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Sound Designers wanted [FOUND]

Started by Peregrin Aug 9, 2005 at 1:06 AM 18 replies 2.5k views

Original Post

Aug 9, 2005 at 1:06 AM

My open source puzzle game is in dire need of sound effects. Project name: Jooleem Brief description: Jooleem is a simple yet extremely addictive puzzle game. There is only one rule: click on four marbles of the same color that form a rectangle. Time is constantly running out, but you can earn time (and points) by forming rectangles. The larger the rectangle, the more time and points are won. It has been in production for 3 months. It is feature complete, and yesterday was its first public release. Target aim: Free and open source (GPL). Compensation: The project is non-commercial, so I can only offer credit - in game, the documentation and on the website. Technology:

Developed in CPP and SDL.
Developed with portability in mind - no platform specific features were used.
Currently Win32 only, but Linux and OS X ports are planned.
Includes a "pseudo GUI" - all the UI controls used in game (buttons, text boxes etc.) have been implemented from scratch. This allows for an interface that has a game-like feel to it, is portable, flexible and does not rely on heavy-duty UI/widget libraries.

Talent needed: Sound designers / sound engineers / audio techs. The game needs some good sound effects. Team structure: Currently, I am the sole developer, so I do both code and art. Website: Jooleem website Contacts: braudo at users.sourceforge.net Additional Info: I want the game's assests (graphic and sound files) to also follow the open source spirit. They will be release with a Creative Commons deed. Anyway, here are some screenies:

[Edited by - Peregrin on August 16, 2005 9:59:11 AM]

Rain 7

Aug 10, 2005 at 6:37 AM

Do you need music?

Peregrin

Aug 11, 2005 at 1:23 PM

Quote:
Original post by Rain 7
Do you need music?

Yes. Seeing as a bunch of very talented people contacted me following my request for sound effects, adding music to the game would be a great idea.

I'm thinking about something along the lines of the themes from the original Gameboy's Tetris. Electronic, catchy and looping.

Like the sound effects, the music should also be original and the creator should be willing to release it under a Creative Commons deed.

Rain 7

Aug 12, 2005 at 4:17 AM

Okay I will try to get a sample for you.

Rain 7

Aug 12, 2005 at 9:40 AM

http://www.allacrost.org/staff/user/rain/ElectronicPuzzleDemo.mp3

This is what I have so far. Just started it a few hours ago. Its incomplete, but is this the style you're looking for?

Peregrin

Aug 13, 2005 at 8:01 AM

I just listened to the track - great work!

I loved the instrument that stars playing at around 10 seconds - you should use more of it. It has this "8-bit"ish sound, which is what I'm looking for.

The final track should be a little longer though, since a typical game is about 5-15 minutes, and if the track will loop 10 times it can get a bit too repetitive.

All in all I am really impressed, and looking forward to hear more stuff.

Arglebargle

Aug 13, 2005 at 8:55 AM

Hey man, your screenshots look awesome... very slick and easy on the eyes, perfect for a puzzle game.

If you'd like me to contribute a music track or two, I'd have no problem with that. I can easily put together some upbeat videogame-esque electronica, if that's what you're after.

Here's a sample of my work... perhaps more orchestral than what you're looking for, but probably the closest thing I have to what you want.

Paradox

If you want only one composer for your game, you can just ignore this post. :D

Peregrin

Aug 13, 2005 at 9:32 AM

Thanks for the compliments. :)

I downloaded your track. Wow. I would love to hear something "upbeat videogame-esque electronica" by you.

As for the number of composers, I really don't know. Initially I haven't planned on even having music, but the response here has been very encouraging.

What do you think? Will more than one composer cause a musical mish-mash? Ego wars? And how will it work with the game - one track per level or just shuffle the tracks?

Arglebargle

Aug 13, 2005 at 9:44 AM

I think music is an absolute necessity for a game! :D

A mish-mash of styles may or may not work, it completely depends on your preferences. Bruised egos are definitely something to consider... I wouldn't want Rain to feel like I'm moving into his territory or anything. He was the first one to respond, so you should definitely get his approval before taking on additional composers.

And maybe you don't need more than one composer... if you only need a few songs, I'm sure he'd have no problem handling all the music duties. :)

The number of tracks depends on how many levels you have... if there are a lot (or infinite like Tetris), maybe you could just have a pool of songs, and create a random playlist at the beginning of each game.

Peregrin

Aug 13, 2005 at 10:52 AM

I hope Rain doesn't mind sharing. :)

The game is technically infinite, but a session usually take 5-15 minutes, depending on the player's skill.

I like your idea of a song pool. However if the songs are in MP3 (or ogg) format they will be several MBs each. Currently the entire game is just 1.4 MB, and I don't want it to become a monster download.

So maybe just a single looping tune, 2-3 minutes long, will have to do.

Or, alternatively, MIDI files can be used. Since I'm looking for a simple old-school electronic sound anyway, they might fit perfectly. What do you think?

Arglebargle

Aug 13, 2005 at 11:05 AM

Well, MIDI does give a cheesy lo-fi sound, and it would be extremely economical, but the downside is that it's MIDI... crappy dated sounds. Full production mp3s would of course sound much better, but obviously they're much bigger.

So you have a few options...

1) A number of mp3 songs
PRO: Good quality sound, varied selection
CON: Lots of mb eaten

2) One or two mp3 songs
PRO: Not too much space taken up, plus the advantage of full mp3 production
CON: Lack of variety, might get repetitive

3) MIDI sequences
PRO: You can have a ton of songs that take up virtually no space
CON: Horrible sound quality

4) No music
PRO: No extra space requirement
CON: :( :( :(

You'll have to decide what works best for you.

jbadams

Aug 13, 2005 at 11:16 AM

You're aware that mp3 is a licenced format? You can find some information on the subject here. Ogg Vorbis is an excellent free alternative, which in my experience tends to hold up very well when compared to mp3, particularly at high compression rates.

Also note that converting directly from mp3 to ogg (or the other way) causes a loss of quality. Both are lossy formats, meaning they compress the data by discarding certain segments. Because they each discard different information, converting from one to the other can potentially cause a loss in quality. Therefore, you should have the music encoded into ogg by the composer for you, or converted from wave format.

Just some potentially helpful information. [smile]

Peregrin

Aug 13, 2005 at 11:35 AM

Good point, Kazgoroth, thanks. I want the game to be completely free (as is beer AND speech). So Ogg it is. My sound engine is based on SDL_Mixer, which supports Ogg natively, so no extra coding. :)

Arglebargle, I think option 2 seems most realistic. An Ogg file with good-enough quality should take 1 MB per minute of music. I guess adding 5 MB to the download is acceptable.

Rain 7

Aug 13, 2005 at 6:16 PM

Quote:
Original post by Arglebargle
I think music is an absolute necessity for a game! :D

A mish-mash of styles may or may not work, it completely depends on your preferences. Bruised egos are definitely something to consider... I wouldn't want Rain to feel like I'm moving into his territory or anything. He was the first one to respond, so you should definitely get his approval before taking on additional composers.

And maybe you don't need more than one composer... if you only need a few songs, I'm sure he'd have no problem handling all the music duties. :)

The number of tracks depends on how many levels you have... if there are a lot (or infinite like Tetris), maybe you could just have a pool of songs, and create a random playlist at the beginning of each game.

One of the great things about tetris was the music. IMHO, Jooleem should have at least 3 really good tracks, 2 to 5 minutes in length, like the original tetris. I would probably not have any problems handling this project solo, but this isn't about being selfish and egotistical, its about the quality of the music and what fits the premises of the game the best. True, I did respond first but ultimately the work of the composer shall be judged and speak for itself, even if not on behalf of promptness. ;) However, I thank you for being considerate in the matter of bruised egos.

Just my two bits. :)

Ryan

Rain 7

Aug 13, 2005 at 6:19 PM

Quote:
Original post by Peregrin
I just listened to the track - great work!

I loved the instrument that stars playing at around 10 seconds - you should use more of it. It has this "8-bit"ish sound, which is what I'm looking for.

The final track should be a little longer though, since a typical game is about 5-15 minutes, and if the track will loop 10 times it can get a bit too repetitive.

All in all I am really impressed, and looking forward to hear more stuff.

Thanks Peregrin. I will try to bring out more of that ol' Nintendo flair in my next update. Stay tuned! :)

I thought I would also mention that 1 MB of music generally equals one minute :(

I will do my best to keep the file sizes small.

Peregrin

Aug 14, 2005 at 10:14 AM

Hi,

Just an update. The very talented Rain 7 is Jooleem's composer. I would like to thank everyone who has expressed interest, especially Arglebargle for his insights.

However, I am still looking for sound designers, so if you are interested, please contact me.

Peregrin

Aug 16, 2005 at 9:58 AM

Further update:
Dale North is Jooleem's sound designer. Welcome aboard, Dale!

Thanks again to all who replied to this thread and contacted me via email.

I hope to release a new version of the game, that will incorporate both Rain's and Dale's work, sometime this week.

Peregrin

Aug 27, 2005 at 3:46 AM

Update:

This worked out really well. I have just released a new version, that includes the great work done by both Ryan Reilly and Dale North, who contacted me following my post to this forum.

Arglebargle

Aug 27, 2005 at 8:52 AM

Dale's a very talented fellow... musically, at least. I'm not familiar with his sound designing, but I'm sure it's quality.

Peregrin

Aug 27, 2005 at 9:48 AM

He is extremely talented. He managed to transform the very vague descriptions I have sent him into a set of beautiful sounds effect, that perfectly match the visuals of the game.

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