David Johansson

Technical sound designer

Game projects

Game
Jams

Sound design

Sound designer and musician

Sound designer and musician

Sound design

SOUND SPHERE

A project meant to research the kinesthestics effects audio has on the listener and how spatialized audio can be used to enhance the listeners sense of agency in their movements.

By building a dome of speakers, we put the listener in their own microcosm where their reactions lead to on demand audio instancing that reflected the movements qualities into the spectral domain

Using OSC to connect VVVV and Puredata for mapping the body into skeletal points, convert these points velocity and direction, send these values to VCV rack as midi for audio instancing and lastly sending the output into a Puredata ambisonics patch

kenon is a fps/space movement game inspired by Portishead Wandering star aiming to bring the songs themes of isolation, melancholy and searching into a linear, 3D interactive medium.

Video

Tools: Unreal 5.6, Metasounds, Reaper, Plugdata.Platform: Windows

  • I was in charge of creating and implementing audio using MetaSounds.

  • Technical and gameplay prototypes for the main player mechanic.

Sound design

Grapplehook mechanic

Grapplehook mechanic

Ambience

Player UX

Showcase

gameplay design

Since the game would circulate around movement, modulation of the terrain to create dynamic pressure variance was something extremely appealing to me

These concepts were moved to additional features due to 2 important reasons:

Minimal level designers

Time constraints

Since there was only 1 level designer present for this project, it would be more efficient for the level designer
to ideate and create the levels(s) with 1 major mechanic in mind for a more high fidelity output.

It's always easy to have an excessive proclivity for additional ideas and concepts for mechanic. This project was only 4 weeks, and it was important for our group to really nail the synergy between the movement and the main grappling mechanic

Grappling hook
technical prototyping

Grappling prototype iteration 1

since the player is set in space this felt fitting. with low gravity the player could fine-tune their movement in short bursts with a variance in force.

A simple starta rudimentary function that creates a spheretrace, with a small radius, with x length. If it collides with any obstacle it will throw the player in a short burst towards impact point direction.

After discussion and testing this didn't work for 2 reasons:

force scalar

Hard angles

When playing around with higher values of applicable force, with small bursts of force, the numbers game was just to vast. It quickly became superfluous what values the player would use relative to the enacted speed of the character for a finer control of the movement

working with hard angles when going moderately fast - fast became increasingly difficult. navigating around any obstacle would lead to the player being thrown out of bounds or smashing directly into the geometry.

Grappling prototype iteration 2

This proved easier for value navigation and the build-up was far more satisfying than iteration one. Due to little time before production, this prototype would be the base for the grappling mechanic

Massive improvementSince working with fast bursts of force became too finicky, an idea sprung up during discussions was that the grapple should work much like a fishing rod. So the force is incremental relative to how long the player input is triggered

Tools: Unity, C#, Unity audio pipeline, Cecilia 5, Reaper.Platform: Windows

  • I was in charge of creating and implementing audio using Unity's built in engine.

  • Working together with the groups narrative designer in setting fitting points for moving the dialogue forward in each level.

Tools: FMOD, Cecilia 5, Reaper, Unreal engine 5, BlueprintsPlatform: Windows

  • I was in charge of creating and implementing audio using FMOD. I worked closely with the groups programmers in setting up blueprint callable events.

  • In addition to working with audio, I was also a gameplay designer and fine-tuned the movement and abilities for the main character.