University of East London Portfolio

Wwise/Unity Implementation Tech Reel

This video showcases my implementation decisions when using Wwise with Unity. Technical and creative decisions are explained through voiceover and on screen examples. A transcript can be found below for easier access.

Hi. I’m Kyle Lankton, and this is my tech demo reel showcasing Wwise implementation into Unity. My goal in this project is to use audio to enhance the player’s experience of both the sinister and playful disposition of its survival horror gameplay while raising their awareness of changes occurring in the game.

Enemies are outfitted with individual damage and defeat random containers with multiple audio instances in each. I applied pitch and volume randomization parameters to these containers to further ensure a lack of listener fatigue.

A clock ticking sound is attached to the clock game object in unity, and when an attenuation curve is added, the sound changes in volume and panning depending on the positioning of the player. An ambient layer is created with a constant loop, and a random container consisting of ambient one-shots, weighted and mixed to ensure a smooth, non-repetitive environmental effect.

As the gameplay of this project is built around surviving the level until the time runs out,the music changes sections at set percentages of time remaining in the game, ramping in intensity. This horizontal sequencing is paired with vertical layers, which change depending on game parameters such as player health and number of enemies within range. The change in music based on the player health parameter is paired with mixing changes in the sound effects bus to give a cohesive change in mood from lively to desperate.

This has been Kyle Lankton. Thank you for watching my Wwise demo reel!

FMOD/Unity Level Prototype

This is a compact platforming level in Unity where the player character, a hungry, talking hamster, rolls around searching for food with the goal of interacting with a treasure chest that ends the level. As I am focusing on composition, sound design, and implementation in the project, some visual assets did not make it into the final version, but the audio assets assist in conveying the narrative. The composition is a combination of vertical and horizontal sequencing, utilizing a change parameter, logic tracks, and collision boxes to transition between game states. Player movement sounds were created with a speed parameter, using loops and scatterer instruments, while multiple scatterers were used to vary item pickup sounds. Spatial audio, scatterer, and ambient tracks created non-repetitious environmental loops. Finally, mixbus processing was used to glue these assets together.

Forest, Night

This composition took influences from Christopher Larkin’s works in Hollow Knight, Manaka Kataoka’s in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Howard Shore’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.

A pensive look into a fantastical midnight forest, the score toes the line between what the viewer would perceive and what is hiding just behind the next tree. Using a smaller ensemble of orchestral instruments, the piece can be performed by only 10 musicians if the necessary doubling is attainable. A score can be found below.

Forest, Night Score

REANIMAL Audio Redesign

I used this as an opportunity to practice recording techniques, as well as atonal synthesis. Breaking down each aspect of the clip, I created one-shots with slightly randomized pitch, attenuation, and playback rates. Automation of panning, volume, EQ, reverb, and stereo spread were applied, mimicking spatial relationships of diagetic events as well as non-diagetic sound in the game space. I used these to capture the stylized horror aesthetic that Tarsier Studios is known for. This was produced in Reaper using self-recorded material, found sounds, and Vital.