and lighting.