I use
There are many more in-depth music programs, but if you're not a musician, then I don't think a full-fledged DAW is what you need anyways.
Today in Hive-o-tron: LARVAE
There's a crosshair now which needs work. Other than that I still need some sort of FX for when you hit the critters (ichor spray), maybe some other feedback type stuff, and polishing the level layout, spawn areas and such. So it's coming along.
Hah, you just gave me a minor heart attack. For a second I thought LD29 had already started. :P
bfxr (and its predecessor, sfxr) is what nearly everyone uses for this, though it's definitely meant for retro sounds. You might still be able to get something usable out of it.
Sounds like a job for BFXR. It'll require some tinkering(not much, honestly), but it comes with presets for common sounds that you can alter to your liking. Highly recommend checking it out. http://www.bfxr.net
I think you should at least add some temporary ones ASAP -- you could try this
I saw a demonstration once on how it affects the perception of animation -- adding a "whoosh" sound to a fast punch animation made it easier to imagine the complete motion of the punch even though only a blur was basically portrayed. Also, the more forms of feedback you can provide for the player, the more responsive the game will feel
I personally, no joke, start with the most basic, simple wave-form synth I have (in my case, the good ol' ES1 in Logic). Try http://www.bfxr.net/ for a free 8-bit sound producer. 8 bit sounds can often be edited down and simplified to make them work in the context of a modern game.
Hello! Thanks for all that stuff!
I have a question that maybe you can answer:
You have a lot 8-bit style sounds, right? How would you approach creating a sound effect for a sword slash hitting an enemy flesh in the 8 bit style? Assuming I'm using this site:
Also, the same sword hitting flesh question, but no longer in 8 bit format, how would you make that sound without using a microphone? Is there some sort of software where you could create such an effect? Even if it's paid.
I realize those questions are unlikely to be answered but I had to try :(
I'm no sound designer by any means, however
FL Studio seems to be the goto tool that I see a lot of my favorite composers turn to for music composition.
If you are ever looking to make some 8bit style SFX you there are some free tools you can use online such as Bfxr
http://www.hooktheory.com/ear-training is probably my favorite.
Here is a long list of 100 best web resources from bedroom producers blog:
http://bedroomproducersblog.com/2015/02/26/free-resources-for-music-producers/
I liked http://www.bfxr.net/ from that list. It's an 8-bit 'video game sound FX' generator.
I made a game called "Santa Claus Down" and the idea is that santa has crashed and now you have to deliver the packages with a truck that's growing with more trailers (the theme). To make the trailer system work I had to cheat by adding a small engine to each trailer or the entire thing would not move and inch. You can find it here: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=35585
The game is a combination of snake and an endless runner. I originally tried to make a random town, but failed and had to change idea to "endless runner." This failure also led to that my original purpose failed, which was to spend 50% of the time to make the game more fun. In my previous ludum dare games, I got complaints that the idea was creative but the game was not fun to play. So I spend about 25% of the time to make the game more fun by tweaking the rate at which new cars arrive, etc.
I chose to participate in the compo, so I had to create all sounds myself. I used http://www.bfxr.net/ to get the sounds and I had to test like 200 sounds before I found a "good" truck sounds which sounds like a small boat engine :S ...Or putt putt putt putt putt putt putt putt putt putt putt putt... as one of the reviewers said :)
Very nice game. Liked the different puzzles. While the minefield-like levels did get a little annoying due to their length, they were still interesting. Congratulations on getting something out there!
One thing I did have trouble with is getting to understand what was going on. The first time around the first level felt a little overwhelming due to how big it was. I'd recommend making a few extra smaller 'tutorial' levels that introduce one element at a time before combining them to help the player get adjusted.
Lastly, the lack of audio also made it a bit more difficult to get familiar with things. You can use BFXR to generate some simple 8-bit sound effects that would really help.
Looking forwards to seeing how this turns out. Good luck!
For PixelArt GraphicsGale is THE tool.
Online Music Maker: Soundation. Online 8-bit Sound Effect Creator: Bfxr.
Audacity is a great, free editor for clips that already exist. If you need to generate sounds, Bfxr is a great choice. It will go well with a chiptune aesthetic. You can design sounds and then write them to disk as audio files. http://www.bfxr.net/
There are a couple of the links on the right that are useful for making sound effects quickly:
http://www.superflashbros.net/as3sfxr/ http://www.bfxr.net/
They often sound quite '8-bit', but they can be good placeholders...
BFXR will generate sounds similar to those you'd expect from a nintendo/atari game
Audacity Allows you to record and edit sounds
Powertab Generates an MIDI file from Guitar and Bass Tablature, also allows the writing of Tablature.
Generally, I will write a song up in Powertab and export the MIDI file into Audacity, Record the sound with a couple microphones, my bass, guitar, and an amp. Then dress it up with BFXR subtly.
For 8-bit-esque original sound effects, I use Bfxr. Combined with Audacity for fine-tuning and with a bit of practice, it's easy to churn out your own quality sound effects pretty quickly. Of course, if you want hi-fi sounds, Bfxr isn't the right tool.
How about BFXR?
It is a sound generator which you can use online as well as offline.
The sounds it produces are quite 8-bit-ish but using the "Coin/Pickup" presets you can get some nice UI feedback effects!
8bit sound effect creator: http://www.bfxr.net/
free sprite creator: http://www.piskelapp.com/
These should help you make sound bites and sprites. I can't really make any sprites since I'm not sure what you want them to look like (but send me pictures and I can probably spritify them for you)
You can try making your own with Bfxr or Labchirp.
Even if you can't find something perfect, having a disclaimer that the sound effects aren't done yet is something you could do as well.
If you remember, message me if you set up an itch page, I'll probably post about your game in a week or so, would be nice to have that link.
Ahh the kinda "8-bit falling death" sound…
I don't know how it's done off the top of my head but it sounds like it could be replicated using an FM synth generator, something to do with sawtooth waves and maybe a bit of flange. I don't know if the free stuff like Audacity can do it but Sound Forge could years ago so I wouldn't be surprised.
Edit: I think I've found a tool that would fit the bill - http://www.bfxr.net/
Thanks a lot! The sound effects that I have so far are from bfxr but I've probably only made a third of the amount needed. The music is by my great music guy Trevor Black. The controls has come up consistently in feedback so I'll definitely be putting some work into that in the near future.
Slightly off topic, why did you have to pay $25 for an Android dev account? I've released games on droid and I've never had to pay for a developer account.
I also have the same issue, I do the coding and a friend does the art/assets, but I don't have anyone to do sound. I found this really helpful for making sound effects.
I use this online tool now when trying to randomly generate new noises for my games because it's to fast and easy: http://www.bfxr.net/
Reminds of me the Roland synth I had in the early 90's, it came with a bunch of preset sounds but you were able to adjust all of the parameters and make your own new sound! Fun times.
This is definitely something I need to dig into. I have back-burnered putting sound into my game for a while. At times I find it frustrating to find "that" right sound. I play other games and I am like: "Damn, I would have never though about putting that sound in there for that". I love the old 8-bit sounds and found this awesome site: http://www.bfxr.net/ . You're right in that it creates a whole new immersive experience. It is like the cherry on top so-to-speak. I will definitely be stalking your new blog posts.
Are fonts and sound effects worth risking a copyright stike or a channel take down?
Use creative commons stuff for sound effects and public domain or 100% free fonts.
Think of it this way - would you like it if someone reuploaded a 20 second clip of your video without asking for permission or giving you credit? Font and sound artists that make these things and spend time on it, give them credit and use them with permission. Don't use copy written or premium stuff at all without a permission slip.
More sound sources: http://freepd.com/ http://www.bfxr.net/
It really depends on the sound you are trying to make!
I often recommend this for simple 8 bit sounds.
Unless you have a problem with the sample explosion and gun sounds, Id just stick to those! And as far as simple soundbites, don't underestimate the power of Google (found this in about 5 seconds).
I like to record my own sounds, because it is fun as hell and I have the equipment, but there are so many sounds available on the internet that almost anything I can think of already exists. Have fun!
I got a bit overwhelmed with my overly ambitious game project, so i took a break to make something simple.
I used NGUI to display and tween the gameboard and pieces and http://www.bfxr.net/ to make the sounds. The graphics were drawn in paint.net and are the best programmer art i've ever made!
I didn't refer to the source code posted by Gabriele Cirulli (Maker of 2048), i decided to figure out the movement code myself - it's actually more complected than it first looks.
I also added 2 score multipliers:
Combo - increases by one for every sequential merge and resets to 1 if you make a move that doesn't end up with a merge.
Chain - If you 'chain' several merges together in ascending order (2x2 into a 4, 2x4 into an 8, 2x8 into a 16 etc, etc) then the chain multiplier will increase by one for every step in the chain. The chain multiplier doesn't reset, but can be increased by completing a longer chain.
The love-it or hate-it colour scheme is a product of my own diseased mind :p
Fun game, I would slow down the ships a little as it's a little hard on the eyes to follow what's happening. Also maybe some sound effects. http://www.bfxr.net/ is a cool site where you can make your own video game style sounds. I think both those things would add tons of the game in terms of fun.
<strong>bfxr</strong> is another free game noise generator app based on the same code. You can just hit 'randomize' for five minutes and come up with a ton of usable SFX.
Submissions for this month's sound challenge (synth zaps, shots, and explosions) can be made at <strong>our soundcloud dropbox page</strong>
Maybe have the instructions screen come up upon first level and either never have it come up again or have a check box to make it never come up again. (Obviously keep it in the menu though for reference).
Like others have said the boxes are a bit glitchy, so you might want to try and perfect that :)
Sound could really add something to the game, try this out: http://www.bfxr.net/
Anyway that is a great first game and I gave you 5 stars :) Keep it up!
This is really good, especially the locking fields during randomization. Will be using it instead of the old sfxr. It's too bad about the standalone link requiring adobe air, instead I went and downloaded the .swf which is much more convenient. http://www.bfxr.net/Bfxr_Flash.swf
At the moment I've been using:
Graphics
Sound
Framework/Engine
If you have any specific questions about those programs let me know :)
Thanks so much! I used Ableton Live for the music, with this Roland SH-101 vst (https://www.roland.com/global/products/sh-101_plug-out/) and for the sound effects I used BFXR (http://www.bfxr.net/) Starting with some of their presets and tweaking them until I got them sounding how I wanted.
I am going to participate for the first time. I wanted to be part of so this so many times before, but never actually got time for that. This time, I took whole weekend off!
edit: Can I use for example this tool to create audio for my game? Not sure if I understand "rules" section on the website correctly. http://www.bfxr.net/
Apart from your programming environment (which you should already know) be sure to scope out a few online resources for game assets (sprites, sound effects, and so on) so you don't have to build them from scratch on a quick timeline.
Here's some links I use: http://aharrisbooks.net/h5g/h5g_11/
You may want to look over how to use a vector graphics editor to make really easy sprites even if you don't have any art skills
Take a look at lecture 50 of this course: https://www.udemy.com/html5-simple-game-development/
(I've set this to a free preview lecture)
For sound effects, make sure you know how to use bfxr: http://www.bfxr.net/
It's an incredible 8-bit sound effect tool, and I've found it to be incredibly helpful for placeholder sounds as well as full-blown sound effects for my games.
bfxr.net This is a super handy way to quickly generate scratch audio sound effects. Filling your game with sounds really helps bring it to life and if you can start dropping in sounds earlier rather than later it is just going to make things feel better.
I guess this is not really a MUST HAVE but I really love having it.
Engine: Construct 2 (https://www.scirra.com/construct2)
Pixel art and animation: Adobe Photoshop (and the built in paint package in Construct 2)
Audio and sound editing: Adobe Audition and BFXR (http://www.bfxr.net/)
Promotional material: Adobe After Effects
...and the music is done by my pal, Barry (https://soundcloud.com/nostoppingepoch)
The more retro-sounding effects are with this http://www.bfxr.net/. I think they're temporary -- I'd like to eventually record my own. The sounds the guardian (the goat guy) makes I recorded myself. Reaper is a good program for editing sounds.
I have Bfxr to thank for the retro sounds! Great tool for making beeps and blips.
I'll be sure to make them stand out against the music! It's tough deciding on a track that fits.
I spend a lot of time thinking about open culture and fostering creativity. Since I like to teach people how to make games, I'm aware that one of the hurdles is assets - you want your game to look and sound nice, but perhas you're not adept at these skills.
I love that there are sites growing that offer royalty-free assets, though they're still pretty infrequent, which can cause a lot of games (and other media) using these assets to kind of have a cringy, "where do I know this from?" feeling. i.e., I recognize music from Kevim MacLeod immediately in videos and games, or BFXR sound effects everywhere.
I would really love to see a day where more people feel compelled to provide a small portion of their creative work for free, whether for non-commercial-use only or without restrictions. If anyone reading this is an artist/musician, and you have old projects that you've shelved, perhaps think about doing this! Don't hide your old works, let other people love and use it! :)
Cool thread! These are super useful.
I made a lot of the enemy sounds in Stealth Bastard Deluxe/Stealth Inc 1 and Stealth Inc 2 using BFXR.
http://www.bfxr.net/ You can download BFXR as a standalone executable.
Sure thing. These days I use Python with Pygame, which is mostly just SDL bindings for Python but also includes many useful modules for things like sprite objects, vector math, and collisions. Beyond that I have my own little Pygame-centric framework that I've built up over the last two years or so, which includes a bunch of things like a tile engine, scene management, ever-expanding GUI widgets, and some other things I've programmed that migrate well from project-to-project--most of which have their start in a gamejam.
Toolwise, I use Tiled Map Editor to create the maps and then use object properties within Tiled to handle my entity scripting. I can not recommend Tiled enough--it's super great. For art I am still using Paint Shop Pro... X3? I forget which version but I haven't upgraded in awhile. It's cheaper than things like Photoshop and works well enough for pixel art. I haven't actually made any audio for this thing, but typically I use FL Studio 10 for music and often use bfxr for sound effects.
Much better! Two more items for feedback:
1) The hearts (lives) should be bigger, maybe even double in size? I didn't know I was running out of lives, I couldn't figure out why the game was ending
2) You should really add some sound effects, just some beeps or pings when the balls collide. You can make your own sounds for free here: http://www.bfxr.net/
Cheers.
i never have the same SMS or email alert tone for very long. i make all of mine using this: http://www.bfxr.net/
you don't have to use the online version either. they have a downloadable exe, too.
Well I started by taking a class in college and finding it so much more interesting than other audio work, but you're probably looking for something more economical. haha
There are a ton of great open source programs you can get to mess around with things that have to do with sound design. Stuff like Audicity (editing software), bfxr (sound generator), or even just messing around with FMOD in Unity (both have free versions.)
I would also suggest you read Rick Viers's, The Sound Effect Bible. It's mostly about sound recording techniques, film sound, and it's a bit out of date, but there's a lot of great information in that book.
You could also hop into /r/gameaudio for more information!
Looks like an interesting concept, the character customization and variability of play styles are pretty cool. Wall sliding and the laser gun were quite fun to use, I definitely preferred both of those to any of their counterparts. The gravity boots were confusing to use, perhaps altering their controls to be based on your facing would be helpful. ~~Though secondary weapons sound pretty cool, I found myself not really using them but I may just be bad.~~ Nevermind, the time warp gun is super awesome and feels totally usable.
Some basic effects like having things flash red would really help to make hitting feel more meaningful, right now it is hard to tell when you are hit or hitting things. If you have a bit of spare time, placeholder sound effects would go a long way towards improving the play experience and are quite easy to make with BFXR. On a very minor note, the laser gun seems to get jammed in the on position occasionally which seems to fix itself when you overheat or hit the mouse again. Overall, nice job and I look forward to future updates.
May I recommend a tool called "bfxr" ? You can play around with it to make your own retro style bleeps and bloops in about 5 minutes (it's just a set of sliders, you can randomise if you need to).
We used these two while making our game:
http://www.bfxr.net/ - make your own sounds, full rights to your sounds
http://www.freesfx.co.uk/ - downloadable database of sounds. You need to give credit to these.
How about an old school-ish coin pickup noise like this? (press play to hear it)
Not for "music" but this is an amazing site for making free sound effects with tons of customizations. Adjust or randomize to your liking and then download the audio file on the spot. Worth bookmarking: http://www.bfxr.net/
I've played with it before, and the better bfxr (http://www.bfxr.net), but I'm going for more realistic sounds rather than gamey sounds in this case. (Though not so realistic that 44k is absolutely required.)
Here's one called bfxr that makes a lot more types of sounds other than SID chip stuff that can save wav files. The author also allows you to download a free version for your desktop that is just like the website. I haven't played with it in a while, and I see it's gotten bigger. It is actually useful. It's basically a game fx machine.
BFXR is a sweet little tool for making old school video game sounds quickly.
Other than that, some off the top of my head would be Reaktor, Bidule, Pure Data or Max/MSP (if you want to get nuts with it). Absynth is also a great synth for sound design.
It might require some external tweaking to get it to be hardware-accurate, but bfxr produces delightfully chippy bleeps, bloops and booms.
Every time I go there and click randomize a few times I get this incredible urge to make a game that's 320x240x256 and SoundBlaster compatible.
Yes it's supposed to be head shots, though I suppose some feed back (richoet type sound) would be helpful!
Yes the sound effects are LOUD. Sound is not my best point, I cooked the sounds up quick in the awesome free tool (bxfr)[http://www.bfxr.net/]. I've been bothered by using 8bit sounds, with more modern 3D graphics to be honest!
I've had Unity for around 2-3 years maybe, though there tend to be gaps where I don't do any development. Previous for that I've messed around with 3D (I also own Cinema4D and ZBrush), played around with XNA shortly after it came out. And quite a bit with GameMaker (around version 6, a bit with v7). Also did some Morrowind modding back in the day.
Unity has been awesome in terms of getting stuff from Cinema4D into my game. And tacking on Javascript to objects works great. Only glitch is that I have to export manually from Cinema4D using the FBX 6 exporter, but it's really not a big deal, and is probably better as I can have my IK animated rig, bake it, export it, and then revert the C4D file to the pre-baked version. Then I just copy textures over.
Before this I've just messed around with bits of projects here and there - have a 3rd person heli shooter with RTS elements started, a SHMUP, a minecraft type game (not a game, but a voxel engine). Really just puttering around, always starting things without a plan and with too big of a scope.
For this game I made everything - textures in genetica, sound effects from an 8bit sound generator (http://www.bfxr.net/). All my own models.