For this game sound build, we designed four rooms with a total of 20 key passage sound factors and five endings with different sound designs, as well as other sounds that embellish the rooms and ambient sounds.

All the sounds we recorded in the studio and me at home.

In Studio：

Example of my recording process at home：

All recorded sound involves a lot of editing, whether it’s in the studio or at home or in the past when I’ve recorded my own sounds, it all goes through the iZopote Rx for audio noise reduction, then into Pro Tools for editing and processing with EQ, and then finally into Wwise for integration and processing.

• Hamster Footsteps

The footsteps were recorded on two different materials – wooden floor and tile floor, each with six different tones and walking patterns to achieve a different sense of hearing and increase the vividness of the game.
During the recording process, we struggled with what objects to use to simulate the hamster’s footsteps, and finally found that the touch of a finger and the sound of a finger best matched the hamster’s soft, small-contact paws.

• Hamster Calls

To add to the player’s interest in controlling the hamster, I recorded a series of hamster calls using a human voice and set them to play randomly when the hamster hit the wall in each room.

Hamster jumping sounds

In the game modelling build, the optional sound elements in each room are required for the player to jump to higher platforms in order to hear them, and we used bouncy plastic to simulate the jumping sound.

• • Key sound elements in each room

  Baby Room

  1. Pig Purse
  2. Toy Car
  3. Toy Dog
  4. Sprung
  5. Wooden Horse         Correct sound：Toy Car

  Kitchen

  1. Boiler
  2. Bowl
  3. Chopsticks
  4. Fork
  5. Pot                                  Correct sound：Bowl

  Restroom

  1. Shower
  2. Sprayer
  3. Toilet Flush
  4. Towel Wringing
  5. Water Dropping        Correct sound：Shower

  Studio

  1. Host
  2. Speaker
  3. Light
  4. Outlet
  5. Phone                           Correct sound：Light

• • Ambient Sound and Decoration Sound

• Decorative sounds

In Kitchen, I set up a radio that automatically triggers a sound to play when the player enters the room, and for the sounds inside I used two uncopyrighted sounds: weather forecast and Music. these two sounds were made to look like worn out radios playing in order to create ambience. The reason for using these two sounds is to have a professional weather announcer announcing the weather, and a background music to simulate the fading in and out of the music on the radio.

 

（Screenshots of the radio in the game）

Copyright Source：

Weather forecast：Dave’s Weather Forecast by Beetlemuse — https://freesound.org/s/620358/ — License: Creative Commons 0

Music：💐 Positive Instrumental Rock Music (For Videos) – “Every Day 80’s” by Wayne John Bradley 🇦🇺

brand：Breaking Copyright

address：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4Ko5BBk3W4

• Sound building in Wwise

1.Building sounds for each sound room object

In addition to placing each sound in an event in Wwise, the sound elements are placed in a component in Unity.
In the third room, the Restroom, an Auxiliary Bus was added to Wwise to control the reverb in the Restroom, adding reverb to all the sound elements in the room to change the style of the room.

At the same time, from the third room onwards, the sounding method of all the objects changed from touching by the player-controlled hamster to proximity sounding (close to big and far away from small), which made it more difficult to play the game. Attenuation was used in Wwise to adjust the decay curve.

2. Ambient sound build

We placed the four audio for the ambient sound in Wwise and used in Unity by covering the entire room with a large cube and then making it invisible. Add AKTriggerEnter and AKTriggerExit from AKEvent to the cube to start and end the ambient sounds.

Apr 25, 2024

Wwise section/sound section:
1) The sound part in the bathroom should have reverb, so that it is in line with reality, and will be improved later.

2) According to the hamster’s natural habit of travelling at night, all the scenes are set at night, the ambient sound at night is relatively quiet, add the ambient sound at a later stage to create a sense of real atmosphere.

(3) The lack of voice guidance or text prompts leads to players not understanding the game through the mechanism, and will be added later prompts or prompts text.

(4) The main character hamster lacks other sound effects except footsteps, and some hamster sounds can be added later to increase the playability.

（Above is a hamster call that our group imitated earlier using a human voice.）

(5) In addition to the main items in the room sound effects, the lack of other unrelated to the passage of the content of the sound, but can create an atmosphere, the follow-up can be added to the decorative sounds, such as the radio playing music to create an atmosphere.

Liyuan Wang

Apr 19, 2024

After a couple of weeks of Unity model building, we started Foley based on the sounds in the game.We’ll be focusing mainly on the sounds about the hamster’s footsteps, as well as specific sounds in each room.

Foley list：

1) Hamster walking sound (Wooden floor, Tile)

2) Hamster mouth or nose sound (Wooden floor, Tile)

3) Trojan horse

4) Spring head

5) Toy train (toy car)

6) Sand hammer

7) Pot

8) Bowl

9) Wooden chopsticks banging

10) Toy duck

11) toy dog

12) Shower sound

13) Toilet flushing

14) Faucet dripping

15) Water basin

16) Current sounds (expected to be recorded using an electro magnetic microphone): computer mainframe, computer speakers, desk lamp, small fridge, plugs.

Mar 26, 2024

According to the style of the game we set up, the sound made by the footsteps when the player controls the movement of the hamster should also be the sound made by the paws of the real animal, but in reality, due to the small size of the hamster, it is difficult for us to substantively hear the sound of the hamster’s travelling in general, and we can refer to the sound part of it based on the game in which the main character is also a hamster. Because of the length of the problem, I have made some editing, please ignore the music and system beeps in it, focus on the sound of the hamster walking in it.

In our own game, we will design the hamster’s travelling sound to be a combination of the animal’s paws touching the ground and cartoon sound effects.

Hamster Playground clip：https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RMio_Wcx3PT-uA7R66BcaahVX2cokrKV/view?usp=sharing

Original video：

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Db28qe1IN8

When Stopping:

During play, the player may put the protagonist into a kind of standby state by thinking about how to solve puzzles or suddenly stop controlling the protagonist for something else, at which time the protagonist hamster can shift to a stopped state, followed by a dozing sound.

Feb 13, 2024

Produce a first-person perspective healing breakthrough game, players will control a cute little hamster, through the elaborate design of sound effects, guide the player into the game world, and become the key to solving puzzles and exploration. It brings players a relaxing and enjoyable experience during the gameplay. Through beautiful scenes, soothing music, and simple and enjoyable mechanics of interacting with the environment, players will feel a comfortable and healing atmosphere.

Reasons for motivation:
1) We are a team of people who are interested in games and want to make a sound-driven game of our own.
2) In a fast-paced life, people are busy day in and day out with daily chores, studies and work. We don’t pay attention to the sounds that surround us, the little things that make up our lives, but because of our busyness, we lose sight of how to appreciate the beauty of life. We hope that people will be healed by the lovely game world while playing this game, and that they will also discover the beauty of the subtle sounds in their daily lives.

Goals achieved in the game:
1) Enhance the player’s auditory perception and problem solving ability: We hope to enhance the player’s auditory perception and problem solving ability by relying on auditory perception to solve the puzzles and problems in the game.
(2) Provide a pleasurable and relaxing gaming experience: We hope that players will feel pleasurable and relaxed in the game, escaping from the fast-paced real life and immersing themselves in the healing game world. In the process of playing, players can discover the beauty of sounds that are not easy to detect in life.

Applicable playing crowd:
1) For busy working people who need a way to relax, reduce stress and escape the fast pace of real life.
2) Players who enjoy solving puzzles and exploring: those who like to challenge their intellect, solve puzzles, explore hidden content, or reach the full element of a collection, and who want to find novelty and excitement in a game.
3) Players interested in artistry and musicality: those who appreciate art and music and enjoy exploring new ideas and art forms, and who want to experience unique music, sound design, and visuals in their games.

What makes this project different:
1) The use of sound as the main cue is relatively unique in the gaming world. While most games focus on visual elements, we designed a game that guides the player through sound design and interaction to provide a new gaming experience.
2) Emphasis on exploration and discovery, allowing players to solve puzzles and discover hidden content by listening to sounds and observing the environment, which is different from traditional linear breakout games.

How to evaluate the project:
1) Invite teachers and classmates to play the game to collect user feedback and player satisfaction survey.
2) Ensure the stability of the game to avoid bugs, crashes and other problems.

Feb 13, 2024