Man, I spend way too much time trying to think of fun wordplay names for these dev diary posts. There isn’t really any reason for it, it just doesn’t feel right to post one of these without some sort of pun or double entendre in the title. Anyway, speaking of things taking too much time, this post sure took me way longer to get started on than it needed to. Unfortunately most of that time has also not gone in the game either, though the good news is that February was at least somewhat more productive. Progress on music is progressing and I’ve been drawing more sprites too, including a batch of new minor characters to appear. At least one of them will also have more complex animations for the scene he appears in so hopefully I can get started on those soon.

Since I’ve been pretty busy with family matters, studying for my master’s degree this month and helping people out with other projects (including other FNAF fangames), I’m just going to take it easy and write some more about my game’s music. Specifically I want to go over each track featured so far in the demo, the emotions it’s supposed to evoke and if there’s anything I’d change about it in the full version of the game. To recap last month’s dev diary entry real quick, the soundtrack is made up mainly of synth-heavy ambient music. It’s not intended to be super melodic, instead being more focused on rhythm with a particular emphasis on polyrhythms(and also polymeters). I use Audacity to make the music, sampling different brief synth tones, shifting the speed and pitch around and layering them over eachother with different delay/tremolo effects to achieve the rhythmic effect I’m looking for.  For reference, the music in the demo is available to listen to on the GameJolt page of the game. With that established, here’s my thoughts on each track so far.

1) The Main Menu Theme – I’m pretty happy with that one. It started out a lot more fast-paced and it was originally intended to be the first track playing in Vanny’s home but as I was changing it around it ended up feeling more appropriate for the main menu instead. I think it fits well there as it breaks the compositional rules I just listed off, so separating it from the rest of the game in the menu helps not draw attention to its stylistic differences. Not only is it more melodic and sprawling, the tempo is so slow that the track almost sounds like it’s in free time(though it technically isn’t). Making the track loop seamlessly also seemed like it’d take a bunch of effort so I used the opportunity to skip doing that by putting  it in the one place the players are statistically least likely to stick around much in.

2)The Game Studio Theme – Honestly this is one of my favourite tracks in the demo. It’s technically one of the first tracks I made for the game too, though I first made it for a completely different visual novel project I was helping out with which didn’t really get off the ground. I tried making a couple of other tracks for that area of the game before eventually digging this one up again but they didn’t quite fit the mood I wanted. The music in this section of the game is supposed to be relatively calm but also somewhat emotionless and even tiny a bit oppressive – this is Vanny’s workplace, she’s familiar with it and doesn’t expect any surprises but she also doesn’t particularly like it, just merely tolerate it. The track is made up of a single short synth melody loop which is layered over itself at different speeds, with additional layers fading in over time before dropping out again. The only thing I’d change in the full game is the delay effect applied on the sped-up loop when it ends. There’s something off with the timing where it really draws attention to itself when it’s supposed to just sound like its fading off into the distance. The full game is also going to have 2 other tracks using the same loop when the player revisits that area later on in the game. One of those variants is already my favourite track I’ve made for the game so I’m looking forward to putting it out eventually.

3)Apartment Theme 1 – The music that plays when Vanny returns home initially. Not much to say about  this one, it’s just supposed to be calm and pleasant to let the players know that this is a safe place they can relax in. Like the previous track it’s particularly reliant on polyrhythms, though the way it’s assembled is different. The track is essentially a series of 3-note chords, with each note having a delay effect with a different timing, creating a somewhat hypnotic effect. I think the mixing could use some improvement but besides that it’s a perfectly fine for what it is.

4Apartment Theme 2 – As a piece of music I enjoy this track well enough but I don’t think I’ll end up including it in the full game. Similarly to the first apartment theme, this one is made using a single synth tone pitched up and down with different delay values on each pitch. This one sounds a lot busier though and it’s also a bit too different from the way the previous theme sounds. I’m planning on replacing it with a different version of the first theme similar to the alternate versions of the game studio theme I’ve made already.

5)Crawlspace Theme – This one is a bit of a curveball in the soundtrack, pretty different not just from the music up to that point but even from any music I’ve made in any other project, whether that’d be a soundtrack or standalone music. It’s also another one of my favourite pieces of music I’ve made for the game. The scene the music plays in is supposed to have pretty conflicting emotions - both unsettling for the player but also unthreatening and calming, as there’s something about the area Vanny finds herself in that is somehow familiar to her. The juxtaposition of those contradicting emotions in itself is also supposed to give players a sense of unsettlement. Balancing those emotions through the music was a bit of a challenge and I went through a few different alternative tracks, but they all ended up skewing too positive. Eventually though it all just clicked for me one evening and I made the final piece in a single session. The track is made up of 3 main parts – the droning bass synth, not dissimilar to the other drone tracks that appear throughout the demo(more on them later); the high-pitched chirping and the heavily reverbed synth plucks. The first two elements pretty solidly achieve the first intended emotion behind the track, with the chirping in particular setting the music apart. Those sounds are actually sound compression artifacts from the drone itself which have been amplified  with equalization, then slowed down and overlaid on eachother with additional reverb and delay effects. Finally, the synth plucks serve to bring the final element of almost uncanny calmness. They do break the “don’t focus too much on melodies” rule but ultimately that’s more of a self-imposed challenge than a hard and fast rule so I’m willing to let it slide. There’s still polyrhythms though they’re not as prevalent – each synth pluck has a differently timed delay effect in each ear. All in all, this is another track I don’t see myself changing in the full game.

6)Drones – I’m lumping all of the drone tracks in this section as they’re all ultimately pretty similar – just regular low frequency synth drones meant to underscore certain cutscenes or add tension. Some of them have additional elements in the higher frequencies and they all generally have different textures from one another, with certain drones intended to score the appearance of certain characters or moments. They’re all made in different ways too – some are made through paul-stretching audio samples and some are even synthesized by me, whether by using synthesizers like Absynth or by layering edited saw waves by hand. The actual method doesn’t really matter at the end of the day, they all ultimately have a similar, somewhat oppressive tone. They get the job done for what they are but I do find them a bit utilitarian as ways to set the mood of a scene so I don’t want to overuse them. Sometimes letting a scene or a moment breathe can be a lot more impactful than just trying to hit the player over the head with music that’s telling them how they’re supposed to feel.

Before I go, I want to shout out the other FNAF fangame projects I’ve been helping out with. Firstly is “The Ballad of Mr. Afton” by hellokitty1fan, the visual novel I mentioned last month which now has a demo out. Some of my music is already featured in it and I’ve also been working more on sound design for it with both music and non-musical ambience. Just a few weeks ago I also contributed music to 31hashtag’s “Commenter-Made FNAF Fangame”, which is exactly what it sounds like. Every 2 weeks 31hashtag updates the game with suggestions from his dev diary series on Youtube, with the most liked suggestion on each video getting added in the subsequent update. In the second-to-last video the most liked comment requested the “Night Complete” screen to have breakcore music playing over it. I ended up helping with the making of the music, which you can hear a bit of in the newest video. There’s also still time to vote on the comments there or even leave a new one.

I’ll be rather busy for the rest of this month so I wouldn’t be surprised if my next devlog entry is either delayed again or rather short(or both). I’ll try my best to get at least something done though, in particular I want to update one element of the UI. Maybe next time I can write about the UI design of the game too, I’ve been having some thoughts on that.

Thank you for reading this far, if you have any questions or comments I’m always happy see them and respond.