Spektacles was created in the Fall of 2020 at The University of Texas at Austin, by a team of Seniors in the GDAD Capstone course. The target was to make an action / visual-novel mashup, set inside a mythological high school. The player acts as Melita, the daughter of Medusa, as they must avoid bullies through the halls to talk to their crush.
Music:
For the soundtrack of the game, I had two main styles I wanted to work with.
The first was a "Disney Channel-esque" 2000's pop-punk genre; with fast paced electric guitars, drums, and bass guitars. This was to convey that stereotypical "high-school" sound our demographic had grown up with, as well as provide some upbeat excitement to the action levels inside the game. The guitars were played by myself. The drums were created utilizing the virtual "Drummer" tool inside Logic Pro.
The second genre was to be utilized for the slower sections of the game, where the player converses with their crush. I wanted to aim for an "Alt-Pop" aesthetic, following the sounds of trending artists such as Mxmtoon, Cavetown, and Beabadoobee.
Sound Design:
The team decided on an 16-bit visual style for the action sections of the game. I desired to follow this retro style, while not completely using only 8-bit synthesizers. Because of this, sound effects were either hand crafted through Serum or foley-ed and bit-crushed to maintain a cohesive sound.
Each room utilizes the Unity reverb space objects, alongside ambient audio loops, to create an immersive sense of space.
