The Night Scythe
(Video game, 2023)
- Narrative concept and screenplay
- Musical composition and production
- SFX production (some sound effects produced by others)
- FMOD implementation in Unity/audio programming (using C#)
- Gameplay loop concept and implementation programming (C#)
- Level design in Unity
(Based on Unity's 3D Gamekit Lite.)
In The Night Scythe, a global oligarchy has caused an apocalypse, eliminating the ozone layer and enslaving most of the survivors. Ellen sets out to free the people by killing the head of the oligarchy. During the day she must survive in the scorching sun, collecting Shadowdew, a mysterious healing substance and the only viable resource left on the planet. At night she wields The Night Scythe, an ancient death-dealing relic functioning only at night. But will all the people welcome her attempt at revolution? Or will they just consider her a delusional rogue, a threat to society?
The gameplay is centered around a day/night cycle, which also is reflected in the music.
During the day, grating metal sheets, ringing waterphones, noisy plucks and tremolo strings intertwine in an unnerving soundscape, to capture the hazard of the elements, as the blistering sun plagues the planet's surface.
The nighttime music, in contrast, features a more melodic orchestral sound. At first I tried to compose something sparse and sneaky-sounding, as she goes around silently assassinating enemies. But along the way I instead opted for conveying the story's emotional complexities and the undertones of despair and urgency, within the music. The protagonist doesn't really want to kill anyone, but it's a means to an end, a necessary evil to get to the leader at the top of the oligarchy. All for the greater good of the people she's trying to liberate.
FMOD/musical concepts include:
- Daytime and nighttime FMOD events: A music manager plays different events depending on whether it's daytime or nighttime.
- Adaptive music/ambiance: Music and ambiance effects adapt depending on player actions and positions in the game world. Eg, getting close to an enemy triggers the combat music.
- Enemy/stem correlation in combat: The overworld is divided into three areas with one enemy in each, and depending on which enemy Ellen faces, the combat music adapts and plays the stem corresponding to the current area. Each area is represented by its particular instrument.
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- Enemy/stem correlation in the Nighttime theme. After killing an enemy, or rather, after picking up the so called Soul Key the enemy leaves behind, the area's corresponding instrument will be added to the Nighttime music. Eg, if facing the enemy in the Forest area you'll hear some extra percussion in the combat music. Then after killing it and picking up its Soul Key, a stem with more percussion will fade in in the Nighttime FMOD event.
- Dynamic ambiance: The Daytime FMOD event has a scatterer instrument triggering various sound bites and distorted effects randomly to make the daytime ambiance more dynamic each day/night cycle.
- Boss music progression: Various game states affect boss music progression, mainly by triggerboxes in Unity, or the number of hits the boss has taken, using a custom made script. If the player dies during the fight, music and parameters are reset using scripts and FMOD logic tracks.
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Custom programming in C# and audio implementation in Unity:
- All audio scripts; audio manager, audio triggers, and audio zone settings for different scenes.
- A daytime manager script, receiving the value of the built-in Time Of Day-variable. Depending on whether it's daytime or nighttime, several different gameplay related changes take place. During the day: The Night Scythe doesn't function, Ellen takes damage each set amount of time while outdoors in the sun, enemies hide from the sun, Shadowdew pickups are spawned at spawn points, and any spawned tombstones (see below) get cracked. At night: The Night Scythe functions, no damage from the sun, enemies come out, Shadowdew despawn.
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- If an enemy is killed, it spawns a tombstone at the site of its death. This tombstone is also affected by the scorching sunlight, so during the day all spawned tombstones get cracked, making them destructible. The next night Ellen can destroy them with her weapon to reveal the Soul Key of the deceased enemy.
- Speed boost: For each Shadowdew picked up (but with a maximum stock of 5), the player can activate a speed boost, increasing movement speed. This can be used to make longer jumps and reach new places.
- Dynamic dialogue: depending on how many Soul Keys have been picked up, the dialogue frame displays different dialogue.
- VCA sliders functional in pause menu.
Looking for the secret password? Part 2 of 3 is comp