Case 9 Report

Case 9 is now done. This time, the task was adding sound to the game. This included both making background music, and sound effects. All sounds were to be triggered through actionscript.

This case was fun and a bit different, as it required us to work with sound. It was forbidden to use copyrighted music, so either it had to be made, or it had to be a file without copyrights. For my game, all background music was made by myself in Fruity Loops 8. Sound effects are mostly freeware from www.flashkit.com.

Sadly, I missed the group meeting on Monday. There really is no good excuse for it, and I wish I could have been there, mostly because of what was mentioned about the group meetings in my previous report. There might also have been something important that I might have missed.

It was mentioned in my previous report that I had already learned a way of implementing sounds through actionscript. Thus, a lot of the things the instructors went through this Thursday were familiar. However, as the method I had already learned is really quite simple, there was also a lot to be learned, and a few of the explained methods were quite useful, particularly how to load music from external sources. However, as the method I had previously learned does the job very well; changing it seems pointless. It would also be a lot of trouble, as there are now several classes in the game. Then it would simply be too time-consuming, and perhaps, stupid to change all of these classes just to fix something that already works.

This case was, on my part, already done before it was officially started. Experiments in Fruity Loops were started way back between case 2 and 3, and thus, there has been a lot of time to improve. The music is by no means final, but the current results are satisfying. Unfortunately, this also means there has not been done very much on my part this week. As for actionscript, using the afore-mentioned method, 5 different background music files were coded into the game. A function was also made to make the music turn on and off, using number keys 1-5 to turn the corresponding music file on, and the m key to mute whatever is already playing.
This means there is no music at the start of the game, because it has to be turned on manually. This was done to avoid players not wanting to play the game because of potentially annoying music, until the music is final. The sound effects, however, are mostly final.

In the end, this case has been relatively easy, fun, and different from the rest. I enjoyed this case, even though most of it was finished earlier. I feel I have definitely learned something, even though initially thinking there was really nothing to be learned. This project is nearing its end now, so I am very much looking forward to starting the final case, and finishing up the game.