Hi,

I am a sound designer and I have a decent level with Unity (using C#). I made some little game and whatnot but since they are small I don't feel they are good enough to showcase my sound design skills for a demo reel (which is the point of them) and so I am looking for game ideas that would be of a small scale but with complexe sound, probably a game where sound would be the most important part of the gameplay.

And this is why I am here, because I don't seem to come up with good ideas. The best I have is a labyrinth where you need to find your way out only with sound (which allows me to do no graphics).

As I am not a game designer I was wondering if you guys could help me out with this one, maybe giving me some ideas or just guidelines.

Thanks!

Some ideas off the top of my head:

Horror adventure - Using mostly or all sound to produce the horror from music to creaking doors and foot steps behind you.

Puzzle - Though a general puzzle game with sound affects would work, I'm suggest more of making sound be the way to find the solution to the puzzles. For example cracking a safe listening for the different sounds made as you turn the dial.

Investigation - Investigate a murder (or some other case) but instead of the normal reading text etc. expand the sound by having reflecting emotion, etc. in peoples responses during interviews. Or do it by having audio of the crime and stakeouts etc. and you have to determine what happened by sound (was that a body hitting the floor or just a book), the investigator could even be blind or just listen to tapes (not attending crime scene etc.) to limit the amount of graphics required.

Thank you!

Yes the horror idea is something I wanted to put in my labyrinth idea to make it more interesting than just walking around.

The puzzle game is nice I am going to look into it.

For the investigation it seems a bit harder to do, mostly because I would need to have a lot of dialogue recordings and I am doing this alone with no real budget.

For the investigation it seems a bit harder to do, mostly because I would need to have a lot of dialogue recordings and I am doing this alone with no real budget.

Not necessarily, I think: if the core of the game is listening to the sounds of an incident (a body falling, the sound of breaking crockery, etc.), then dialogue might be presented simply as text. It's not ideal, but I don't think that it significantly undermines your goals in this.

Why not try a rhythm game?

And this is why I am here, because I don't seem to come up with good ideas. The best I have is a labyrinth where you need to find your way out only with sound (which allows me to do no graphics).

Would a blind person be able to play and complete your game ?

Because then i would still showcase it.

Musaic Box is a fun sound-focused game, you can play it for some inspiration:

http://educative-games.org/#miscellaneous/musaic-box

While it's admirable that you've got the motivation to make a game around sound, I'd suggest trying to find an existing in-development game that needs a sound designer.

Hiring sound designers can be expensive, so a indie team would probably be happy to have someone willing to do it for free or cheap. Even if the game isn't sound-focused, you can create a demo reel out of rapid-fire clips from any game.

If you find something that's already fairly well into development, you could probably have demo-reel material before the game is even completed. Sound is often one of the the last steps, so you can kind of step in and reap the benefits multiple near-finished games, do the sound, and *poof* you've got a demo reel in the time it took to do your sound work. Just be sure to clear the useage for your reel beforehand. Most would be happy if that's their only price to pay.

If you decide to make a game from scratch, you'll spend 90% of your time doing non-sound work and the results wouldn't be as impressive. They also wouldn't showcase any ability to work with a team.

Here's another vote for helping out an indie developer. That way you can really focus on just the sound work, and you get to show off not just your technical work but also your ability to work with a team.

While it's admirable that you've got the motivation to make a game around sound, I'd suggest trying to find an existing in-development game that needs a sound designer.

Hiring sound designers can be expensive, so a indie team would probably be happy to have someone willing to do it for free or cheap. Even if the game isn't sound-focused, you can create a demo reel out of rapid-fire clips from any game.

If you find something that's already fairly well into development, you could probably have demo-reel material before the game is even completed. Sound is often one of the the last steps, so you can kind of step in and reap the benefits multiple near-finished games, do the sound, and *poof* you've got a demo reel in the time it took to do your sound work. Just be sure to clear the useage for your reel beforehand. Most would be happy if that's their only price to pay.

If you decide to make a game from scratch, you'll spend 90% of your time doing non-sound work and the results wouldn't be as impressive. They also wouldn't showcase any ability to work with a team.

Yes I definitly agree with you but I actually have team projects already, and I have a job as a sound designer in a small company. So it's really to showcase something fully done by me to evolve at some point.

I want to get better at code in the process but I can't put something that sounds meh on my portfolio.

And this is why I am here, because I don't seem to come up with good ideas. The best I have is a labyrinth where you need to find your way out only with sound (which allows me to do no graphics).

Would a blind person be able to play and complete your game ?

Because then i would still showcase it.

Yes that was really a goal I had with this idea.

Thank you guys for the advices, keep em coming if you have more!