Global Game Jam 2016

What a weekend!

Both Stefan and I participated in the Global Game Jam this weekend, and it was nothing short of an amazing experience. It’s so wonderful to be working with so many fresh and talented faces.

For people who don’t know, the Global Game Jam is a yearly thing on the last week of January, where people from around the globe get together and create games. They have 48 hours to make one within a given theme. Past themes have ranged from arty phrases, to the simple sound of a heartbeat (which gave birth to Surgeon Simulator).

This year, the theme was ‘Ritual!’ Sounds tame on first glance, but the more you thought about it, the more exciting avenues it opened up.

We both decided to work together, and took up the challenge of providing audio for no less than 5 different projects. Here’s a bit about each one:

• Break Out is a ‘First Person Maze Simulator’, with some neat twists about what the point of the maze truly is. Stefan wrote all the music for it, and we made some door and walking sound effects for them.
• Inti’s Trial was made by a father/son duo, and we provided the audio. I wrote the funky beats, and we both provided the Foley sound effects. Real fire is a bit difficult to record. The game is about getting a ball down the totem maze.
• Ritual Failure is a game about being rubbish at rituals. Up to four summoners can run around the world, and help summon hideous mangled beasts on summoning circles. We provided a lot of sound effects, sound design, and atmospheres for them, and they turned them into something great.
• Secret Ritual is a game where you have to figure out how to complete the ritual first. I wrote some really wacky music for it, and provided a few raspberries into the mic for squishing sounds.
• Symphony of the Machine was created by the folk at Stirfire Studios. The concept is that of a machine which can control the weather based on your input. This one was a particular challenge for us, as Stirfire are very ambitious! We had to do two main things. One was create a stirring choir ambiance. Stefan came up with some harmonies for that, and I created the soundworld. The second was recording vocals to trigger when a button is pressed, which all fire off in a little melody when three have been chosen. For this, Stefan sung some syllables, and I added some sound design flair. Combined, they sound impeccable.

Overall, we had a wonderful time, and it gave you all new music, which we will put up as a small bundle soon. In the meantime, download the games, and have a play!