This is my first LD submission and I'm very happy with how it turned out. Thanks to anybody who has played the game and taken their time to rate/tell me what they think about it. I think it has a healthy balance of weird, creepy, friendly, terrorizing, care-free, and menacing content.

The original idea for the game originated from the potential theme of '3 Rules,' where the only certainty was that rule 3 was "Don't look at Greg." The incompatible genres theme ended up being another opportunity for it, even if apple-picking isn't particularly a genre. We managed to keep the game about exactly what was thought out on paper and kept our scope to the appropriate amount.

I'll be post-mortem-ing what my essential functions for the game were, mainly the audio, level, and game design. I'd like to thank my awesome girlfriend for the 2d artwork and UI design, as the game would not be nearly as polished as it is without her.

Audio:

So this is what manages to solidify the game being as creepy and atmospheric as it is. My original pursuits into game development started as strictly an audio man, but I slowly came to realize that my own visions and implementations are often different than most game designers. As an avid horror fan, I wanted the audio to be the backbone of the experience. There are three main 'music' sections in the game. First is the tour bus ride, then the casual gameplay introducer, and the terrorizing audio of level 2. However first I'll discuss some of the different SFX.

The pick: This was just simply me recording chomping noises. I got one I liked, and I created three files of it in varying pitches and lengths to avoid SFX fatigue, which are randomly called each time you pick an apple. While the game tells you you're there to pick and collect apples, the audio tells you that you are eating the apples, subtly adding some hilarity to the experience. Who eats 100 apples?

The background: This is a mix of some of my own recorded sounds and some from freesound.org arranged and mixed into a 3 and a half minute loop. There are two wind tracks with distortion and compression applied to add brittle-ness to the environment. There are varying wildlife noises, subtle and present to help the non-existent surrounding woods come to life.

The footsteps: I actually waited too long to implement these and ended up taking a roundabout manner. I arranged 5 footsteps into a single file which I set to loop. Then it was just a matter of adjusting volume when the player is moving.

Music:

-Tour bus ride: A song about apples

I initially wanted the audio to weird people out from the start, and I think this suits its purpose just fine. Its my first time putting my vocals into a game and they weren't meant to be serious or good at all. I implemented it as a 3d sound, with some rough cassette-like post processing, so it would appear to be coming from the speakers on the bus. The happy G-major diddles and apple-y lyrics are an immediate clash with the on screen creepiness of the background, text, and characters. I purposely mixed the guitar solos loudly so they could clash with...

-Gameplay time: Pick the apples, make some friends

Also in G, This is a simple I-V progression, with some wandering minor piano melodies. Very chill and slightly sinister, it hints at the underlying darkness behind the game. The 2d audio merges with with the 3d audio on the bus when you're in the vicinity to hear it. The overmixed guitar solos (in G-major) flow above the other background audio to clash with the established G-minor of the background music. This helps create more ambiguity in the atmosphere, leaving you wondering if you're having a good or bad time.

-Orchard: Everything is terrible here

There are mainly three (two?) things going on with the audio here. The background music is actually made up of two separate tracks, and there is a collection of audio emanating from Greg. One of the BGM tracks contains an ominous rendering of dissonant synthesizer slowly progressing through nearby pitches, and never really resolving to any exact tones at all. This creates instability as you have no root note to grasp on to, no certainty to be found where you are rhythmically or tonally. The other BGM track I recorded through my keyboard, which has a feature that re-samples recorded sounds onto the keys in appropriate pitches. The low echoing howls you hear are my voice re-sampled into thirds and half steps around two octaves below the original recording, played on a keyboard. This compensates for the digital feel to the contributing track, and gives the orchard more 'human-ness.'

The 3d audio attached to Greg contains music and SFX, giving persistence and presence to his proximity. The music on Greg is a short loop of a conflicting ascending/descending triplets ended with a minor third. They have an inherent evil to their arrangement but also a jaunty/meandering vibe to them. When they start conflicting with each other dis-rhythmically, they create a choir of out-of-sync mish-mash which favors tones somewhat randomly while playing all of them simultaneously.

There are 6 SFX attached to Greg that randomly play. There are 3 groans I recorded myself, and there are 3 evil laughs recorded by a friend of mine that I edited to a somewhat demonic form. These are only mainly heard when he is very close to you, which will send you the message to get out of the way and creep you out at the same time. I'll have you know the laughs are originally mimicking the hosts of a radio show 'Bob & Tom.'

Audio regrets & lessons:

Shoulda got a noise for the bus motor.

Shoulda handled footsteps first.

Shoulda recorded choir vocals for the apple song.

Shoulda made audio for character dialogue.

Shouldn't do footsteps like that again.

Should start to figure out how to limit audio processing.

Should use more mixtures of digital and live sound.

Should start using Unity's mixer and snapshots.

Jam submission: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/dont-look-at-greg