SNOWBLIND
Snowblind, a survival game, where you play as a musher trying to survive an upcoming snowstorm. With the help of your dogs and your sled you maneuver through a cold mountain pass trying to find shelter from the cold.
The player must maneuver through a cold mountain pass with the use of his sled and keep himself warm by staying close to heat sources. Try to find your way out of the snowstorm before it gets any worse.
Tools
Work Process
1
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The Feeling of a Harsh Environment
Understanding what the environment should feel like to the player is crucial when one of our pillars was "the feeling of a harsh environment". I started by mapping out all sounds that I would need for creating a snow environment and made myself a timeline on which I defined which sounds should be implemented first.
After getting a better understanding of the goal, I started to create the first SFX, MetaSound Classes, Audio Busses and Attinuation Presets that I want to use later on in the project. This was an important step for me, since I want to start mixing the audio volumes as soon as possible in order to create a compelling snow environment.
When it comes to snowy mountain areas 2 things stick to me out the most: 1. Volume of Wind and Snow, 2. Emptyness.
In order to convay that feeling, I needed to get started with mixing volumes from the start on otherwise I would lose too much time later on in the project.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!
2
The Monster
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The original idea of the game had the player survive the harsh snowy environment while being chased in some sections from a monster. This monster was fully scraped but planned as never being visible to the player.
During our preproduction week I sat down in FL Studio and crafted a soundscape for our pitch presentation. In this soundscape you can clearly hear the monster in the distance.
At the beginning of the actual production of snowblind we decided to completely scrap the monster and fully focus on the environment.
3
Music On/Off Zones
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When it comes to music I had 2 main goals for snowblind:
1. Have Music On Zones and Music Off Zones
2. Create music inspired by "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild"
How does music work in Snowblind:
Blue Area:
Inside this area the player has music active while travelling through the snow. The music will fade out once the player leaves the blue or red area.
Red Area:
An epic version of the Blue Area music will be active. This was my plan since the red area is where the player will bring all the puzzle pieces together and has to complete in order to escape the storm.
Inbetween the Music Zones (Music Off Zone):
These are Music Off Zones. There is no music playing in these areas. The first time the player walks out of the Blue Zone he will approach the first shelter. By fading out the music I indicate to the player "Oh you reached a milestone in the game". Each fade out of the music leads to path to a puzzle piece.
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4
Mixing SFX
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I wanted our game to feel empty and harsh, by which I mean giving the environment a lot of different soundeffect. I added footsteps for different snow hights, ice passings or even walking over branches. To give the environment more depth I added random bird SFX, connecting them with attinutation which made them sound closer or further away depending where the player is positioned.
A big focus for me creating different snowstorm states. That is why the player can meet 4 different snowstrom sounds which differ in loudness and details. Since the snowstorm is increasing in density every day the sound effect will also change depending on the day.
(Blizzard, Snowstorm with trees, Snowstorm approaching, Snowstorm strong)
My personal favourite: the sound of the players rifle (used for hunting deer), the fence finally opening or the snowstorm with leaves
All SFX where created with sounds pulled from Soundly and mixed by me in FL Studio or REAPER. The volume and effects of most of the sounds was then improved, mixed and matched by using UnrealEngines MetaSounds.
5
Footsteps
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I developed a dynamic Footstep system by creating Physical Materials for every surface, connecting them to walk animations with Notifies, and using a Blueprint to trigger correct audio mapping.
6
To enrich the outdoor environment, I implemented randomized bird calls. Using precise attenuation settings, the calls become clearer as players approach specific trees, creating a more immersive and believable soundscape.
Random Bird Calls
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7
Composing Music
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For this project, I composed 6 original tracks, each tailored specifically to the game’s theme, pacing, and level design.
Every section was built to support the gameplay experience, ensuring the music feels integrated rather than layered on top.
Because my background is in electronic music production, I incorporated electronic elements throughout the soundtrack carefully balancing them so they enhance the atmosphere without ever feeling out of place.
Lobby music was new territory for me, but after researching genre conventions, I developed a direction that fit our project and delivered a result I’m proud of. The biggest challenge, however, was the boss fight track: it needed to maintain tension, keep players engaged, and never break immersion. To achieve that, I created an energetic, Undertale‑inspired battle theme designed to push the player forward and elevate the encounter.
8
When it comes to optimization of audio, I focused on keeping a clean workflow and a timeframe of atleast 2 hours per day to test and check my audio settings. Which was cruicial to keeping a consistent volume level and making sure SFX really fit into the game.
Optimizing Audio
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9
Balancing Weapons
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When it comes to system design, my task was to create data tables for every weapon and balance them as much as possible. Changing the combo value, throw range, explosion radius where some of the most common values I had to tweak. Making sure the gameplay feels fun to the player was my number one priority when testing and balancing. That is why the explosions in the game have not only a very high strengh value but also a massive radius. Due to positiv feedback on all the chaos and objects flying around, I continued with adding different objects to the game with different stats.
