We’re super close to the release of block’d with only four more days standing in the way! (I’m getting pretty super excited). For today’s post in our 10 Days ’til Block’d series I’m going to talk a little bit about the music and sound effects in block’d. But first, make sure you catch up on yesterday’s post here if you haven’t already.
When we first started developing block’d we weren’t thinking about what kind of sound track we wanted to go with it or what kind of sound effects would fit the game. In fact, we weren’t really sure if we were going to have any kind of sounds in the game at all. As we were getting closer and closer to the finished product we asked ourselves if we thought it would be worth it to put in some sound effects and maybe a little sound track. I thought about this a little (and even wrote a blog post about game sound tracks and sound effects) and decided that a sound track could really help a game feel more professional. So with that decision made it was time to get to work.
The first thing I decided was that I didn’t just want one four minute song to repeat for as long as you played. I thought this would get rather annoying for most people that played the game longer than five minuets. So I started with a main menu song. I figured the song could be a little short and maybe a touch repetitive since most people aren’t going to spend a lot of time in the menu, but the next step was deciding what kind of music would fit the theme of the game best. Did I want something very slow and drawn out, or maybe something with a little bit of a beat, or maybe nothing but a beat. I eventually decided that the music should be relatively low key, but with a little beat to keep you going while you play though the levels. I wanted the music to be simple, with not too many instruments vying for attention.
I eventually got a good song for the main menu and started to apply my criteria to more songs for the actual game play. In the end I came up with three game play songs that will be on the game when it’s released. However, I do have some plans to keep working on a couple more songs to add to the game for a quick update but that’s a story for a different time. Now it’s time to talk a little bit about the sound effects.
Turns out sound effects were much, much, (so much) harder to come up with than the sound track. Because you only hear the sound for a second, and the sound effect has to blend in with the background music, it made my life a little challenging to come up with the right kind of noises. I spent a couple of weeks trying to find the right instrument at the right note at the right length of time for the sound effects. It was a battle between what sounded good and what sounded good with the background music. Because the background music is more electronic the sound effects would clash with it if they too had that electronic sound. At the same time they could get lost in the background music if they were’t strong enough to stand on their own. In the end I think I found the right sound and right pitch for the sound effects so that they would add to the background music and the overall play experience.
In the end I was happy with the way the sounds turned out on block’d and I hope you enjoy them too (if you don’t like them you can always turn them off in the options menu to the left of Group 1).
So thanks for sticking around through all of that, I know it was kinda long. Don’t forget, block’d comes out 7 / 7 / 14 so make sure to get it at the App Store when it comes out. Also make sure to check back here tomorrow for the next post in our 10 Days ’til Block’d series.
As always, thanks for reading
-Matt.