Cookie Cutter
"Cookie Cutter" is a captivating 2D brawler metroidvania developed by Subcult Team and published by Rogue Games in 2023. Players step into the shoes of Cherry, a fierce android on a relentless quest to save her creator. Cyberpunk-inspired atmospheres and gore-filled combat on an action-packed rampage through a vividly dystopian world.
Overview & Planning
With 65 character moves, 17 enemies averaging 5 moves each, 6 bosses, and 9 levels featuring dedicated music, environments, and environmental objects, plus menues and items, efficient organization and planning were paramount to successfully plan and execute this extensive workload.
Audio Design & Pre Production
Combining foley and digital design was vital to achieving the desired sonority for this project. All music and sounds are meticulously created and assembled, either in my personal studio or at Studio 256.it, ensuring a 100% organic sound. Old clunky metals, engines, and machines together with digital and analog synths and real instruments, all mixed up in a harmonious blend of physical and virtual realms, bringing forth the rich, immersive soundscapes that define this project's unique sonic identity.
Sound Design
I embraced innovation boldly. Every aspect of my sound design was shaped in harmony with the tonality in which the soundtrack was composed to ensure a perfect harmonic coexistence between sound and music. Each sound, whether original recordings or synthetic creations, was organically crafted, without the use of predefined libraries. My goal was to create a distinctive and unparalleled sonic universe closely tied to the game's unique identity.
Player engagement was at the core of my strategy. I worked to make the audio immersive and communicative. Each sound was meticulously calibrated to ensure perfect timing, appropriate energy, and clear sonic messages, as seen in the case of the telegraphic attack sound that helps the player anticipate and face challenges.
Music
At the heart of the composition lies the balance between musical variety and memory management efficiency. With potential gameplay durations ranging from 12 to 20 hours, the soundtrack is designed to be dynamic, avoiding linearity and repetitiveness.
Each track, crafted to accompany gameplay, unfolds into different sections that adapt to the player's mood, transitioning from moments of tranquil exploration to energetic combat phases and interludes.
The dynamism of the soundtrack is accentuated by its intelligent implementation. Each track is divided into multiple sections, sequenced and randomly selected, ensuring significant variation while maintaining mood consistency to enhance the gaming experience.
Not to be overlooked is the precision in selecting the BPM (beats per minute) and keys of each track, creating perfect rhythmic and acoustic synchrony with gameplay.
The harmony between sound and action plays a crucial role in the player's overall experience, providing an engaging and synergistic sonic accompaniment that uniquely contributes to the game's narrative.
Dialogues
I was responsible for both editing and implementing all the dialogues in the game. My approach varied depending on the needs of the characters and the context within the game.
For the main character, the dialogues were primarily polished before being implemented in the game. This process involved refining the audio quality, ensuring clarity, and making minor adjustments to better fit the character’s personality and the overall narrative.
In contrast, other characters required more extensive design work to ensure their voices matched their personalities and roles within the game. A notable example is Regine, a character whose dialogue I completely redesigned to better suit her unique attributes and the story’s requirements.
The video provided illustrates these differences. In the first part of the video, you can see the main character with a specially designed voice to highlight a section of the game where the protagonist is severely damaged. In the second part, Cherry’s voice appears normal—only cleanly edited and implemented—while you can hear Regine’s voice, which has been extensively designed using Melodyne and other techniques to emphasize her robotic appearance.
Once the dialogues were edited or designed, they were meticulously implemented into the game. This included integrating them seamlessly into both in-game interactions and cutscenes. The goal was to maintain a consistent auditory experience that enhanced the storytelling and player engagement.
Implementation
Audio has been implemented in unity using FMOD.
SOUND: In the context of a dynamic and frenetic gaming environment, I faced the challenge of making every sound relevant while avoiding chaotic overlaps. Through thoughtful design, I implemented sound hierarchies, occlusion techniques, and ducking to ensure clarity, communicability, and energy during complex auditory situations.
With little to no support from the development team, I had to use a significant number of FMOD Command tracks and snapshot events, as shown in the video.
MUSIC: The music system needed to communicate mood variations throughout the game experience. The three main game phases (exploration, platforming, and fighting) required musical accompaniment with seamless transitions between phases. Additionally, special character and boss fights feature an intelligent system that allows musical events to appear and disappear as needed (Click HERE for more info about it) .
Profiling & Mixing: Through constant play-testing, the game underwent various phases of profiling to refine the mix and event priority, ensuring a smooth experience for both the system and the player.