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Freeze-E Frosty's: Designing the Soundtrack

10/30/2012

A Chill Soundtrack

There are 2 hidden tracks in the main menu.

When it came to making Freeze-E Frosty's we knew we needed to have a vibrant soundtrack that will capture the feeling of the game. At the beginning we didn't know how we were even going to start on a soundtrack. Luckily for us the very talented Mike Coons joined the team.

Mike Coons brought along with him over 25 years of composing experience. He however had never worked on a game before. Mike is an extremely talented guy. He composes all of his music and he plays just about every instrument I can imagine.

Over the period of a few months I shared with Mike some of the best soundtracks in gaming. I wanted the game to have a soundtrack that was retro with possibly some chiptune sounds. I sent him links to just about every game I could imagine. Bomberman, Mario, Contra, Crash Bandicoot were just a few games I sent him as reference. Mike came by weekly to demo his latest tracks. Below is a breakdown of the songs in the game.

Cold as Ice Jazz

That baseline is as smooth as Frosty.

   The first level is where we introduce the player to the world of Freeze-E Frosty's and the character of Frosty. When I described the character of Frosty to Mike we decided on a cool baseline that would emphasize Frosty's "too cool for school" attitude.

   The first thing Mike came up with was just the baseline. It was a very mellow line that sauntered through your ears. We talked about adding a bit more to it and what he came up with was great.

   For reference I told Mike that we were kind of going for a very 1950's malt shop kind of vibe. I described it as something that would be played through a jukebox. When it came to the tone and the vibe he certainly matched what we as a team was looking for.

   He filled in the track with some light piano and guitar that came together to form a very relaxed Jazz sound that perfectly reflected Frosty as a character. The piano to me fits well with the feel of the game, the song sounds relaxed but the piano is something of a warning that things might get a bit tense.

Cold as Ice Jazz - Indie DB

Meltdown

The factory is going haywire!

The factory is Freeze-E Frosty's eventually goes haywire leading to a chaotic meltdown. For this track we wanted to capture the sense of urgency and panic.

The first track Mike gave us was a bit dark. The second track was a mostly piano track. It felt right but it was missing the urgency. It wasn't until he combined the two he came up with something that fit the bill.

The track that he came up with captured the mood exactly. He kept the piano but added in some horns and gave it a pulsing rhythm. It is one of my favorite songs he composed for us. It has a very moody feel to it without being overbearing.

Meltdown - Indie DB

Forklift Funk

Moody and atmospheric. Capturing the level perfectly.

For the second level of FF I knew exactly what I wanted the music to sound like. As a huge Mario fan I just had to share with Mike the music from Super Mario Bros from the NEs. World 1-2 is the underground level and since I was a kid that iconic music has stuck with me.

I sent Mike a clip of that music and told him that I wanted our second level to pay an homage to it without being overtly noticeable. I knew it was going to be a challenge but Mike was an expert and so far he hadn't let me down yet.

Mike really knocked this one right out of the park. He really made a track that not only paid homage to one of the classics but it stands on it's own. I remember running play tests of the level and having people come up to me asking if they can get a copy of this song. It was pretty much at this point I knew Mike was capable of working with the guidelines I gave him and excel.

Forklift Funk - Indie DB

Royal Ice Palace and Jurassic Flavor

We knew that our hero Frosty was going to do battle with a T-Rex for a long time coming. What came to my mind as memorable song we could use as a baseline was the Jurassic Park theme.

I sent over a clip of the Jurassic Park theme over to Mike and he got to work. He was able to replicate the sound really well. I dropped it into the boss fight level but it didn't fit the mood of the boss fight.

The track below is what he came up with. It had the Jurassic Park influence but it lacked the magic of previous tracks. I am not saying that it wasn't good, because it was good. It just didn't fit the mood of the boss battle. We ended up using this track for another area in the game known as the "Trophy Room". We scrapped the Jurassic Park idea and decided to go in another direction with it.

Royal Ice Palace (trophy room) - Indie DB

Mike headed back to the mixing board and came up with two different songs. The first was a very slow and grim. The second was a much more fast paced song. We originally were going to go with the faster paced track but we realized that before the boss fight is a short intro/tutorial and in between phases of the boss fights we had lulls in the combat so we needed something, we couldn't simply have no music for that part. Mike mixed both tracks together to make what became the track below. It builds up slowly and turns into a much more fast paced song. We looped the first half of the song for the start of the level and for the parts in between the rounds.

Jurassic Flavor (boss theme) - Indie DB

Ice Cream Adventure and 8-bit Boogey

Mike produced a lot of content for us, so much in fact that a few tracks didn't make it into the main game. Everything he came up with was fantastic. He took whatever mix of ideas we had in our heads and turned it into music. Below are two tracks that are not in the main game but were added as Easter eggs in the games main menu.

Ice Cream Adventure - Indie DB

Ice Cream adventure was going to be the song for the first level but it was taken out in favor of "Cold as Ice Jazz". We liked the song, it reminded us of Crash Bandicoot. We instead planned on using it for a level that would come after the boss battle. Early on we thought we might want to continue the project.

8-bit Boogey - Indie DB

8-Bit boogie was a great song that was also a contender for the first level song. I personally love the chip tune sound it has. This song is really upbeat, it properly reflects the tone of the game but we wanted a song that would suit Frosty's character.

Implementing the music into Kismet

When it came to implementing the music into the levels I found that using the matinees in Kismet allowed me the perfect level of control over the music in game. I was able to link it to switches and actions in a way to accommodate for just about any situation.

The kismet for the main menu was very easy to pull off.

The music was easily implemented into all of the levels. The only level that really had some problems was the boss fight. I had to make sure that the first half of the boss fight music played at the start of the level and to transition into the speedier battler music once the boss showed up.

Music was broken up into phases for the boss fight.

Things in the boss fight became pretty complex. I had to break the music into three music phases, one for each phase in the boss fight. I also had to have phases for each transition from round to round. In the end I was able to get the matinees to play the appropriate music when necessary. The whole thing came out spectacular, the music in the boss fight was flawless.

Freeze-E Frosty's went on to win Game Wizards Game of the Year at Art Institutes of Santa Monica that year. Mike didn't have any experience working with games but he didn't let that stop him from taking the challenge. I was happy to work closely with him to perfect the soundtrack and in the end his weekly visits was something the entire team rallied around. If it wasn't for him Freeze-E Frosty's would have been a much different game. The soundtrack stands as the best soundtrack Game Wizards has ever heard.

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

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Early Sketches and Designs

10/14/2012

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Disclaimer: This does not reflect the current build of the game. These images, sketches and videos are from an older build of the game from almost a year and a half ago.

I was looking through some of my work on an in development project. I came across a ton of old sketches and designs I did from when the project first started. I decided to make a blog post to display my work. All the work displayed here is from the first few months of production.

Sketches

Being the only designer on a small team is a daunting task. I knew it was going to be a huge challenge to tackle so it was decided early on that we would design the game to be as modular as possible. This would allow for quick level creation and we would get the most use out of our limited assets.

The art style we first considered was Babylonian. The problem with that style was that it was mostly square and lacked color. The square design of the Babylonian architecture was great for modularity but it felt stiff when we compared it to a jungle environment. We wanted to avoid that feel and focus on something a bit more vibrant.

I spent time just coming up with arenas, I added cover to them, elevation and all sorts of variables. The idea was to build the level inside of these boxes so that they can be shifted moved around and even reused. Theses arenas would be completely interchangeable with one another. This would really allow for quick prototyping and design.

The river level was an ambitious idea.

The River level was a proposed idea for a really kick ass intro sequence. The player would have been running away from bandits/treasure hunters/mercenaries/ the bad guys when they come across a rope bridge. As the player crosses the bad guys cut the rope bridge causing the player to fall into the river. They player is swept away in the rushing water until they can grab onto a log. Once on the log the player must use their pistol to fire at pursuing enemy rafts that are giving chase.

The level proved to be too complicated. We all agreed that it was an awesome idea but it needed to be toned down. We wanted an intro that will instantly catch the players attention. We decided to tone it down a bit, after all we want a good strong intro that gets the player invested but also teaches them how to play. There is really no point in placing the player in a high stress scenario so early into the game.

Some of the early levels had more of a Tomb Raider feel to them. We wanted incorporate puzzles into the game design as much as we could. I also saw this puzzle rooms as a good way to break up the flow of combat. These puzzle rooms would lead to other rooms that would be designed for combat.

Puzzle areas were heavily emphasized early on.

The sketch above shows a level I proposed. This level was a combination of a puzzle room design and combat area. Players would have to deal with the shifting platforms, trying to flip switches until they can get the bridges to line up correctly so they progress through the area. As they attempt to traverse the platforms enemies will spawn in and attempt to stop them but flipping the switches or attacking the player.

I studied Uncharted's design, they way they would widen and tighten the path in their levels was genius.

I wanted my levels to have an organic flow to them. I studied from life how the jungle would have a natural flow of paths. I wanted to replicate that in my levels. Originally I was going to add archways at the start and end of every level. This would be a great way for the player to be conditioned into knowing where they start and where they need to end up. The problem with that is that it is also a lazy way of guiding the player through the level.

A few blue pencil sketches I made after being inspired by Japanese architecture.

As we made the transition into doing more traditional Japanese houses and architecture I spent a lot of time studying from life. The Art Director on our team bought a great book on the fundamentals of Japanese architecture. We spent hours shifting through it's pages bookmarking interesting layouts that could make interesting levels.

UDK Level Design

I tried to play around with the terrain in UDK whenever possible to create interesting encounters.

Here is an example of an early modular level I did inside of UDK using the terrain editor. I was playing around with making a level that had a gently incline. The overall flow of it was simple and it worked quite nicely. The only problem with this design was that the terrain maid it difficult for the cover nodes to distinguish what cover was. This lead to the player floating around cover rather than sticking to it.

I made a few early graybox passes when I was attempting to come up with the early feel of the games temple level. Early on I wanted the game to take place in a level, something that really had that Tomb Raider feel to it. Some of these early designs were made to introduce some of our game mechanics. This area was originally intended to teach the player how to vault and climb around the level.

One of the early themes to the game was to have flowing sand or water. One of the areas I designed was a room where the floor was just made of quicksand. The original idea was to have the player climb on the walls to avoid the quicksand.

The puzzle in this room would require the player to climb on the walls and avoid the moving pieces that would knock the player back into the quicksand. The room is completely sealed and would have required the player to find a key so they can escape the room. I had this room working somewhat effectively. I was able to create a quicksand volume out of a combination of a water and gravity volume.

Sand Garden

These sketches were for a level known as the Sand Garden. The idea behind this level was to be a level that would have lead from the jungle into the temple. The temple was going to be where the majority of the game takes place.

The Sand Garden is an area that was designed to allow for an intense firefight. The level has multiple tiers that all lead to a bridge. That bridge would lead to the entrance of the temple. The player would have to battle waves of enemies that have set up camp on the outside of the temple. The layout of this map gave the player plenty of cover to avoid enemy fire but it also was spread out enough to allow the player to flank enemies.

As the game progressed and the idea of the temple was cut. As a result of that so was this level. I really like the flow of the Sand Garden, it had some real potential. I might come back to it one day or even use it's initial design for something else.

World Building in UDK

Back when I attended college we had to present our work to our peers. I gathered all the art assets we had in game to present what we had been working on. Using just a few simple assets I was able to create a small level to demonstrate the level of progress we had reached. At this point we had been working on this project around two months.

Singleplayer levels and Early Work in Progress videos

I worked on a simple campaign level known simply as "The Tower". This level has the player traverse the map until they encounter a large mansion. Once inside the mansion they do battle with enemy mercenaries. The theme of the level was to have the player investigate a strange light in a seemingly abandoned tower.

Disclaimer: This does not reflect the current build of the game. These images, sketches and videos are from an older build of the game from almost a year and a half ago.

The exterior of the level lead the player to a grouping of houses. The player needs to get into the mansion so they can proceed to the tower. The player must climb up onto the roof of the mansion and fall through the roof and infiltrate the house from second floor. The player continues to battle through the house until they reach the base of the tower. Once they reach the source of the light the level ends.

Unfortunately this level was cut. Many of the assets in this level became outdated once the art style of the game was finalized. The layout of this level wasn't great however. If you watch the video below you can see a very rough block out of the level but as you might notice it wasn't executed properly, although the concept of the level was good.

Here is a rough video of "The Tower" gameplay. This does not reflect what the game looks like. This video is from around 3 months into the project.

Interior Minka House

The second single player level I created was a much more concise one. In this level I focused the objectives for the player. They are traversing the interior of this house but as they do they are learning the game's basic mechanics.

In the clip below you can see a lot of placeholder pieces of art, weapons and etc. At this point in the games creation we were still getting things like coding and cover nodes nailed out. It looks pretty simplistic compared to where we're at now.

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

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Multiplayer Level Blockout : Ninth Pass - "Emperor's Square"

10/9/2012

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The changes I made for this update were minor. The only complaint I had was that the area toward the back of the map was too cramped.

June 27th, 2012

The changes I made for this week were a bit minor. One of the complaints I got with this section of the map was that it was a bit crowded. It was never intended to be a combat zone but as an escape route it wasn't working right either.

I decided that the best course of action was to expand the back out a bit by 256 units. This would bring the total size of this area to about 512 units (32ft).

The back area was expanded out to 512 units and it was looking good. The area here was going to see a vast improvement to combat but I still wanted to allow players

The overall layout of the area remained intact. The new escape route has plenty of space to allow for players to run past and quickly move through this area without having to take cover.

The update this time around was really minor in comparison tot he fixes I've been making. We will have to wait and see what the next play test reveals. I have a feeling that the area is improved but can still be streamlined.

Iteration 9 June 27th, 2012

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

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Freeze-E Frosty's: Designing the Soundtrack

A Chill Soundtrack

Cold as Ice Jazz

Meltdown

Forklift Funk

Royal Ice Palace and Jurassic Flavor

Ice Cream Adventure and 8-bit Boogey

Implementing the music into Kismet

Early Sketches and Designs

Sketches

UDK Level Design

Sand Garden

World Building in UDK

Singleplayer levels and Early Work in Progress videos

Interior Minka House

Multiplayer Level Blockout : Ninth Pass - "Emperor's Square"

June 27th, 2012

Dannylv100

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