Narrative Design and Sound Design Week 1

Candy's Dev log: (Week 1)

Narration progress:

I have written a document containing the descriptions for the first cut scene. The cutscene is the introduction of the story for the game. It begins with our main character, a princess named Amelia, who is enjoying some peaceful tea break before her prince was kidnapped which sets her out on a journey to get him back. This cutscene was written in a script format so that a storyboard can be formulated without having to read too much. Each section was written to fit the character's personalities which was described in another document made by Amber, our game designer and the main narrative designer. Along with the cutscene document I have also completed two additional documents which contains detailed level layout plans. I made these two documents using the mood boards that were provided as well as other information which was collected when conducting my own research. The two level layout plans are only descriptions of what happened before the enemies crashed and the aftermath of the mess. I wrote it in a way were I tried be as detailed as possible about how the setting looks like in the story's context but also how the objects in the story can act as things that the players can interact with as mechanics. This way I can paint a picture on the visuals of the environment without taking away the creativity on how the level designers can implement the said objects. Lastly I have started some of the NPC dialogues a week or two before I have completed the three documents however I have yet to find the time to continue the NPC dialogues. The dialogue was written to show the subversive idea behind the game which is how women can be powerful even if their powers are suppressed due to the historical setting the game takes place in. It was simply a conversation between a group of maids/butlers who made fun of the main character in a roundabout way. This way, along with Amelia's action which was shown through the cutscene, it shows that she is not just physically strong but mentally as well.

 All of the documents mentioned will be provided in a link at the very bottom of the page because just giving a simple explanation is not enough to show the meaning behind each word I wrote.

Challenges with Narration: 

Most of my challenges are just spelling and grammar issues.  I have Amber to thanks for helping me proof read and correct anything that I missed when I proof read. Another challenge was making sure the story makes sense which is why I was very happy Nick commented on my document. It helped me fill in plot holes. The last challenge was making sure people actually took the time to read or at least glanced at what I wrote. Which after some nagging people did review some of the documents. 

Sound progress:

I have created at least four bat hitting sound effects but it's not meeting to my standards which means I plan to redo them. In addition to the bat hitting sound effects, I have the prince's scream which was obtained thanks to Bryan, our programmer. The scream was prefect and we all agreed to keep it in the final game as part of the cutscene after some loud ambience noises was cleared from it.

Challenges with Sound:

The number 1 most difficult part of creating these was finding a quiet place to record.  I have a family of 8 so it can get loud and the walls are paper thin. I had the same issue last year but this can be an easy fix. I just have find the right time to record. There is a peaceful hour or two in my house around noon so I just have to use that time to my advantage. The other difficult part of sound design is the bat hitting sounds aren't as impactful as I want them to be. That means I'll have record them some time soon.  Other then finding the right equipment and place to record the sound, nothing else is too hard.

Next Plans:

I am willing to take anything that needs to be worked on but I'm leading towards level design. I was told that the mechanics needs to be our focus so I'll have to pause on both the narration and sound design.

The sounds are found here:

Bat 1: https://soundcloud.com/candy-zhu-17472628/bat-hit-ver-1/s-bZiHYuirwGZ

Bat 2: https://soundcloud.com/candy-zhu-17472628/bat-hit-ver-2

Bat 3: https://soundcloud.com/candy-zhu-17472628/bat-hit-ver-3/s-dsT8jQbkYBX

Bat 4: https://soundcloud.com/candy-zhu-17472628/bat-hit-ver-4/s-xgek2paHE7Y

Prince's(Bryan's) Scream: https://soundcloud.com/candy-zhu-17472628/princes-screa/s-qo7p4HnqhDj

The documents can be found here: https://zhu-candy-419.medium.com/

(For some reason I have a upload limit each day so the other half of the documents will have to be posted tomorrow).