AVWW Death Sound

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Oooo you guys are tricky.  I was playing Tidalis today and ran into the "sick block" and the sound for the sick block is the same as the character dying sound in AVWW.     It creeped me out because I was wondering where I had heard it before!  Took me a quick moment. 

King

[x4000]

Only a few sounds got pulled over, but yeah we did pull that one.

[HellishFiend]

I love me a good death cry. My all time favorite is Kyle Katarn from Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW5ERzyKkus

[zoutzakje]

I love me a good death cry. My all time favorite is Kyle Katarn from Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW5ERzyKkus

haha yeah I remember that I used to commit suicide all the time in that game just for the stupid noises Kyle makes when he dies and for the slowmotion effect (watching your dead body fall of cliffs was very amusing to see lol).

[BobTheJanitor]

Let me co-opt this thread to mention something that I think could use some attention. There doesn't really seem to be a dedicated 'character taking damage' sound in AVWW. There is one that I sort of associate with it which is the quiet 'whuff' sort of breath noise which I do hear sometimes when taking damage. But it's also a noise that's used for other things. Like I think it's the same sound that plays when you hit an enemy with certain spells (miasma whip, I think? I'm not where I can test that right now).

I think it would be nice to have one sound dedicated only to taking damage, so you learn to mentally associate that and recognize whenever it's happening. With tons of projectiles and enemies flying around, sometimes it can be hard to notice when you dodge a shot and when you don't. There might also be room for a big hit sound, when you take a lot of damage in one shot so you know to really pay attention. And maybe a low HP sound like beeping or a heartbeat or what have you. As long as it goes away after a bit. While I think having something like the 'one heart beep' in Legend of Zelda is useful, the fact that it doesn't fade out after a bit drives me crazy. I know my health is low game stop telling me arrrrrrrgh!

Or alternately, you can use screen overlays to indicate damage, lightly flashing a vague red gradient on the edges of the screen or whatever. Probably again, only for big hits, or it would be flashing all the time. Or even putting the floating damage numbers over the character instead of off of the HP circle in the corner. That would be handy. Maybe as an option? While we're at it, how possible would it be to put floating damage numbers over enemies when you attack them?

I am apparently full of random ideas today... sorry, wasn't intending to fly off on a tangent here. I'll try and remember to get all this up on mantis when I have a moment.

[KDR_11k]

I think most enemies don't produce a sound at all when they hit you with a melee attack. Especially bad when the enemy doesn't look like touching it would hurt (e.g. blue whales).

[Bluddy]

I've also noticed the fact that enemies only make a sound when they hit you and I don't like it that much. I think enemies that are close to you should produce sounds, whether they be ambient sounds (crackling of lightning esper) or occasional sounds (the eagle's call etc.) And I agree that a standardized hurt sound would be best.

[Terraziel]

I've also noticed the fact that enemies only make a sound when they hit you and I don't like it that much. I think enemies that are close to you should produce sounds, whether they be ambient sounds (crackling of lightning esper) or occasional sounds (the eagle's call etc.) And I agree that a standardized hurt sound would be best.

As a general point enemies only make noises when they attack, in platformers at the very least, for clarity so that the attack noise isn't lost amidst other sounds. The exceptions are generally thematic, large enemies footsteps, a good example in AVWW would be adding tank noises to the urban crawlers.

Edit: The reason you usually don't notice is the music masks it. But AVWW seems to have a fair amount of quiet for the sake of atmosphere

[BobTheJanitor]

OK got most of my random ideas from up there added to mantis. I agree that you don't want a whole lot of extra sounds distracting you. In a shooting dodging game like this, you mostly just need sounds that convey important information. Enemy shooting and shots hitting you are the main things. Too much more and the soundscape can just get muddied with all kinds of things going on at once. But yeah, a low volume rumble for urban crawlers wouldn't go amiss. That also fits the tradition of warning you that an enemy is nearby that may need special attention.

[zebramatt]

The single most important sound effect in an action platformer is when an enemy begins its attack, so that even if you can't see the enemy yet you know they're trying to hit you. As long as that's distinctive enough by enemy/attack type, we're pretty much there.

I agree that players and enemies taking hits are the next most important, though, so those need to be in there and distinctive too.

As a side note, for melee attacks the norm is for a noise to indicate to you that a melee attack is inbound. In fact, thinking about it, melee attacks are usually handled in exactly the same way as projectiles except the enemy itself is the projectile: there's some animation to let you know the enemy is about to attempt a melee attack, a sound plays to indicate same, then they come barrelling at you.