The modern gamer has three main things they look for in a game: gameplay, art design, and audio. The gameplay dictates if the game is fun for a person to play. The visuals determine if the game is enjoyable to look at. The audio is what the player is listening to the entire time they are playing, and can be very important to both draw people in and keep them interested. Audio itself can be further broken down: everything from the music you hear to the shot firing from a laser rifle, to the sound of a teleporter just humming in the background are all different audio assets that have to be created, balanced, and mixed to give the best experience for the player.
Let’s start by talking about the music. Our goal for the music of We’re All Going to Die was to have cohesiveness to the different areas, while making each one still feel unique. We looked at instruments that would invoke a feeling for each level. For example, the jungle theme has a lot of almost tribal drums, while the city music used a more industrial drum set. “For Skybridge, we were inspired by James Bond, but there’s a lot more openness in the arrangement which fits the theme of ‘sky’,” music composer Jack Mozie said. “With the moving bridges, we wanted a sci-fi concept with a Bond feeling, so we used a similar chord progression.”
Mozie had a tall order to tackle, because each level of We’re All Going To Die can last anywhere from 30 seconds to 45 minutes, with each level being unique. This meant using loops, but a gamer’s ears will get tired of the same music on a constant loop, so Mozie had to find a way to make the music repeat, but still be interesting. “We made variations dynamic so that it changes with the game. Whatever happens in the game will be reflected in the music. It’s like the music never ends because it’s always changing”, said Mozie.
Check out a few of the songs on our Soundcloud at our Soundcloud Link (https://soundcloud.com/blackbansheegames) , but remember: the music changes every time you play!
Learn more about We’re All Going to Die on the official Black Banshee Studios website at: https://blackbansheestudios.com
We're All Going To Die is Now Available
Hello Everyone!
First our team would like to thank you for taking an interest in our game, We're All Going To Die. After many months of work on this project and being in quarantine we have finally reached the release of our studio's long term project.
That being said, we have been taking notice on the issues within the current version of our game. We plan to implement fixes and update it as soon as we can.
Thanks again for all your support and try not to die!
Sincerely,
The developers, producers, designers, artists and writers of We're All Going To Die
Telling the Story — Gameplay
by Jeremie Wallis, Audio Engineer
While a great soundtrack and popping visuals can get a gamer drawn in, the mechanics of a game are what keep people playing day in and day out. Product owner Tyler Baker knew that, for the first console release, making a splash was important. “Before production started, the studio head wanted us to go big for our first console release,” Baker said. “We didn’t want to release just anything, so we decided to pick things up a notch and do things we hadn’t done before as a studio.” This led to We’re All Going To Die, the most ambitious game from Black Banshee Studios to date.
Marking such a milestone led to some big changes in the original game design. “The only thing that stayed from the initial design was the fact that it was a twin stick shooter. The original design was more of a tower defense game in which the players would have to pick classes and defend a base while also collecting resources they could spend to repair or level up,” said Baker. “Since we wanted to release for X-Box, we didn’t feel the original design was ambitious enough, so we decided to start from scratch with the twin stick concept.” Baker and his team striped the concept down and started rebuilding. “The biggest reason we changed it was due to assets. The assets we were looking at had a bad reputation so we shifted to another source,” he said.
Once the core mechanics were agreed on, it fell to lead developer Andres Diaz Gonzalez and the design team to make it happen. “A big issue was getting it to feel good using a mouse and keyboard, it’s been one of the biggest issues. We are still kinda dealing with that,” said Gonzalez. He and his team were responsible for making all 11 abilities and all seven grenade types function. “I am really looking forward to how abilities and grenades are going to work together,” Gonzalez said. “There’s hundreds of combinations for players to have, between the four abilities and the grenade styles, plus you have multiple players. I’m looking forward to see how it plays when people make cool combinations.”
All of these abilities, however, led to a lot of development to make it all work. Luckily, Gonzalez said there were some shortcuts to make it a little easier. “Mostly, for the grenades, they all go off the same class, so the base is the same. We didn’t have to start from scratch. We tried to use that with the abilities also. The tremor ability is even coded similar to a grenade. We didn’t want to start from scratch with each ability, but rather see what we can adapt and reuse,” he said.
Making a game in a pandemic challenged the team, but also helped shape the direction of the game. “(WAGTD) started as a couch co-op game, and we didn’t have plans for online multiplayer,” said Baker. “With the pandemic going on, couch co-op didn’t seem good enough. We figured, if they can’t hang out with their buddies, they should still be able to play with their buddies, so let’s add online multiplayer. It makes the game more accessible for people to play with their friends.
Gather your friends and see what combos you can find in We’re All Going To Die, releasing soon on Steam and XBox!
Learn more about We’re All Going to Die on the official Black Banshee Studios website at: https://blackbansheestudios.com
, but remember: the music changes every time you play!
