We decided to start with the soundtrack first, I already had some idea of the type of music I wanted for MANOR. I sent him some examples of tracks from video game soundtracks that I felt had a similar sound to what I was after. Below are the examples I sent him;
Intro Scene - Relent (harp & clarinet) http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100777, Quinn's Song: A New Man http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100578, Ending Agrippa (Amnesia The Dark Descent) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpQTpWwsAU4, This New Century (Amnesia A Machine for Pigs) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4Ty-lUMy5k, Edwin and Enoch (Amnesia A Machine for Pigs) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36t61mWdZuM
Gameplay - Grand Hall (Amnesia The Dark Descent) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enHHsCfW7mk, Next to the Guardian (Amnesia The Dark Descent) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r13M6Y2xiw, Bridges (Amnesia The Dark Descent) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlPKSoTUKZc
Endings - Bump in the Night (but more classical instruments than synth) http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100789, have countdown from 1 minute music begin a bit like this: Severed Limbs Are Hazardous Waste from Dead Space (the *jump* comes in at 41 seconds) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty0CIZISvr0
I also told him that I wanted the sound to be very classical to fit in with the time period of the story, but it needed to have an unsettling feel to it. He sent me samples over the last couple of months to get feedback and to make tweaks. In the end we now have pieces for; the introduction, gameplay, gameplay final minute, gameplay final 10 seconds, a fanfare (for acquiring the key), a failure ending and the success ending.
Implementing these pieces into the game was Sean and Alex's task as programmers, but I instructed them as to the conditions and timing of each piece being played.
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The next aspect is the dialogue. Shaun managed to find me a suitable voice actress for the part of the main character, Grace. On the 5th May the 3 of us met to record the dialogue, so that I could give Ashley (our voice actress) some direction and suggest any other lines or sounds that I needed. By the next day Shaun had edited the sound clips and sent them to me, ready to put into the game. He also sent me the foley sounds he had worked on, which I had asked for (I have him a list and the gameplay script earlier in the year).
This task was also for Sean and Alex to do as it is part of the programming, but I oversaw this process to direct them as to when each voice clip needed to be played. In the same way we also implemented certain foley sounds such as the carriage rumbling, crashing and bird song which can be heard in certain areas around the level.
