Audio
NOTE: These are not final and may not apply to Alice: Asylum. This is only for reference.
Audio
Probably the single most effective way of communicating and instilling a sense of dread and horror into the minds of our audience is through the sounds in our game. Alice 2 will feature a constantly shifting sound-scape comprised of dynamic music, sound effect cues, and layered VO. Physiological games will be played with audio – Pavlovian response to auditory cues, tempering and training the player to experience dread and fear, suspicion - a range of emotions. But there will also be light – Alice 2 will be a story of redemption – Alice learning that the death of her parents was not her fault – sound will play an equally large part in creating and supporting this end of the emotional spectrum.
Deafening. Competing with the din of steam and horse-drawn transportation, animals and industry, were tradesmen all bawling together, salesmen and hucksters of provisions, bodies, hardware and newspapers; place a perfect Babel (foreign tongues, too) of competition. 40K street people screaming in the streets “strawberries ripe; oranges from Spain” “nuggets (fragments) of coal,” chairs to mend. Food sellers anything portable—larks, sparrows, roast chestnuts, baked potatoes, hot eels, muffins, ginger beer.
Ambient noise part of the noisomeness of the city. . .”the roaring of a monstrous creature”. . .hammers, grinders, smiths, bells of all sorts, musicians, barking dogs, lowing cattle—a din, a humming, a perpetual loud whisper . . .echoing, reverberation of wagon wheels, rushing and lapping water, street sellers of every imaginable (and some unimaginable) commodity or service vying for attention.
The “indefinable boom, a distant but ever-present sound . . . becomes a deafening roar as the day grows older” . . . persistent, remorseless . . . a pitiless howl of fear, pain, labor and rage in equal measure. Even in the middle of this maelstrom, a trombone in a marching band might be distinguished, likewise a match seller’s braying cry of “Lucifers ha-penny hot” the rumble of scavenger’s cart, and the tinkling bells that sat like a tiara on a horse’s head.”
The general approach is to create an audio piece for each scene/section, which consists of general sound effects, dialogue, soundtrack, and ambience. These different pieces will transition seamlessly into the following scene. Transition elements can be dialogue, silence, and simple fades.
Sound Track
The main soundtrack themes will be broken down into different versions – Action, Suspense, Fear, Sadness, Victory, and Disturbed.
Soundtracks will be inter-changeable and triggered by events and locations.
Certain paths in the game will be divided into sections. Each section has its own particular soundtrack attached. As Alice crosses the border of each section it will trigger multiple sounds. This will allow us to build momentum and give player sound cues of things to come. These sounds would be short, not too intrusive and blend with the soundtrack or ambient sounds playing at the same time.
