Jun 17, 2021

Arcane Waters Playtest - burlin_gauna

New events for ship impacts created, and variations switched out for pickup crop sounds.

Updated crop pickup sfx again and added a lightning flash or thunder stinger fmod event for the sea boss fight to the project.

NPC ship impact and crit audio first pass and implementation in this checkin, ready to be hooked up.

Sea enemy AI code refactor - WIP 2

Updates from main

Implemented sea monster attacking with new AI

fixed lizard king collider after it dies / fix lizard king animation not triggered during attack

removed vfx warning for blank vfx abilities

added stance action trigger null checkers

test commit discarding queued cancel and stance action for players joining mid battle

added null handler for items that have no valid sql data for weapon shop

fixed null reference for admin manager item stacking

added stance action null handler

- Addressing "3100 - Grass rendering on top of my healthbar GUI"

- Addressing "#3082 - can loot if dead on sea maps if close enough"

- Addressing "#2788 - Numpad Enter will collapse commend reccomendations like regular Enter, but will not actually submit the command"

- Addressing "#2787 - Ore pickup text is hard to read if multiple at once"

- Addressing "#2788 - Numpad Enter will collapse commend reccomendations like regular Enter, but will not actually submit the command" (2)

Lava pad ambiences added to the project and implemented in fmod.

setup tutorial for map and boss fight

- FMOD sfx for Calming Fire

- FMOD 3D emitter null check

- Adding fmod_editor.log to hidden_changes.conf

prototype setup for new battler client death animation logic, now uses syncvar and triggers locally similar to sea monster death animation handling / fixed animation override that clashes between idle animation and death animation / setup tutorial triggers for sea monster boss

code cleanup

updated linux condition checker to use utils

- Addressing "#3175 - Show star icon by your local battler"

- Butler : Tweak download logic in order to reduce CPU usage

- Butler: Added Steam Deploy Support

- Website: Added Support For Zabbix Account Management

- Website: Fixing issues related to case sensitivity on the different platform such as Jenkins and Plastic

- Website: Added Terms Page

- Website: Added support for new SSL Certificate

- Website: Added Email Templates management support

- Website: Email Templates are now fetched from the database

- Website: Code Refactor

- Website: Added logic to edit the Subject of Email Templates

- Website: Removed Email Template Background

- Website: Improved robustness of the PlasticSCM bot.

- Website: UI tweaks.

Added crow oneshots to lava ambience event, and set up an impulse response convolution reverb in Fmod mixer - imported a variety of impulse response reverb effects to try out.

Adding FMOD sfx for waterfalls

Adjusted game mix for waterfalls and fireplaces with proper 3D rolloff behaviour and EQ changes on camera movement.

Added basic desert pad ambience to fmod and built banks.

- Adding FMOD ambience sound for Ocean

- FMOD SFX event for Ship boost init, hold and release

Ship charge mechanic parameter and mix adjustments (plays and spatializes smoother now).

Missed fmod cache from previous checkin.

Updates from main

Moved bot ship AI into SeaEntity, to also affect sea monsters.

Updates from main

UI showing in character creation transition fix attempt 2

UI showing in character creation transition fix attempt 2

Made battle ui fade in with screen fade.

added combat simulation admin manager command

added additional combat condition checker and logs

#2902 - add new minimaps

Ambience master event setup in fmod, 3D default events have envelopment toggled on now.

Added snowscape ambience beds to the ambience master event and built banks.

- Replaced the admin battle settings by a generalized admin game settings that also includes sea maps parameters [3169]

- The admin settings are stored in DB.

- Added the enemy spawns per spot and sea enemy cooldown parameters to the admin game settings panel.

Modify minimaps offline generator

- FMOD ambience SFX for sea maps

- FMOD SFX for thunder animation

Recorded profiler session of some audio bugs.

- Minor changes to ship boost sfx

- Fix for Ship Cannon Fire sfx

cleanup logs for testing battle simulation

setup admin command to cancel existing coroutine for overriding purposes

Updates from main

Updates from main

Made battle ui fade in with screen fade.

code cleanup for combat scripts

Updates from main

removed error log and changed func from return into continue

updated tutorial trigger to the sea entity / enemy boss collider now does not disable on death / updated linux checker

updated friendship level update issue when completing npc dialogue

added new conditions for battler coroutine triggers

updated group battle join randomization value

- FMOD sfx for enemy ship impact

Task #3160 - In the tutorial town, the dock spawn too close to the dock warp

Interior ambience added to the project, and setup a new event scheme for ambience master.

- Added the battle attack duration and battle animation speed (time per frame) to the admin game settings
[2792]

- When closing the admin game settings panel, the pending changes are applied.

Updated game mix for lightning flash event and the enemy ship impact event respectively.

Reorganized some sound folders in fmod and added the pick up editable object sound to the project, added to web tool ID and built banks.

Added sea loot pickup variations to the fmod project, added path to web tool id.

Updated mix of lightning flash with a slight attack fade in on the sounds and sending the lightning to a reverb mix.

- FMOD sfx for pickup editable object and loot sea collect

- FMOD ambience sfx for Forest Biome

Ambience Check profiler session recorded.

Task #3127 - Selection arrows not positioned quite right. The arrows were trying to animate. Everytime a prefab was selected, the arrows would move forward in animation for one tick. This is what made the arrows look like they were in a different place everytime the prefab was selected.

Task #2907 - Fix for cannot change customization item orientation with mouse scrollwheel after it has been placed

This is a fix for the Null reference error that is logged during signin. Title Screen >> Util.stopHostAndReturnToTitleScreen();
The problem was the gameObject "AdminGameSettingsPanel" was set to inactive in the main scene so Util.stopHostAndReturnToTitleScreen() was not able to find it.
Solution: Set it to active and turn the canvasgroup alpha to "0". Tested the F6 button and the panel still shows and hides as expected.

Set the "blocksraycast" toggle for Admin Game Settings Panel to false. This was causing an issue with not being able to select customizable prefabs from the customizationUI menu.

updated how scroll rect manager is processed, added automated fetching of scroll rects

Updates from main

Updates from main

Task #3080 - this animal has a transparent circle attached to it

#3190 - Local chat looks like global chat

- FMOD support for AudioListenerManager

- Fix for Ship Boost SFX

- Added FMOD Studio Listeners to both Main and Battle Cameras

Updates from plastic

added boss battle logs / merged player ship conflict fmod changes and input system updates / blocked input system mouse override when player is not existing

Added character block to fmod as a new event.

Farming particles now also play for remote clients.

Farming particles now also play for remote clients.

While selecting an already placed customizable prop, scrolling down with the middle mouse wheel caused an error. This is the fix.

FMOD fixes

Task #3194 - Minimap is too zoomed in after PvP map

#2926 - Upload shadow images

Locale unlock and map open UI/HUD sounds added to the project, implemented in fmod.

Task #3059 - when dragging a Light Sword from my equip area to my hotkeys all other hotkey items upgraded their appearance +1

Fix for outdated version panel not showing up.

Task #2926 - Shadow is wrong for knocked out characters

updated combat system, added condition that blocks other players from casting when the target is being under animation, this will fix the overlapping issue when there is only one enemy and multiple players

fixed minimap bug wherein unlimited instances of player icons are generated due to its condition not checking the right parent, was checking botship container instead of player ship container

Add xml meta files

- Addressing "#3217 - issue with name overlay on test2"

#3168 - Lifeboat is half on shore

Updates from main

- Addressing "#3032 - Show icon with player level next to name"

- Various fixes to the tentacle boss [3096]

- Fixed tentacle boss hp not increasing with difficulty.

- Fixed tentacle boss patrolling and pursuing enemies outside of his territory.

- Set the tentacle boss enemy detection to 360? around it.

- Added a sea enemy hp multiplier to the admin game settings [3093]

- Disabled the admin game settings panel in the main scene.

fixed minimap issue wherein other player icon does not show accurate position due to transform position being altered instead of rect transform anchored position / setup new feature that displays an arrow pointing toward the ally location in the mini map / added tooltip hover for allies

reverted minimap minor change

Fixed concurrent modification error when looping in the voyage group members in the background thread [3204]

Fixed instance status panel reverting to town layout when entering battle [3183]

updated arrow indicator to change color depending if the out of bound icon is an ally or an enemy / visual improvements for arrow indicator / fixed null reference issue triggered in net entity at the start of pvp game / updated spawned arrow indicators to be destroyed after quitting pvp game

#3078 - Golem corpse blocks players

- SFX for map open action

- Ambience sounds for all the biome types

Updated the event considerably for enemy ship impact, added a powerup specific sound for explosive shot impact, etc.

Missed checkin

Flesh impact SFX added to fmod project in audio switch param, audio switch has also been changed to a discrete parameter.

- Addressing "#2991 - GUI and town name panel kind of blocks view of player spawning" (New Location Banner)

Fmod event and hud audio for menu open / close added to the project in this checkin.

Fmod mix update to map open and interior ambience sound.

UI button confirm or toggle press audio first pass added as fmod event in this checkin.

Craft complete success audio first pass added to fmod event in this checkin.

Ambience bed master event mixed in-game, volume levels balanced out to be more equalized.

- SFX for biome unlock and tab click actions

Task #3110 - Sometimes my selected target changes for no reason.
Upon death of the selected enemy, the targeting system will not select a different enemy unless the player initiates the process.
To initiate the process, the player can press one of the number keys 1-5, or click on the ability attack button on the GUI, or press the TAB button.

Vine footstep variations added to the footstep event inside fmod.

Added swung fmod event to project, metallic blunt sound variations and woodenthin for the pitchfork, etc.

- Added SFX for GUI buttons and menu open action

Fmod events and audio added in this checkin for first pass at rock golem attack and feet impact added to project.

Updated game mix and variation uses for GUI sound events, should start sounding more correct now.

added null handler as a temp fix, will be updated by Jose

added are where kamil can make updates to fix existing map spawn bug

minor fixes for battler and ship entity script

break animate death function when target is already animating death frame

implemented combat related fix regarding boss enemies to be tested in steam build

cleanup codes

initial setup for sea monster death to spawn bubble effects both particle and animation sheet

updated particle system parameters for sea monster bubble effect on death / updated voyage group panel to contain list of arrow indicators pointing toward group member locations in the area /

Web Tools files updated to their latest version

renamed craft item reward function

- Fix for FMOD Listener attached to the Battle Camera

- Implemented Battle Block FMOD sfx

setup admin game settings to support health and damage scaling of land monster boss

add damage/health value to boss monster based on party count and game settings

added logs

Updates from main

removed debug log for spawning spawns

setup map editor tool to support placement of towers

- Player joining an ongoing game now have their pvpTeam set when they load in.

- Joining an ongoing game temporarily disabled.

- Player joining an ongoing game now have their pvpTeam set when they load in.

- Joining an ongoing game temporarily disabled.

- Fixed Missing Reference Issue with the Location Banner

- Increased the difficulty of the sea tentacle boss [3096]

- Increased the venom residue duration (to 15s) and damage (to 10/s).

- Added a secondary attack to tentacles, which fires a circle of poison projectiles around a target.

#3202 - boat stuck on land when entering area

#3145 - Give chat notification on auction sale "Your auction of XXX has sold

- Updating FMOD Studio Cache

Fix for Weapon Shop tooltip not reflecting the correct star count and rarity sprites

Updates from main

NPC ship destroyed fmod event setup, audio profiler recording from playtest capture session uploaded.

log cleanup and removed mini map arrow indicators

boss logs updates

fixed boss monster double attack bug / updated group member ally indicator into using same script as the tutorial arrow

updated towers to support new parameters which will be loaded in the main game

added instance field handling for pvp tower, setup pvp tower script to receive data from instance

- FMOD sfx for enemy ship being destroyed

- FMOD sfx for craft success action

updated base and shipyard map editor prefabs

updated main code base to support processing pvp base and pvp shipyard / updated pvp scripts to have receive data function

- Fixed admin parameters for land boss (hp and damage) not stored in the DB.

- Made the admin settings panel save pending changes when closing only if there are pending changes.

Fixed venom residues spawning on land (tentacle sea boss attacks) [3263]

updated scaling of tower pvp

fixed arrow showing tutorial text

Some attenuation mix updates to ship charge mechanic and enemy ship destroyed events in fmod, also removed a variation from the seagull scatterer sound.

removed spam logs / updated death anim frame

added craftable item null handling / updated admin manager to generate blueprints as well

- Weapon actions SFX now works for all clients

fixed refresh movement capability if the battler is a player and is a winning team

updated chat line to be interactable for context menu panel

updated speak chat line

Updates from main

updated sea palette to support pvp structures

Setup some data reading from the map editor, and instance setting up.

Setup some data reading from the map editor, and instance setting up.

updated arrow indicators a

Fixed battlers animations skipping the first frame in each action [3243]

updated arrow target screen checker

updated tower to support display of attack range

Updated max number of voices on player ship charge and throw seed events respectively, also updated attenuation set on throw seeds.

Cannonball Impact event added, changed the implementation of player land event to the audio switch framework, and changed some mix attenuations on throw seed event.

Fix for Task #3242 - Tried to use "/admin pgo" and got stuck at loading screen.

Made new events for assigning perk points and purchasing item (no audio yet), and added the first weather effect for rain to the ambience master event.

Added purchase item sound stinger to the project in fmod.

Added auto-move mode for player bodies and player ships (for stress tests).

Implemented assign and unassign perk points fmod events in the project.

Updates from main

- warpRandomly now only gets called on local player

- Meta files for SFXs

Implemented new powerup pickup effect.

Implemented new powerup pickup effect.

- Moved admin manager processes that must only be executed once per client or server to a singleton admin manager [3268]

- Moved the item names dictionary and map names to the singleton admin manager, to avoid them being regenerated every time a player warps nearby.

- Moved the NetworkProfiler to the singleton admin manager.

Updates from main

updated pvp tower to display fixed attack range instead of dynamic one

updated area palette to exclude pvp structures / added new waypoint for pvp that accepts lanes

- Fixed issue where pvp ships would return to base.

- Made all players display their names in pvp.

- Fixed issue where pvp ships would return to base.

- Made all players display their names in pvp.

fixed weather system to set as none upon disconnection

syntax update

updated battle party member count variable to be set on the battle instead of all the battlers

- Butler: Removed from project (obsolete)

- Website: Removed references to Butler

- Website: Removed resources linking to old metrics web pages

- Website: New Version String

- Website: Tweaked the Account Creation Pipeline

- Website: Added Password Reset Link on Account Creation Page

- Website: Invites System checked

- Website: Invites page improved responsiveness

- Website: Minor UI improvements

- Addressing "#3150 - Server Memory usage"

- Addressing "#3230 - Need some padding at the bottom of the player level icon"

- Addressing "#3233 - ZSnap of certain Battle GUI is wrong"

- Addressing "#3246 - Lag during PvP"

- Addressing "#3253 - My star icon is positioned weird"

- Codebase: Reuse HttpClient in Nubis, to reduce bandwidth usage

- Multiplayer support for Ship Boost FMOD sfx

- Item purchase SFX

- Addressing #3271 - Name text on other player is displaying wrong

Added the AUTO_WARP command line argument to control the random client warps.

Updates from main

Fixed NetEntity error when running on non-player-ships.

Fixed NetEntity error when running on non-player-ships

Jun 17, 2021

The Sounds of Where Cards Fall

Where Cards Fall - Snowman_Amelia

Game audio can be so immersive that it’s easy to overlook where the sounds in fact come from, let alone consider that a sound designer has spent time designing a unified experience for players.

To achieve this seamlessness in the world of Where Cards Fall, audio director Kristi Knupp carefully crafted much of the audio from scratch, creating a collection of sounds that matched the tactility and organic feel of the game itself.

We had some burning questions for Kristi about her creative process and hope you learn as much as we did from our conversation!

- - -

How did your background in music and audio engineering lead you to a career in game audio?

I started playing the piano at age five. In my teenage years, I ventured on to drums, guitar and vocals. I started a few bands throughout that time. After high school, I attended Full Sail University for audio engineering. In 2004 moved out to Los Angeles and worked with world renown composer/DJ — Brian Transeau (BT). My jobs for him were many, including but not limited to, composers assistant, gear set up/tech and tour manager when on the road.

In 2006, I graduated from Berklee College of Music and moved back to Los Angeles shortly thereafter. In 2008 I started my career in the game industry as a Quality Assurance Tester for Vivendi Games. A short four months later I landed my first audio job at Electronic Arts working on Boom Box Bash Party, and since then I’ve worked for a number of AAA game studios worldwide on various types of projects.

What does your sound design process typically look like from pre-production through to production?

During pre-production, I try to ensure the audio pipeline is being considered as early on as possible before custom tools get built out.

Production tasks can range from taking on the role of a project manager, to the more hands-on technical and creative side.

Creating and maintaining a road map of audio needs across the game
Creating and maintaining a road map for dialogue/localization needs across the game
Creating sounds for all categories of the game (Ambience, SFX, UI, etc)
Hiring and working with composers
Implementing all sounds, dialogue and music into the audio tool/game engine
Audio QA on a regular basis to ensure audio is working properly in-game
Managing other sound designers if budget allows for additional folks on the audio team
Working with production and creative director as needed to ensure the style of the audio meets everyone’s expectations

How did you create a whole language for Where Cards Fall? What was the process of recording it with the voice actors like?

I created the language for Where Cards Fall by reading books and taking pieces of words and mashing them together. So like the beginning of one word and the end of another, for example.

The next step was to figure out how many different length phrases would be most commonly used in the game. I would then mix and match different gibberish phrases to create everything from a short phrase that was meant to symbolize “yes” or “no” to a conversation that consisted of multiple gibberish words strung together.

Working with the voice actors at Warner Brothers was a hoot! We had the actors working to videos of the various animations for timing purposes. I also provided them with a printed copy of 2, 3 and 4-word gibberish phrases to choose from. It was a lot of fun and very exciting to see the characters come to life.

Can you speak a bit about some of the processes of creating foley for the game?

For anyone unfamiliar with the term, foley is the manual reproduction of everyday sound effects.

The process of creating foley for the game was a lot of fun. Since most of the sounds were organic and not synthesized, I decide to record content from scratch. For example –the player is interacting with these stacks of cards for a large portion of the game. These cards can open, close, shake, wind can blow parts of them over, etc. The sounds had to be unique but also sound like they were part of the same set of sound effects. I purchased paper and plastic playing cards of all different shapes and sizes and started recording myself doing different movements with the cards, like shuffling, flipping one or multiple over at a time, cutting the deck, dragging them on different surfaces, etc. until I wound up with a unique pallet of sounds to work from.

From there, I would take snippets of my recording and try to make them work to picture until I got to a sound that felt like it fit each action in the game.

The user interface (UI) was also created this way. Some elements of the UI are paper in origin others originated from recording myself scratching and erasing with pencils and various markers on different surfaces until we got something that had the right character. A good example of this would be when the player asks for a “hint” in-game. An outline of the house of cards appears and then disappears. If you listen you’ll hear a sketch SFX, and an erase SFX.

What were some of the tools you used while working on Where Cards Fall?

Unity
FMOD Studio
Protools, Ableton Live, Waves Plugins, GRM tools Plugins, Sound Toys Plugins, Omnisphere
Sennheiser MKH 416 Shotgun Mic and UA 6176 Mic Pre/Compressor for recording Foley

What have you been up to since the game and what’s next for you?

Since Where Cards Fall I’ve been working on some music projects of my own I’m hoping to release sometime in 2021. I’m also starting a new project with Electronic Arts soon on a very exciting unannounced title.

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It feels like a special privilege to get a glimpse behind the curtain of Kristi’s creative process. Learning more about her role in the game and the detail that went into each sound truly enriches the experience of playing it. Next time you hear the scratchy sound of the UI or the soft fluttering of a card deck, we hope you’ll picture Kristi in the studio, turning ordinary materials into the immersive soundscape of Where Cards Fall!

Kristi has been designing game audio for over 10 years. She has experience working on both AAA and Indie titles like Ori and the Blind Forest, Fractured Lands, Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure, and more. Outside of her audio work, she is an entertainment photographer whose portfolio further illustrates her passion for music and the experience of it.

You can view more of Kristi’s work on her website and follow her on Instagram at @evoke_emotion.

Stay up to date with @wherecardsfall on social media and follow along for more from our Behind The Game series.

Until next time!
- the Where Cards Fall team