Blogs - VexAudio

As you may or may not know, the current game I'm working on (Sirius Online) made it to the top 100 for "Indie of the year". We really appreciate the fan support and our passion for the game drives us to continue working our butts off to bring you guys a game you deserve! Support is what keeps us going and let's us know we are doing something for somebody. It's always a huge plus.

As far as audio goes, we'll be implementing some robo/AI/tech voice overs into the character creation screen, for things like class select and what not.

I know I haven't been to active lately with the blogs, but they've always been on my mind. I appreciate every who takes the time to read them. Please follow me and Sirius Online for updates.

Lately I've been a little busy working on a few projects. I'm also getting back into song writing. I'm teaming up with a guitarist/friend of mine to record a new acoustic song I wrote. Though this has nothing to do with gaming and my work on Sirius Online I feel like a little music on the side never hurts. I may however, bring this guy in for some guitar recordings to be used on future Sirius Online soundtracks. He has a strong background in music and theory so it's incredibly easy to work with him.

I will have so much audio to work on as soon as docking, walking on stations, and more dialogue is introduced in Sirius. The waiting is driving me mad :)

So the Saturday Update Program ended up becoming the Sunday Update Program for last weekend. A lot was included in the the video. Now we can see the NPC ships AI come to life, and follow commands like "engaging player" and "moving to gate".

There is also a three minute spot where I quickly go over a few sections of the theme song for Sirius Online named Empires Rising. You can view the video here. There are a few examples of the Jump gate sound I made in the video.

here's what's up at the Sirius Online Audio Department. I've been given the task to create ambient themes for each planet in our solar system, so I've decided to split the work amongst all of the "sound guys". I look at ambient sound as an entity between sfx and music, so I figured it would be a nice project for the others to participate in. I've already gotten back a few prototypes and I'm happy with the work.

I can't wait for walking in stations to be implemented into the game. That of course means more audio and more fun!

On a side note, I've been learning Fmod and Wwise. Really nice programs. I think If I can master them I'll be pretty useful in the audio world. I'm getting together with a friend on Thursday to try to do some stuff with the Unity engine in conjunction with either Fmod or Wwise. That should give me some nice basic experience. It would be nice to get some expert opinions on the two programs. I'm guessing Wwise is a more popular amongst the big time devs.

I just got back from my mini vacation in Germany. Had a nice week visiting my parents. I made some time to stop by a nice audio megastore and picked up a portable recorder. The Zoom H4n to be precise. I still need some time before I can give an honest critic, but so far its a very nice addition to my arsenal. I've already used it to record some sounds that I need for Sirius Online.

I spent an hour scavenging through a small barn behind my parents house for some things to record. I ended up punching a metal shelve rack a few times and recorded some intense stuff. I'll probably use it for a layer in the ship metal-on-metal collision impact noise, otherwise it sounds great by itself and can be used in the future for an old metal gate being slammed shut.

Its very difficult to make audio for a game that takes place in space. Everyone knows that there is no sound in space (no means for sound to travel), so everything I create needs to convince the listener otherwise. Its fun because I have a lot of freedom over my sound, but at the same time I need to create things that people can recognize and relate to.

I'll give you a quick scenario. System jump gates. These gates work by building up a form of energy to a point just before overload. Then the energy gets released while thrusting the player way beyond light speed. Given this very basic description, just about anyone can create a scene in their mind of what this thing should sound like. My job is to realize your idea and try to stay within the threshold of human imagination. The jump gate sound I created contains no recorded sounds and uses only synthesis. I found this to be easier, less time consuming, and a higher quality approach in this case.

I will do my best this week to catch up to the team and implement all of our new audio within the game before the release of our next SUP (Saturday Update Program). For those of you who aren't familiar with SUP, its basically a video update with commentary showing off new progress of our game. We reveal as much as possible to keep the community interested in our project but we don't spoil everything, so expect surprises in future demos and pre-beta releases!

So It's been a while since my last post. I'm still in Germany sorting out a few things unrelated to audio. I'm still able to work on sound design for Sirius Online, and a few important things will get done before next update. A lot is going on right now outside of the audio realm of Sirius Online so be sure to check it out! Things are really starting to look great!

So I'll be enjoying my weekend in Germany! Looking forward to visiting old friends. I'm submitting the rest of my finished work to Dex this evening to be implemented into Sirius Online for the Saturday video update. Be sure to check that out on the Sirius Online page on Saturday. Lots of things have improved since the last video update we did.

As for audio. I may have time to record a bit while I'm in Germany, but that's not my top priority. I will however, make it a point to stop by an audio equipment megastore and maybe pick up a few new toys!

(sidenote: I hate how the delete button next to blog edit is placed. I keep accidentally clicking it. This time it actually deleted my blog post.. but when I try to repost, it says an entry with that name already exists.)

Lots of good audio work has been getting done for Sirius Online. We are preparing and polishing up as much as possible. Many new sounds will be introduced including the System Jump Gates. Dex has been incredibly busy between implementing audio and new graphics. I don't want to give anymore spoilers before our next "video update", Which brings me to my next topic...

Every Saturday Dex will be releasing a commentary video featuring the other developers. Remember to track Sirius Online: Empires Rising so you'll be up to date with our progress, and remember to check back on Saturday!

I have 5 minutes to type this before the morning ends, so i'll keep it short and simple.

As you can see, I uploaded the actual final version of Empires Rising on my profile (theme song for the game Sirius Online). I am also thinking about making a video showing a bit of sound design I did for the game menu sound effects. I'm not sure whether I'll do a tutorial or just a preview video showcasing the sounds.

I just thought I'd share that with you all. Have a nice day!

The song Is finished! Finally... I spent all day yesterday working on it. The final version is much different than the preview D3X posted on the Sirius Online IndieDB page. I'm really happy with the way It came out. Hopefully we'll be able to hear it ingame soon.

Other than that I've been using my Sunday to relax and play Guild Wars 2. Jeremy Soule composed some great music for that franchise. My favorite's are from the Guild Wars Factions soundtrack.

I can't wait to work on more music for Sirius Online but right now my focus is on sound design.