Hi!
I'm Carlos Cabreira, and I was the audio and particle programmer in NJoy Games. I also worked in puzzle programming, and helped in some aspects of design.
Wwise Man
In first stance, I was "the audio guy".
My initial work in the project was to integrate Wwise in our game engine, Culverin. The most important features I added to the engine were:
- Soundbank management: Wwise soundbanks can be loaded and unloaded within the engine from the proper window.
- Audio component: Sound emitters and Listeners can be attached to game objects, allowing to simulate 3D soundscapes.
- C# integration: I allowed all the Wwise utility to be called from the scripting system of the engine. Apart from the basic Event calling, I added volume control and state variations from code
Apart from that, I take care of the vast majority of the actual audio integration inside the game, working both from Wwise and Culverin Engine. I integrated the audio effects of the player and stage, and polished and co-worked in the enemies and boss ones. This work incluided volume, pitch and attenuation adjusting.
Also, I created a system of reverberation areas that I placed in all stages of the game. This system allows to control the grade of reverberation applied to all audios of a game object when that object enters or leaves the area, creating a more believable environment.
Finally, I added transitions between musics and different ambient effects to the two levels, to perfect the kinestetic of the level.
Particles!
After finishing most of the Wwise integration work, I was assigned to readapt and integrate Xavier Olivenza's particle system to the engine. The system was in a very primitive state, and the UI needs arrangement. What I did:
- UI polishing: division of the editor in Emitter and Particle options to better readability.
- Integration with the Culverin Resource manager to allow texture usage.
- Particle configuration save and load system, to allow designers to replicate systems quickly.
- Preview system, to allow configuration without starting the game.
- Particle Spin and Spin variation options.
- Particle drawing moved to GPU via shaders.
- Artifact fixing.
Puzzling Questions
In the meantime, I worked on some puzzles of the game. Specifically, barrel movement and fall, puzzle reset and timer in the valiryan fire pool; and design assistance to Sergio Saez in the up-and-down stones chamber. Aditionally, I created the lever-to-open-door system that can be seen in all the game.
