Sugaropolis is a single or a multi-player game desgined for the purpose of being played within a museum. It has been acknowledged that the younger generation are less enticed by visiting museums and learning about the history of human culture. The idea of having a video game at the museum would influence and educated a wider audience.
The Folk Tales Entertainment team include:
Robyn MacMhaolain - Team leader & Game designer
Eilidh MacLeod - Game/Level designer
Jason Mottershead - Programmer
Conor Paterson - Programmer
Scott Calderhead - Artist
Mathew Lornie - Artist
Shane Ellis - Audio design & engineer
Software: Unity, Wwise, Pro Tools, SourceTree
A short & sweet introduction
During my time working with the Folk Tales Ent. team building the Sugaropolis game I was fortunate to have a friendly welcoming, each member would take the time to demostrate anything anyone wanted to know, even if it didn't involve their criteria but were curious all the same.
This was also my first proper independant project working in AudioKinetic's Wwise software and was a great learning experience and I feel that I have really found my calling in life from this.
I joined the team during June 2016 which was approximately 9 months after the Folk Tales Entertainment team formed to design this game. At first I was a bit sceptical at the fundamentals of this type of game, it's not everyday you hear about educational games especially based on the history of the sugar trade however after meeting the team (judging them ;) ) and seeing the demo design I was actually surprised on how they had approached it and I thought that it would be a great addition to museums and great for working experiences for an aspiring audio engineer.
It has dialogue, environmental soundscapes, mutliple characters and interactions, music & cinematic cutscenes, everything you could possibly ask for to work with.
Wwise made me wise
Rather than record and design the audio then implement it straight into Unity (or give the programmers the files to implement) we wanted a fine tuned more professional approach with flexibility in sequencing, randomizing, state and switch controlling with hands on volume level control. I chose to use the Wwise software rather than FMOD because it is what I am familiar and comfortable with.
This was the first real independant project where both the programmers and I were new to the Wwise implemention so it was a learning curve for us all as a team, it didn't help that within our month of polishing the game I was unable to be with the team while I was couch surfing in south west Scotland while I waited to move into my new flat, so this didn't make the project progress any easier than it could have been.
Thanks to the Wwise adventure pack guiding me through most of my progression within my session.