recording the "game over" sound effects for Action Button Entertainment's "ZIGGURAT" for iOS
31hello there!
this is Action Button Entertainment Founder and Creative Director tim rogers, here.
"ZIGGURAT" for iOS is coming soon. most of the work is, as they say, "in the bag".
however, ever since the very first build, testers have been asking me, "why does it say 'scream sound effect goes here' on the screen after i die?"
that is because i have been slacking off on my only artistic duty on this project: The Scream Sound Effect.
so today i went down to Large Prime Numbers' studio in oakland, california, to finally see about capturing the various sounds we're going to need to make the "game over" sequence really exciting.
all of the sounds and music in "ziggurat" for iOS were generated using nintendo famicom chip emulators. however, for the "game over" screen(s), to lend the game something of the "mixed media" feel i am so fond of in games like "killer 7", i decided to use a guitar and some drums. we'll put some neat effects on these sounds to make them not QUITE as jarring, though we of course want them to be a LITTLE jarring. these are the sounds that represent the death of the player character, after all . . . and, effectively, of the end of the last heroic life-form in the whole darn universe.
and you're going to be game-overing a LOT. so . . . why not make the sounds neat, at least?
anyway! here are some videos taken while i recorded the sounds today. you'll see me floundering through multiple variations of each sound. eventually these will be edited in such a way that today's hour of work (plus the many hours it'll take to arrange these sounds) amounts to literally two total seconds of in-game sound. though hey! that's two seconds of sound you'll be hearing many, many times, as this game destroys you again and again.
the centerpiece, of course, is the "scream" sound effect -- the death of the player. for that, i used a fender mustang guitar, a zvex fuzz factory, a boss DD-20 digital delay, an electro-harmonix POG2 polyphonic octave generator . . . and a huge god darned SUNN O))) amp.