Part 3: Game Design: Making Showdown look and sound AMAZING!
Art:
Once we got the design of the level feeling good it was time to make the map visually stunning with help from the Build Team and Art Team! Working under the direction of the Art Team, Sarsparilla Springs went from a concept and rough prototyped map to a town full of old Wild West architecture between the oak trees and desert rock of the chaparral.
We used a mix of makerpen objects and assets created by the Art Team to fill in Showdown to make it look lived in. All the buildings were made with makerpen, along with the Scoreboard and interior decorations. The Art Team also helped in creating meshes for the train and weapons along with the terrain and tunnel system. We started with rough concept art and a hero image that we then used to guide the build team in building out the buildings, which you can see below!
The biggest challenge was how we successfully blended the assets made by the Art Team along with makerpen assets to create a world that matches the look and quality of past RROs. We’ll go more in depth with this in a future video coming to you super Soon™!
A lot of times the art and level design are happening at the same time. It was no exception here - in fact, working with the maker pen allowed us to continue to change and adjust level details all throughout the project.
One example of this would be the theater. It started as an orange box that we weren’t even going to be able to go into. As we built and the map evolved, though, it became the perfect place for our pre-game lobby. I remember the first time we roughly built out the theater balcony and we literally fell in love with that view of the town, so this is why it’s the first view of Showdown you get!
Sound:
So now we have the wonderful Wild West town of Sarsaparilla Springs where you can play 3v3 against your friends. The last key to fully bringing everything to life is sounds!
With Showdown we wanted to really bring the world together with the sounds of the West, and the chaparral biome to be specific. There’s ambient sounds, music, and sfx playing throughout the whole map - I encourage you to walk around and listen to how the sounds change as you move throughout Sarsaparilla Springs.
You start in the theater with the piano playing and the sound of general ambience outside. As you walk around the map the distant sounds of eagles screeching and dry desert wind hit your ears. If you fall into the mine, everything instantly changes as you traverse the cold rocky caverns hearing rocks falling, a subtle echo, and maybe even a distant whisper.
All of this had to be created and added to the map to create what is called a soundscape. This is something that really helps bring a room to life. The easiest way to create a soundscape is to listen to whatever environment you are in - if you are outside you might hear a slight breeze with birds chirping and dogs distant barking, the quiet hum of an A/C unit, or even cars passing on the road. All of these sounds amount to a soundscape and make the environment you’re in feel more real.
Lastly, we had SFX and music. The music played during the game helps to get you in the Showdown mood. It also is an audible indicator of where the game is at - as you get towards the end of a Showdown round, the music starts to speed up. Using music as an audible indicator is a great way to supplement a visual cue happening in game. The SFX are everywhere on the map. We have the weapons of course and each one has a distinct character that we created with different reload and firing sounds. This is so you (and all the players around you) know what gun you’re firing and from where.
Sound is such an important part of the dev process and the sooner you can start to think about it and implement it into the maps you’re building, the better and more immersive they will be. Music also helps to create audible and emotional cues based on the type of music being played. I encourage all of you to try playing with sound in your rooms and also listen to Showdown and the other RROs on how the sound design is constructed. Good sound design will always be a huge plus to a room!
Thanks so much for reading our Showdown blog! We really hope y’all enjoyed it and took something away as well. This isn’t the end of behind-the-scenes looks though… keep your eyes peeled for more content coming your way before you can say “cowpoke”!
See ya real soon!