“Sounds of Shadows” is a stealth, horror game, where you use sound to reveal your environment while avoiding the monster attracted by it. It received a nomination for Best Student Game at the Dutch Game Awards.
My responsibility was adding narrative, which included writing and recording voice lines, and designing and implementing voice logs.
Team size: 23
Duration: 10 weeks
Platform: Steam
Engine: UE5
My Contributions
Overall Narrative
With another teammate, I created a story featuring body horror and the digitization of brains. It ends by revealing that the survivor you should save had turned into the monster chasing you.
The goal was to empathize the horror aspects of our game and to explain the core gameplay aspects. It gradually provides answers for why it is dark, why you can use echolocation, what your objective is, what happened before, and where the monster came from.
Characters
I created four researchers with personalities and relationships, that each reacted differently to being locked in underground and had varying opinions on how to proceed.
Their disagreements helped me provide exposition concisely without it feeling unnatural. Showing their characters let players empathize with them and create drama. I also used that they are researchers to smoothly explain why they were recording voice logs of themselves in the first place.
Writing Lines
I wrote nine voice logs, three longer ones with all four characters and six short ones with the sole survivor gradually turning into the monster. I also added some lines from the hive mind, playing directly in the players head.
I used the hive mind lines as tutorial lines, to establish objectives and mechanics. Sometimes they would also comment on voice logs or other things that just happened. The voice logs were the main way of telling the story and should create a sense of mystery and unease.
Recording Lines
We voiced all characters ourselves in our universities sound studio; one character I voiced myself. Together with my teammate, I cut and edited the lines until they were game-ready.
I directed the recording sessions to help the other voice actors understand their characters and the intention behind each line. For the hivemind lines, I cut together three different voices, to show that these three characters have become one, while letting them remain recognizable.
Voice Logs
Designed and implemented voice logs, which are stationary and fade out if the player walks away.
Like any sound in our game, the voice logs reveal the environment while playing, which I used to show specific environmental storytelling parts. I considered making the voice logs pickup- and throw-able, but that would’ve interfered with our stealth sections too much. Players can listen while they’re interested and walk away whenever they change their minds.