If you are working on / released a game and want feedback on your sound design, I'm looking for you!
TL;DR Send or link me a build of your game (finished or in-dev) and I'll review all aspects of the audio!
As my day job, I'm a sound designer for video games. I've been doing this on AAA games for about 5 years now with recent credits in Helldivers 2, Lego Star Wars, [Title under NDA] 3, and a handful of smaller games. I've been looking for ways to contribute to Newgrounds' game audio scene but usually don't have time to get involved with the entire game audio pipeline for a game next to day job and personal side projects... But what I CAN do is provide feedback and tips for you to implement yourself!
What will I do?
I will play through your game and give notes on all aspects of the game's audio: assets, implementation, music, mix... Both the good and the less good. I will then send you a message back with the things I've found and the ways I would go about improving them and why. I'm doing this type of stuff weekly at work when reviewing sound design from other people, or from games in general. Sometimes there's not a lot that needs changing, sometimes there are major aspects of audio that are missing or lacking that just need an extra pair of ears to point it out.
What you need to do
Either respond to this post or send me a DM with 1) a link or download to your most recent build so I can play it 2) a short explanation of the game and any areas, in particular, you want feedback on (mix, assets, music, etc). Doesn't need to be long or super detailed, but if it will help me help you better!
Then what?
I'll then play your game, write down my thoughts on the sound design and any possible solutions to aspects that need work and send that back to you! You're then free to do with that feedback whatever you want!
Looking forward to anything coming my way!
(P.s. here's my portfolio website (which I should really update soon...)https://3xblast.com/)
OviManic
Really!? I don’t need to pay for this great service?
In any case, I’ll link my game here.
https://ovimanic.itch.io/ovivixen-master-demo (18+)
Stars a fox dwarf exploring a ruinous domain run by hostile inhabitants working under their much taller superiors. There are some that choose to help her, but for a price. Takes heavy inspiration from Wonderboy in Monsterland for the Sega Master System.
3xBlast
Was not expecting the first game to be an 18+ one right away but fair enough ?
Played through a lot of it, but could not beat the final boss so unfortunately can't provide proper feedback on every single asset, but I've identified some common areas to improve!
First, the good part is that the sounds that are in there all fit the aesthetic. Volume and mixing overall is also decent; nothing really that needs turning up or down in a big way!
Sound effects: a common issue with a lot of sounds is that they overstate the action that it represents. Jumping, something that you're constantly doing, has too big of a sound that sticks out too much. Pitch slides in general stick out in any mix, and human hearing is extra sensitive to higher frequency sounds. The solution here is to redesign the sounds to be shorter, lower frequency/pitch and lower volume. Same issue with enemy death sound, it will happen constantly and the sound is too "important sounding" for what is happening.
On the other hand, the attack sound fits great! It matches the action, how important it is, the frequency at which it happens. So give the game another pass with that in mind. Instead of only matching the action, also keep in mind how frequently that action happens, how important that sound is for the player, and what effect or emotion it needs to convey.
Small note, try looking for opportunities to add small sounds. Enemies readying an attack or jumping for instance. If nothing else is on the screen, it can add some life to the game!
Implementation: The main thing is that new sounds should have priority over old sounds Often came across instances where I would hit an enemy, jump, attack, etc but the sound would not play which was (I'm assuming) because another SFX was playing at that time. Unless its a huge sfx like a big explosion/large upgrade/death, you should prioritise new sounds over old ones.
Music: The most subjective part of game audio, so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt! If you like the music as it is, stick with it! That said, some of the things I noted while playing was:
- Frequent use of dissonance. Using notes that are outside of a scale can bring a lot of flair and importance to a song, but sometimes it's better to stick with a scale. This would be the first thing I'd change myself here, identify notes that are outside of a song's scale and simply move them back in.
- lack of percussion. In a lot of the music in game, I was missing percussion. If you want to keep within the limitations of the aesthetic, try mimicking high hats/shakers/snares with noise. Very short notes with a sharp attack and quick decay can create some nice percussion. Kicks can be mimicked with by a short triangle wave note with a sharp pitch slide. Adding some percussion will allow you to fill the silence in between notes. I'm assuming here, but it felt like the main level theme was overly full of notes because there was no percussion to break any silence if you'd choose to let a note ring out or simply have fewer notes somewhere.
- Bass and lead should enhance each other. When you have such few channels to work with, the lead and bass parts should really do their own thing. If you want a quick lead part with lots of notes, consider having the bass play a more simple line. I think Super Mario Bros 2's overworld theme is a great example. The bass plays on beat a relatively simple line, the lead instruments then dance around that and the noise percussion fills out final bits of silence and keeps the rhythm! Try experimenting with having a lead that doesn't have a note on every single beat, and try composing a lead melody in your head/sing it out first before committing anything to the grid!
Let me know if that helps! And thanks for submitting the first game for this :D