Starting that Journey...

29 January 2008, and it’s pitch week. That means buckle under the pressure of getting your ideas and projects in check to show off to peers and tutors alike, and in doing so allowing them to chip at your self-esteem by bitching your plans out to the point where they seem less than futile and more than destined to fail.

So yeah; it’s been a good day.

Not to mention the domestic issues that come with being a bi-polar (when your girlfriend lives over 300 miles away) as well as having family move back home that have been in India for a month. It’s a strange time, and to be quite honest, it’s a bit too much.

Not all is lost, however, as certain projects are coming to fruition already. My Entertainment Design class has seen me team up with three other students from 2nd year, namely Jonathon and Ryan, the artists, and Chris, our Games Production Management cohort. With concept design much out of the way, we’re down to business now, with our roles clearly set out for the year. As the artist whose concept we have modified and selected, Jonathon is our art lead, working on character and environment art, with Ryan heading up extra work and helping to get the art and animations on track. Chris is the documentation master, and as Dayna so succinctly put it, could be left in a room with nothing for a semester and still come out with something. This all leaves me quite happily to work steadily on audio for the game and, at week three, I’ve got four demo tracks for the game music, which have been fairly well received, and a few sound effects for background ambience created. Next step is to take the music design to stage two and weed out criticism, fix errors and get the tempo right for the gameplay.

I want the music in the game to reflect the environment. Not easy, seeing as the environment is set within a human body, though I have my ideas, keeping the feel of the sound design to be, and excuse the terminology here, somewhat ‘meaty’ and ‘thick’. Lots of bass and slow, rhythmic heart-beat-esque drum beats. And for next week, we’ve got to get the concept out of the sand pit and into the studio and get some proper production sorted for the BBC pitches on Monday. That that is going to be fun. [/sarcasm]

So that’s audio well and documented, though I still have to get a full list of components written out. All hail Excel Spreadsheets!

Updates on other projects to come…