Production Diary: The Making of Dirk Dashing

Game Concept

Game Animation

Game Scenery

Game Engine

Game Music and Sounds

Game Levels

Fine-Tooning the Game

Game Sounds

In keeping with the cartoon theme of the game, we have compiled a collection of cartoon sound effects.  The sounds consist of all of the boings, sproings, splats, whistles, and other outrageous sound effects that you would expect if you were watching a cartoon.  When we combine the sound elements with the hand-painted backgrounds and the hand-drawn animation, the result is a very unique experience.  You feel more like you are playing in a cartoon than in a game!

Game Music

The soundtrack for Dirk Dashing is reminiscent of music from popular spy movies and television shows.  The upbeat music is a departure from the jazz tracks that were used for our first games, Fashion Cents and Word Play.  Many of the songs were recorded with a real guitar, which aptly fits the spy theme and enhances the action of the game.  As a result, the soundtrack is very dynamic and exciting!

Creating the Dirk Dashing theme took several attempts before we found a theme song that really clicked.  Not that the initial attempts were bad; in fact, nearly all of the music ended up being included in the soundtrack for Dirk Dashing because it was so good. If you have downloaded the demo, then you know how good the music really is.  The full version of the game will contain 8 original songs!

After several attempts at a theme song, Jordan and Troy met together to brainstorm and come up with an appropriate theme.  Jordan brought his acoustic guitar and played for over an hour, experimenting with different melodies and chords.  Near the end, Jordan strung together the elements that they liked and composed some songs.  Troy recorded the session using his PC microphone.  Here are three of Jordan's compositions from that session:

• sample2.wav - This was Jordan's first composition.  You can hear many of the elements from the Dirk Dashing theme finally coming together, but it was decided that the tempo was too slow.
• sample3.wav - In this one, Jordan changed the tempo to speed it up.  It sounds much better; however, it wasn't quite right.  Jordan tweaked some of the notes in the next version to make it better.
• sample4.wav - This was the final version that Jordan used to compose the Dirk Dashing theme.  The melody is complete, but the music obviously needs accompaniment and polish.  Still, it is interesting to hear the Dirk Dashing theme done with an acoustic guitar.

Each of the music files above are roughly 2 MB in size, so be forewarned if you are on a dial-up connection.