Haunted Mansion

For this project my goal was to create an immersive and detailed atmosphere that would reward player exploration for this simple haunted mansion level.

I began by editing sound assets in Reaper and applying some light processing, mainly through EQ. Attention was paid to make sure each sound had the right spatial properties for this level so that they would sound like they belonged in the space. Sounds that loop were edited to be of sufficient loop length and to loop seamlessly.

Sounds were implemented into the level as Unreal Sound Cues and placed at appropriate locations throughout the level. Attenuation settings were added for each Sound Cue and the falloff distance carefully set and tested so that the level tailed off realistically as the player moves away from the sound source. I used the "Natural" falloff type for most attenuations as I found it sounded the best.

It was critical to enable the occlusion setting for many attenuations, which sets a low pass filter that engages whenever a sound source is occluded from view. This way a sound source emanating from another room or behind a wall sounds muted and lower in volume.

Finally, I created the Sound Cue for rain so that it crossfaded between two sound files based on the player's distance from it. While standing near a window, a closer and brighter exterior rain is heard, which transitions to a duller interior rains as the player moves away.