Broken Board is an arcade skateboard-platformer game inspired by Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Skate., as well 2000s video game audio/visual aesthetics in general, but with a light horror-themed twist of being chased by a monster. I was in charge of all aspects of the audio, including the music, SFX, adaptive audio design, implementation, and the performance of the monster, a.k.a. “Gleebus.”

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Sound Effects

Most of the SFX were technically made using Foley, but the sources were largely things like tapping my desk, so the editing played the far bigger role, most notably the EQ filters used to make everything sound more low poly to match the visuals.
The other notable SFX is of course the bit of VA work I did, specifically the effort barks for the Player character and the growls of Gleebus, the monster, both of which come together in the death stinger.

Music

I made the music using REAPER, attempting to emulate the vibes of rock music of the Pro Skater games and such. There are two full compositions, a menu theme and gameplay theme, plus a short stinger when you die.
Like the SFX, I also edited the music to sound more low poly to match the aesthetics of the rest of the game.

Implementation

The game was made in Unreal and, though I had originally planned on using Wwise which I was already quite familiar with, I ended up having to use Unreal’s built-in Metasounds program, which I had to essentially learn within a month. Especially with that in mind, I’m very happy with how well it turned out.
Beyond just basic sound effects, notable design work includes Gleebus, who gets louder the closer he gets, and the music, which adaptively adds more and more elements the higher your score gets.

SPI-Glass is an ongoing experimental AR Ghost Hunting Game project, a 1920s-themed blend of Pokémon Go and Ghostbusters made as a multi-year iterative Major Qualifying Project at WPI. I got to participate in the second year and was responsible for contributing to the audio, including music, SFX, VA, and groundwork sound design implementation.
Due to the nature of the project being an iterative, worked on by different teams over several years, many of the audio assets I made over the short seven week period are not currently fully implemented. Nonetheless, the quite large amount of work that was completed will hopefully serve as valuable foundation for future iterations of the project.

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Music

I made the music in REAPER, creating four full compositions for the game (plus an additional very short one), taking inspiration from various jazz tracks from the 1920s and 30s, as well as the game Cuphead. This includes the main menu track, the world map theme, a character theme, the ghost encounter music, and a short mission complete theme stinger.
For the encounter music, I also created specific arrangements for the two different phases, as well as one for each type of ghost, which I also did for the victory and defeat versions of the mission complete stinger. In total, this resulted in seventeen unique arrangements.

Sound Effects

The project required a wide variety of sound effects for the originally proposed tools and ghosts types, and in total I recorded and edited nearly three hundred discrete assets.
For the various tools, I primarily used Foley. This ranged from a keyboard, a microwave, and a literal vacuum, to a wad of wet paper towels, some uncooked pasta, and even literal microphone feedback.
Aside from the UI, everything else required voice performances. The ghosts and full radio dialogue takes are detailed below, but this also included ambient creaking (which I performed).

Voice Acting

VA most directly included the barks for the ghosts. I performed six myself, two each for the traditionally ghostly Spirits, the giggly and childish Wraiths, and the animalistic Demons.
I also performed all radio dialogue. Despite only hearing snippets in-game, I performed five full scripts.

Implementation

Even though many of the assets I made could not be fully implemented, because I used the external platform Wwise, I was able to get a large amount of implementation work done that will be useful for future iterations of this MQP.
Notable completed work include the adaptive encounter music, wherein it will switch to the specific ghost arrangement when transitioning between the investigation and dispersal phases, without restarting the track.

“Metro Dreams” is a concept EP of ambient music blended with real audio of a metro station, depicting someone fading in and out of four different distinct lucid dreams.
I made it with REAPER, primarily using a specific pack from Splice Instrument’s LABS called “London Atmos,” both for the literal metro station audio and the synthesized instruments.

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Though the EP is made up of four distinct “dreams,” each meant to emulate a different feeling dream, I decided to include an extended period of nothing but metro station ambiance at the start and end of each track, intending each to flow into the next until the end.

Beyond using an unusual set of synthesized instruments, I also experimented with a number of audio effects which I explained in great (admittedly quite rambley) detail here.

Dream Defenders was an interactive audio installment where players are tasked with stopping demons from invading a child’s dream, represented through interactive musical instruments.
I helped develop the installment for my Advanced Topics in Interactive Audio class at WPI. My primary role was contributing to the music (I did the first and last gameplay pieces heard in the clip), but the development of the concept and design principles was very much a collaborative process for the entire class.

A Walk In Andante is a game/interactive tool I developed solo using Unity and Wwise where the user can alter the arrangement of a piece of music as it plays, all in real time, (i.e. without pausing or restarting).

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