TURMOIL

Lead Sound Designer and Level Designer

Team Size: 13

August 2023 - April 2024

Turmoil is a roguelike action game taking place in a dieselpunk setting. You are the last known human factory worker in a dystopian workplace crewed by ramshackle robots and a cruel boss who sees you as inferior to his other workers. Upon getting your arm crushed in a conveyer belt, the boss finds a perfect excuse to get rid of any obsolete workers that drain his resources in order to improve the efficiency of his company. However, you survive getting thrown down the trash chute and ascend the factory to shut it down once and for all.

Bring destruction with an arsenal of tools provided by your state-of-the-art arm; use oil, fire, and steam to destroy robots that get in your way.

For this project, I had the pleasure of working on both levels and sounds for the project. I have also produced two music tracks for the game.

From the Ashes

“From the Ashes” is a slow and steady song that is in the first level of the game. This song was adapted directly from a previous version which included an acoustic guitar. However, it was remade using BeepBox in order to keep it more in line with the theme. This took around one hour to make.

    • Worked closely with the level design lead in order to create thematic levels that both fit the narrative of the game and are entertaining to play.

    • Ensured rooms would align cohesively and precisely with each other via RoomManager, a system created by one of our coders to create arbitrary level layouts comprised of a set number of connecting rooms.

    • Created over 50 sound effects for the game, such as the door alarm, robot injury sounds, and the player’s footsteps using Foley sound techniques and Adobe Audition for post-editing.

    • Implemented sounds in engine and created sound attenuations for sounds that needed it.

    • Oversaw the sound department and gave constructive feedback on sounds and music created by other members of the team.

    • Created music using BeepBox that fits the theme of the level.

    • Increased and decreased player and enemy damage to ensure fun and fair combat.

    • Adjusted cooldowns for abilities in accordance of multiple playthroughs of the game.

    • Played through the game over 50 times each session to accurately diagnose and report any bugs, glitches, and other unwanted properties within the game.

This is a puzzle level within Turmoil that I have created. The player’s objective is to ensure that the three white cubes on the left (on the three gray pipes) all light up green.

  • There are three white switches spread across the level for the player to interact with. The player does not know which switch controls which light, so some trial and error has to be done.

  • Once the player has all three lights glow green, the gate opens up and allows the player to be launched to the other side, acquiring the reward for the room.

  • The crates signify that the player cannot cross it through movement alone

Gears and Gore

“Gears and Gore” is the track that plays when the player enters the boss room. I made the song to be high tempo and exciting for the player when they engage him in battle. This took around one to two hours to make.