Here is a breakdown of some of my audio work on FleshBound. Scroll down to see them all or click a button to jump to a specific section.
Enemy Death Sound Player Hookshot Player Footsteps Music System SoundtrackENEMY DEATH SOUND
For the enemy death sound, I created a system to ensure the sound had variety and would not trigger identical sounds during gameplay.
Firstly, I determined what kind of sound I wanted the enemies to make when they are killed by the player. The game is brightly coloured and very in-your-face, and so I wanted to support that vibe with a rich sound.
The main enemy (shown above) is round, fleshy, dies in one hit from the player’s barbed wire hookshot, and explodes with blood.
I broke down death into a series of actions with their own accompanying layers.
Layer 1: Wet Slap. The barbed wire making initial contact with the enemy.
Layer 2: Impact. A traditional, thud impact to add some low end and help communicate to the player you are hitting an enemy.
Layer 3: Squelch. The barbed wire piercing the enemy.
Layer 4: Pop. The sound of a balloon popping to help sell the idea of a round squishy thing exploding.
Layer 5: Splash. The aftermath, blood spray settling on adjacent surfaces.
I sourced some appropriate samples from Splice, compiled them into Reaper and adjusted the length, start time, volume and fade in for each of the samples to suit my needs. The Pop and Impact didn’t really need much variety as they are there to provide a foundational punch. The other layers I had three or four samples to ensure each death sounded sufficiently unique, whilst avoiding ending up with drastically different death sounds that could cause confusion.
I solo’d one sample per layer to mimic how the layers would be implemented in-engine, to simulate the randomisation and check that things were working whilst I was still in the DAW.
Below is a video of my Reaper project.
Once I was happy with the sounds I exported them individually as WAVs and imported them into Unreal 5.
Implementing in Unreal 5
I made a new MetaSound Source, created Wave Players for each layer, and put sounds in arrays that would be pulled from at random each time the MetaSound is played. For the Impact layer I added a random float value between 0 and 3 and connected it to the Pitch Shift section of the Wave Player just to add a bit of variety. The Wave Players outputted into a Stereo Mixer where I could fine-tune the gain values further, and then into a final Stereo Mixer where I could quickly adjust the overall volume. Below is a video of the MetaSound in action.
PLAYER HOOKSHOT
The player character in FleshBound has a hookshot-type device made of barbed wire that shoots out the palm of their hand. Like with the enemy death sound, I broke the action down into several categories (Impact, Tear, Rip, Bone, Whip, Metal, Whistle) to make the overall sound. Below is a video of my Reaper project.
I had a few alternative samples for some core sounds, which I implemented into a MetaSound using a random array, and the remaining sounds had some slight randomisation on the pitch just to help prevent things sounding too repetitive. The video below shows the Barbed Wire Hookshot MetaSound in Unreal.
PLAYER FOOTSTEPS
As the player character is a fleshy half-demon running around inside a gigantic creature, I really wanted to sell the idea of a meaty, wet, squishy environment. Each player comprise of 3 layers; a traditional dull footstep, a splashy wet footstep, and a gory squish noise.
As the sound would be played very frequently I made sure to have a large number of samples for each category, and trimmed them in Reaper so that any random combination would still come out tight.
Below is a video of the Player Footsteps MetaSound in Unreal.
MUSIC SYSTEM
For the music player, I wanted to create a system that would seamlessly increase and decrease in intensity depending on the section of the level and current gameplay.
I first made a crossfader MetaSound Source with an Input named Intensity, which has a float range between 0 and 7. The Out value is pulled out 7 times and the values get subtracted by 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 respectively. The floats are then each clamped between 0 and 1 and used to determine the gain levels for 7 Wave Players. Essentially, the system fades in each Wave Player as the Intensity increases. You can see a video below of the crossfader MetaSound.
This MetaSound Source was then placed inside another MetaSound Source, and the audio assets were added. The music was created using Reaper, and I exported the track as WAV files for each layer I wanted to introduce.
I then created a blueprint that would change the float value of the Intensity variable in the music player, and placed triggers in various locations around the levels to raise and lower the intensity where required.
Below is a video demonstrating how varying the Intensity affects the music in the Music Player MetaSound.
SOUNDTRACK
Title Screen Music
There is a pulsing low bass note to convey a feeling of dread, and in general the aim was to create tension and set the tone for the game without immediately tiring out the listener.
Level Music
This music was designed to match the frenetic energy of the gameplay and art style. The music was created in Reaper and imported into Unreal as stems (as per the above Music System section). I tried to ensure there was a different rhythm and vibe at different intensity levels, as well as have the track still sound cohesive when all stems were active.
Boss Music
This track was written, recorded, and mixed in about 2 hours on the afternoon the final build was due. There were other higher priority tasks I had to work on first, and initially the boss fight would have had the usual level music. When I realised I had a small window of time left, the allure of a unique boss fight theme was just too much! Furthermore, the stress and tension I felt when writing and recording the guitars was a perfect match for the intended emotion in the game.
There are essentially only two sections to the track; the first part the rhythm guitars are rising up four notes repeatedly, with a harmonised lead guitar section repeating and climbing in pitch. It then transitions to the second part where we drop down in pitch and chug on a low G. As such, the music complements the gameplay for the boss fight, which is all about rising and falling.
End Screen Music
This is basically just the Title Screen Music reversed, which was a quick way of having something unique for the end screen too. As the ending of the game is narratively ambiguous, I thought it would be good to keep the tone of the music unsettling.