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Personal Experiments

The tracks on my YouTube channel that aren't made for a game are my own experiments. When I have an idea of a cool song or melody, or when I'm just messing around in FL Studio and come up with something that sounds kinda neat, I go through with letting it develop and upload it to my channel. If you're interested, please take a look!

Cellosseum (Music, SFX)

WolverineSoft Studio Summer 2023 Cycle

I was in the audio team for the Summer 2023 cycle of WolverineSoft Studio (Project Nova). I primarily created sound effects for the game, as well as created one of the level/boss music tracks. All work was done in FL Studio, using heavily customized synths from FLEX and custom synths from Sytrus, a Triple Oscillator, drum sequencer Drumaxx, and various different effects and automation. I also edited and used samples and foley recordings taken by myself and my teammates.
This is the first project where I dove so deeply into sound effects and sound design. The workflow of creating the effects was around the same as previous projects, but I had more to make and more to experiment with. I also learned a lot from our mentors, leads, and fellow studio members, and tried to implement strategies that they suggested.
This is also the first time I worked on a project that actually used middleware, so it was awesome to see how much power we had over how sounds and music played. I particularly enjoyed making the evolving level theme and seeing it get implemented in Wwise and the game! This system made me think about what I had to do to get layers in my music to sound coherent in-game, and how to account for when the music would change and not have it impact the pacing or balance in my music. It was a really interesting and enjoyable process!

Nikhil Simulator (Music, SFX)

Beach Jam 2023 (One-week game jam)

I was the composer and sound effect designer for this game jam project. I created a level theme, a jump sound, a pickup sound, and a death sound. All work was done using FL Studio's Triple Oscillator and jsfxr.
I was kinda busy during the summer. I had an internship, Studio, and I was doing Calc III online, so I didn't think I could put too much effort into a game jam game. Turns out, my teammates were also pretty busy, so we decided to make a low-effort satire game! Because it was so simple a design, I chose to make a simple, repetitive tune. I think the track is less than 30 seconds, actually. We had wanted to make a pixel-art game, so I decided to just use a triple oscillator for the music. jsfxr is a simple sound effect maker that sort of sells that pixel-art style, so I decided to make the effects with that.

Overdeveloped (Music, SFX)

Shammy Jam 2023 (48-hour game jam)

I was the composer for this game jam project. I created two themes (main menu and gameplay). All work was done in FL Studio, using synths from FLEX, a Triple Oscillator, piano VST FL Keys, and drum sequencer Drumaxx, along with some reverb and automation. I had bought a small 32-key MIDI controller on Christmas, and this was the first project I had used it for.
The gameplay is meant to be a cross between "Overcooked!" and "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes". As such, the level was meant to be sort of hectic. Though I wasn't given any specific reference material, I had initially wanted to replicate the mood of Overcooked! 2's Kevin Level Theme. When trying to make it, though, I had ended up making a toned-down, chill theme that didn't really fit for the level. So, I used a shorter version of it for the menu, and made the level theme from scratch, going solely by mood (frantic, upbeat, and positive).
I created the sound effects using jsfxr, and by sampling from sounds around me using my phone. For example, the writing sound effect is me scribbling on my notebook, edited using an equalizer.
You can play the game by visiting the Itch.io page above, or by simply clicking here!

Granny's Day Off (Music)

PAT305 Final Project

This was my final project for PAT305, the video game music course at our university. I had chosen to collaborate with an EECS 494 team (our university's game development course), so I am the composer for this game. All work was done in FL Studio, using FLEX and FL Studio's included drum samples, along with automation.
The game is a fast-paced multiplayer third-person shooter that takes place in a carnival, with grandmas throwing pies at each other. As such, the mood was a mix of whimsical, upbeat, and very carnival-themed. I listened to a bunch of carousel music to get that mood. One song in particular that helped me find the mood was Cuphead's Inkwell Isle Two Theme. This song in particular helped me find the meter, pace, and overall feeling of carnival music. I also wanted to use similar themes for the menu and level, since the menu took place in the level world, and it provided a slow lead-in to the faster-paced level theme.

BEE-01 (Music, SFX)

DigiTurkey Jam 2022 (48-hour game jam)

I was primarily the composer for this game jam project. It needed three tracks: main menu, level, and boss. All work was done in FL Studio for the music, and jsfxr for the sound effects.
This game was a shoot-em-up (or shmup), which meant that the music needed to be fast-paced and hectic, giving a sense of foreboding. This was a project that I had a lot of reference material for, given examples like Touhou Project, DoDonPachi, Mushihimesama, and particularly, Blue Revolver. I really liked how active Blue Revolver's Mothershipboard track (the menu theme) was, and had used that as the primary inspiration for the level theme. I had also listened to Blue Revolver's Mothertrucker track (the boss theme), though had elected to not use a 6/8 pattern.
One thing that had interested me was making a choreographed enemy ship pattern for the game. It's really cool when shmups are able to coordinate the music and the enemies, and it makes for an immersive and coherent experience. Unfortunately, we didn't really have time for that in our project, so I'll save that for a future project.
(Note: ask me about accidentally making Stereo Madness during this jam)

The Curse of Gespinstishspookhaftmeisterblutsauger-burg (Music, SFX, Sprites, Programming, UI)

Pumpkin Jam 2022 (48-hour game jam)

I worked on a few things for this project. I was the composer and made the SFX, using FL Studio. Also, I designed sprites using the free version of Aseprite.
This game was meant to be a sort of cartoonish spooky, so rather than create horror themes, I wanted to go for a childish, trope-y Halloween-type mood. For the main level theme, the one song I could think of that matched that mood was Spooky Scary Skeletons. For the puzzle theme, I didn't really use any reference tracks, but I wanted to go for a lowkey mystery theme. It was meant to take the backseat to the gameplay while still setting the "puzzler" mood.
The sprites I made were pretty small and basic. They needed to be small but still recognizable. As such, one of the challenges was to say what I wanted to say while using as few pixels as possible. I made many trials and came up with results that hit the middle ground between readability and concision.
Finally, I designed the menus, which used basic TextMeshPro buttons and text objects.

Skyline (Music, SFX)

Shammy Jam 2022 (48-hour game jam)

I made the music and sound effects for this game jam project. All work was done using FL Studio's FLEX synths, and all sound effects were made using samples taken from myself and around the jam building, recorded from my phone.
This game is a co-op first-person puzzle game akin to the Portal series. As such, all of the tracks needed to take a backseat and act as ambiance. I left the tracks sparse and used certain chords to set the mood.
The sound effects are taken from around the building. For example, the sound for landing on the ground from a jump was made by me stepping on the metal floor of an elevator. Also, the menu theme is a hum that I recorded from what I think is an electrical room across from our jam room. All of the samples are edited using an equalizer.

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