Finding a Voice

by Evilized Games’ Ben Aprigliano

As a one-man studio with a perpetually limited budget I’m always looking for ways to enhance the overall depth and quality of my games; from visual FX around game events such as weapon strikes (which I will always spend time getting right) to additional music bits over, say, a studio ident at the start, or the right SFX for things like punches or horses’ hooves.

Of course with the intentionally comedic stick-man style that I opted for with Disposable Heroes, the rest of the world that the characters inhabit has to be suitably technicolour, bombastic… and bonkers! Whatever you add in has to have the same pantomime qualities, yet for that approach to work, like with any melodrama it can’t be slap-dash and thrown together – it’s got to be properly thought out and properly assembled. ‘Organised chaos’, if you will.

You’ve got to bear in mind the various ingredients in your cake and how they all go together, and not pour too much of one thing in just cos you like the idea of it.

Top banter

So I decided to add some voice parts, on top of the sounds provided by my soundtrack composer, and on top of the visual effects and narrated introduction.

I had already built in speech bubbles to give my characters additional depth, whether that’s the Red Leader in the trebuchet level taunting the attackers, or the bad guys in the mine cart chase exclaiming their frustration at being forced off the rails, but I wanted to go a step further than that and so opted to include actual voice recordings to feature in the game to help further personify my characters.

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It took me weeks to find the right voices.  I wrote my provisional scripts and then went through Fiverr and other sites to look for suitable voiceover artists. I’m sorry to have to say that some people were a bit of a challenge to deal with at times, but everything on there is done at a good price which means that when you have kissed the frogs and found your prince, it’s probably worth it overall.

As far as the implementation of the voices in the game, it’s important to me to keep characters fairly consistent as far as possible – plus I don’t want them gibbering away saying stuff the whole time, that to me would come across as clumsy and overcrowded.

The brothers gonna work it out…

For obvious reasons, a lot of the dialogue would also only really ever make sense in two-player mode, as the Heroes interact with one another, so I built an engine that lets them say things in certain parts of the game, and certain lines in certain levels dependent upon the individual circumstances at that time; all of which are triggered by different things like randomizer counters. This means that at a point when you are standing in a corner for example, and two or more zombies come near you, the character will call out to player 2 for assistance. Or it could just be The Gladiator telling anyone who will listen just how great he thinks he is…

This means I can also include prompts in the game to help players with hints and tips, for example in some instances you will see a door and the Wizard will say “Hey guys, maybe we should go this way?” which instructs the players to move towards the exit. I’ve also attempted to use it to enhance each of the characters – good and bad – in the piece, an example of this is how macho the Gladiator wants to be perceived as, when it actually comes to it you see he’s really quite a coward, and when they encounter the terrifying Fat Baby, the Gladiator will motion to his colleague and say “Hey Orc, maybe you should go first..?!” To experience the full range of dialogue you stand still with your character for 12 seconds and listen to what they say.

All of the Heroes characters have between 20 and 30 lines each, and there are additional voice parts such as an intermittent commentary “ooh, a bag of gold!” and somewhat sarcastic narration from time to time poking fun at a player’s performance and progress or even at the game itself – it’s all part of the irreverent, self-deprecating humour that I have aimed to make a central feature of the game.

All in all, I’m very pleased with the way the voices have turned out, from the content and nature of what the characters say to when, where and how they say it. It’s the first time I have tried this on such a scale – I’ve made narrated introductions and interludes before, but never anything that implements specific voice parts in specific places dependent upon how the action unfolds. It’s been a challenge and great fun at the same time, but certainly I am pleased with the outcome.

Ben

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The sound of Disposable Heroes

Guest blog: composer David F Burrows on writing the music for Disposable Heroes

This is an updated version of a post that originally appeared on this blog on 22 September 2015 – you can now listen to and purchase the full Disposable Heroes soundtrack at davidfburrows.bandcamp.com – or get the album free when you buy the game on Steam!

Each time Evilized Games’ Ben Aprigliano unveils his latest idea it always quickly develops into an exhilarating rollercoaster ride of creativity and comedy. The pace at which it builds is truly impressive, and it always grows and develops beyond recognition in even just the comparatively short time I get to work on the project.

An ever-present feature of Evilized productions is a penchant for pitting tragic characters against seemingly insurmountable circumstances; trapping hapless protagonists in some grossly diabolic environment with a series of either deadly foes or devilish machines – frequently both – to avoid and evade.

In Disposable Heroes you have the same set of ingredients but – in my personal opinion – this is the man’s finest work to date. It’s got everything you would expect from an Evilized Games title; it’s powerful, it’s high-octane, stylish, bold and confident yet wonky and bizarre, full of charm and imagination and – of course – laced with cheeky, irreverent humour.

I always enjoy playing the games Ben makes – even in their early forms – but in the case of Disposable Heroes I was absolutely, completely, utterly hooked, and indeed remain so to this day. With its addictive gameplay and delightful characters in a charming, stick-man cartoon world, I think this one has the potential to be very popular.

So, eulogy over, how do we tend to get going from the perspective of the music? After the initial discussions about a project, my first (ideal) step in working with any developer is always to play through the game, to immerse myself in the world they have created, to get the feel for what’s going on. That’s not always possible of course but in this instance it certainly helped to align the aural experience with the on-screen action.

The characters in a game really help set the scene from a music perspective, and the characters in Disposable Heroes – the good guys and the bad guys – are fabulous. Of course, these guys think they’re the greatest however ambition in this case sadly falls far short of ability, and the whole ‘village idiot’ thing really helped in deciding on the style and tone of the music. It had to be essentially serious and dramatic (‘playing it straight’, if you will) in order to convey a sense of an epic adventure, but also it could never take itself too seriously and in fact, for me, at any rate, the ‘serious’ bits help to make the inherent self-deprecation all the more effective.

Whether it’s the Orc, who is perpetually desperate to help but ultimately utterly useless; The Gladiator, who wants everyone to think he is both mighty and courageous, whereas in fact his bombastic bravado conceals a crippling cowardice that will result in him always putting himself behind his comrades when there’s a battle on; The Wizard, who expends far too much time and energy berating the others for their lack of knowledge of scientific formulae, or the Princess who believes herself to be above being seen with any of the rest of them, their ‘perception of self’ for me doesn’t quite reflect reality, and it was this kind of fantastical feeling I wanted to convey with the main theme and interludes.

When trying to find the sound for Heroes it was clear from an early stage that we were looking at something along the lines of ‘Robin Hood – Prince of Thieves’, only drawn in Crayola. That’s why you’ve got this pantomime, mock heroic approach. It’s got to be larger than life but also a little but wayward and silly, and the theme tune is a good example of what I was trying to achieve.

It is certainly fair to say that the characters and the environment have helped – even encouraged – the music to be rumbunctious yet awkward, full of drama but laced with melodrama, bold yet relentlessly sticky-outy.

To my mind it represents the swashbuckling nature in which the Heroes throw themselves senselessly into the diabolic challenges that confront them.

From the opening market scene to the castle and beyond, I was happy with how it was all beginning to take shape, content with how the theme music partnered with the on-screen action.

Indeed, the theme music seemed to work so well with the adventure that I thought the job was mostly done however as the game grew beyond all initial scope, with more levels and concepts added, including a series of mini-games, it became clear that the list of tracks would need to increase significantly too, to keep things fresh and suitably entertaining. What was originally set to be a fairly straightforward three or four track job has since developed into what is now a 12 tune soundtrack running to almost 20 minutes.

Aside from that of course, frequently in games, a shift in the music – even if only at a subconscious level – signifies the extent of progress in the game, so the soundtrack needs to be as deep and layered as the game itself.

In addition to helping out with sound FX (an intriguing list ranging from ogre moans, rat squeaks and mobility scooters to horse whinnies, pig grunts and fart noises) working with Ben on the voice parts was pretty fun too, from writing the dialogue to finding the right actors. What it does mean is that we’ve now got a whole load of things in there that are designed to add to the characters’ personalities, the overall humour of the game and particularly the 2 player experience. You can read more about the process of doing the voice parts here.

Minigames

A wonderful feature of Disposable Heroes is the minigames that you find, a break from the top-down style of the core levels, each of which pits you against new challenges; from the collapsing castle to a trebuchet assault.

I certainly was of the opinion that the minigames should have their own themes, so that’s what they’ve got, and they were a lot of fun to make. There’s one to match each of the five minigames that you encounter amidst the 70 or so main levels.

From the tentative, awkward steps of ‘Eine Kleine Knight Music‘ which accompanies the part where a section of the castle is collapsing, to time travel to Planet Earth in the year 1995, from the falling tune right through to the drama of the trebuchet level towards the end, I’ve aimed to reflect the identity of each mini level in musical form.

This is where knowing the game inside out (and, wherever possible, the workings of the mind of its creator) helps in knowing how far you can push things. For example, some might have opted to pay homage to medieval themes but having made the buccaneering Disposable Heroes theme, I was keen to play around with some musical styles – the level where you travel to 1995 was a no-brainer (a bit like the Heroes themselves you could say…) and gave me an opportunity to revisit the music of my ‘youth’, but for some reason the first time I ever saw the minecart chase I knew it had to have a hillbilly bluegrass tune. That was quite a challenge to make, given that I neither own nor play the banjo (it’s one of those instruments that digital audio never seems quite to be able to replicate in as authentic a manner as I would like), but I think I got away with it.

After six months in development in Early Access, the game now has its full launch on 23 March 2016 so it’s an exciting time – I hope you enjoy the game and I hope that the soundtrack provides a fitting accompaniment to the wacky world of the Disposable Heroes. As you may have seen, the game has been selected to appear in the Leftfield Collection lineup at this year’s EGX Rezzed, so I am hoping to trot on into town with Ben and some of the team to meet gamers at the expo in April.

You can listen to and purchase the full soundtrack at davidfburrows.bandcamp.com. I believe Ben is making the full soundtrack available for free as DLC to everyone who buys the game, so if you’re planning on getting hold of a copy, go via the Steam store for this extra Brucey bonus.

You can find David Burrows on Twitter @davidfburrows

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Meet the Disposable Heroes

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Disposable Heroes Launch Day – what’s going on?

It’s launch day for the full and final version of Disposable Heroes – the madcap hack & slash medieval cartoon caper from Evilized Games.

After six months’ live development in Steam Early Access and dress rehearsals aplenty for the Orc, the Princess, the Gladiator and the Wizard, it’s time for the curtain to go up and the show to begin!

What’s going on today?

The Launch 

The full & final version of Disposable Heroes will be available to download from Steam from Wednesday 23 March.

DOWNLOAD DISPOSABLE HEROES FROM STEAM TODAY! 

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Win yourself a copy of Disposable Heroes with The Gaming Ground

Visit our friends The Gaming Ground at thegg.net during the day to find out how you can snaffle yourself one of ten Disposable Heroes Steam keys that are just waiting to be won!

Stick with us, kiddo…

We’ll be giving out keys on our Twitter account throughout the day – follow us and stay tuned to find out how you could win a free copy of the full game!

A bit of Twitching

Join Blue Luna of the Power Planeeters for a special Disposable Heroes Twitch session. Find her at twitter.com/deadsydoll and get twitching at twitch.tv/DeadsyDoll. She will also be giving out Disposable Heroes Steam keys so make sure you join her for the stream.

…and then later…

Are you in the Netherlands this weekend (26 – 27 March)? Join us at Dutch Comic Con in Utrecht to play Disposable Heroes on our superb arcade machine, like this dude…

Read more: Disposable Heroes at Dutch Comic Con

Come & play Disposable Heroes on our retro arcade machine!

Who’s going to EGX: Rezzed? We are, as part of the SEGA-sponsored Leftfield Collection that serves to showcase some of the finest and most intriguing indie games currently out there. And boy, is Disposable Heroes ‘out there’, in every sense… If you’re headed to Tobacco Dock in London from April 7 to 9 please drop by, say hello, and test your warrior skills!

Read more: Disposable Heroes at EGX 

All Systems Go!

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It’s here..! The day I’ve been working towards since the spring of 2014! My hack & slash medieval cartoon caper Disposable Heroes is launched today, Wednesday, 23 March.

It’s packed full of orcs, wizards, ogres, lizards, witches, bitches, weapons, spells, machines, explosions, lotions and potions. There are zombies, rats, mini-pigs, stick-wielding cave-women, leeches, skeletons, diapers, daggers, a demonic tank and the mother-in-law. There’s fricking laser-beams, spears, ray-guns, machine-guns, clubs, torches, orbs, swords and the Holy Cross. There’s also a sinister clown, a fast magical horse, a unicorn and motorised mobility scooters. And that’s not even nearly all of it!

You can get the game on Steam here and there’s loads of DLC to be had too… everyone who buys the game has access to artwork and the full Disposable Heroes soundtrack!

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DOWNLOAD DISPOSABLE HEROES FROM STEAM TODAY! 

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Today’s launch is followed by an appearance at Dutch Comic Con in Utrecht, Netherlands this coming weekend.

We’ve also been selected to appear as part of the SEGA Leftfield Collection at EGX Rezzed 2016 in London from April 7 to 9 – one of only around 20 from a list of 300 indie games to appear in this esteemed presentation. I couldn’t be more delighted at this. If you’re coming to EGX please do drop by and say hello, and come play the game for yourself.

I would like to extend my personal gratitude to everyone who has supported me and given feedback that has helped me to grow and develop the game; my family, my friends, gamedev colleagues, social media fans and followers the world over – everyone who has taken the time to check out the game I have made. You are all completely amazing.

Ben

 

Disposable Heroes full launch!

Hey all! I am delighted to be able to announce that after six months in Early Access since the primary release in October, and having worked over that time with feedback from the Steam gaming community to enhance and complete the game, my hack & slash medieval cartoon caper Disposable Heroes will have its full launch on Wednesday, 23 March.

This will be followed by a very special showcase appearance – as I posted last month, we’ve been selected to appear as part of the SEGA Leftfield Collection at EGX Rezzed 2016 in London from April 7 to 9. Having been selected as one of only around 20 from a list of 300 indie games, I couldn’t be more delighted at this.

With a nod to absurd adventures such as Monty Python & The Holy Grail and The Mighty Boosh, Disposable Heroes now has 40 more enemies, 50 additional levels, more weapons, spells, lotions and potions, leading people to describe it as ‘The Binding of Isaac’ meets ‘South Park’ – comparisons which I am understandably delighted that have been drawn.

This was the first time I have released a game in Early Access, and it was something I wanted to do in order to work with the gaming community to enhance the structure, content and playability of ideas that were pouring from my head at quite a rate.

I always wanted it to be something different from the usual fare so working with gamers to get their input was particularly important to me. Six months on from entering Early Access and 18 months on from the initial ideas phase for this game, I’m really proud of what we’ve produced and hope that gamers around the world continue to enjoy this crazy caper.

The game now has over 150 levels for players to navigate, I wrote a little about what’s been included in a previous post. I had quite a lot of people comment on how difficult the game was and I was forced to concede that much to an extent; the very nature of the game is that it’s so continually ludicrous with all manner of weird devilish things trying to slice and dice you or lop off your head or fill you full of arrows, or massive bosses almost too big for the screen trying to flatten you. So to this end I included additional power-ups throughout the arena, from energy-boosting cupcakes to bags of fries and chocolate bars, all of which help players during the crazy combat.

Looking back on the home straight period, with all of the wackiness flying around I guess the principal challenge – aside from bug splatting and checking that controls worked properly – was to package up all of the wackiness into some semblance of structure, so that the journey through the game feels tight, tidy, coherent and balanced. This entailed everything from tightening up the level and screen progression, tweaking gameplay aspects like damage and health, and producing instruction screens to let people know what the potions and spells did, which weapons to use and suchlike. Hopefully I have managed to achieve that, but take a look and see what you think.

There’s also a whole bunch of extra stuff from additional DLC to voiceovers, new soundtrack segments and animations to guide you through the story – and through your quest.

You will be able to download the full and final version of Disposable Heroes from Steam from Wednesday 23 March 2016, and obviously you can keep up with all the latest developments either here on the Disposable Heroes blog site or over on Twitter.

Thank you so much to everyone who has downloaded and supported the game and particularly to those who have provided the invaluable feedback, which has made the final game possible. Particular thanks must go to everyone who has taken the time to play the game and make videos, all of which help to spread the word – you can see these LPs here.

The game has been on show at the Clickteam booth at GDC in San Francisco this week (they’re the people who make the software which I used to make the game); we are exhibiting at Dutch Comic Con in my home city of Utrecht at the end of March and of course at the beginning of April the Evilized team are travelling to London to see what gamers at EGX make of Disposable Heroes. Truly exciting times – thank you again for all your support, I really, really appreciate it.

Until next time then, go forth and be Disposable!

 

Ben

 

P.S. Are you a press type? You can find Disposable Heroes press resources here.

 

Coming To America

As if forthcoming appearances at EGX Rezzed and Dutch Comic Con were not enough, we’re still peeling ourselves off the ceiling here at Evilized Towers following the news that Clickteam – the people behind the software that we use to build the wacky world of Disposable Heroes – are taking the Heroes with them to California next week to show at GDC in San Francisco!

Clickteam are showcasing a number of indie creations made with their software to showcase in the booth at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) from this Monday (14 March) ; the world’s largest and longest-running professionals-only game industry event.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2016, GDC attracts over 26,000 attendees, and is the primary forum where programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision-makers and others involved in the development of interactive games gather to exchange ideas and shape the future of the industry. You can find full information on what’s on, when and where with a visit to the official website at gdconf.com.

Unfortunately we’re not able to be there in person but if you’re going to GDC and you’re passing by the Clickteam stand – booth number 305 – please stop by and have a game or two of Disposable Heroes. If you can get a photo of yourself playing the game or with the Clickteam guys & gals, then please tweet it to us @DispHeroes & we’ll share it with Disposable Heroes fans across the globe!

 

Join us at Dutch Comic Con 2016

Following the news that our madcap medieval cartoon caper Disposable Heroes was selected as one of 20 games out of 300 shortlisted to appear in the EGX Rezzed Leftfield Showcase in London next month, we’re delighted to be back with another exhibition announcement – we’ll be taking the game to Dutch fans once again at this year’s Dutch Comic Con in our home city of Utrecht on the weekend of 26 and 27 March.

Disposable Heroes fans playing the game at First Look, Jaarbeurs, last year

Comic Con started with comic books and science fiction / fantasy related film, television and popular art, but these days the event covers genres ranging from horror, animation, anime, manga, toys, trading cards, fantasy novels and of course video games.

Come along to the Disposable Heroes stand to play your way through as many of the 150 wacky levels as you can!

Last year’s event was completely crazy and Dutch Comic Con 2016 promises to be an unforgettable experience for everyone. The Evilized Games team looks forward to seeing you at Jaarbeurs in Utrecht at the end of the month – and challenging you to test your warrior skills in the Disposable Heroes arena!

Visit dutchcomiccon.nl for further information and details of how to get tickets.

Let’s continue our journey…

Blimey. Well four months on from the last time I sat down to write about Disposable Heroes, four months on from the game’s first public appearance at First Look festival, five months on from when we sent the Heroes bouncing around the world, seven months from the day we published our launch trailer – and a full year on from when I almost gave up on the game altogether – it’s time to bring you up to speed with what’s new.

During those months, I’ve added loads more stuff to the madcap medieval caper; we’re now up to 150 maniacal levels full of diabolic machinery and deadly adversaries – against whom you must utilise weapons and cunning, together with lotions and potions – and, if you’re brave enough, teamwork (in 2P mode) –  to overcome.

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The updates are coming all the time which will download on demand for everyone who has the game in Early Access. What could be in all these new levels, you ask?! Well, The Orc, Princess, Gladiator and Wizard must now also face some rather nasty rabid rats, an ever-faster-spinning wheel of slicey doom, a demon in a tank and more besides – however they do now have additional assistance from a magical flying goat, rat-a-tat machine gun, petrol cans that you can use as destructive explosives against your opponents and – of course – a mobility scooter. Yep, it’s all as mad as a snake sandwich.

Thanks to your feedback there are now additional health boosts available throughout the game (in the form of French fries and cupcakes), save points, Steam achievements to unlock and also extra story scenes where you get to find out more about the machinations of the evil Lizard King. Oh, and keep an eye out for the clown…

On that note, if it’s an intro to the characters – good and bad – you’re after, you can find the inside story on the four Heroes themselves here and the lowdown on the evil dudes here. Robin ‘Inda’ Hood is still just as useless as ever, of course.

Robin ‘Inda’ Hood – completely useless

I’ve also posted a new page on this site on which you can find all of the LPs to date. It’s really entertaining and rewarding to see people playing through your game. If you’ve not explored the world of the Disposable Heroes yet then check out these Youtubers’ frequently hilarious videos.

We’ve plenty more to share from Evilized Towers as we move towards launch of the full and final game in the spring – including our thoughts on the particularly exciting news that we have been invited to appear at EGX Rezzed in London this April as part of the SEGA-sponsored Leftfield Collection showcase – I really cannot wait to meet gamers in the UK’s beautiful capital and show off the game.

Thanks so much for all your support whilst the game is in Early Access on Steam, it really means a lot and your feedback continues to be hugely helpful in developing the game.

Ben @ Evilized Games

We’re going all Leftfield at EGX!

An artist’s impression of how it might look if that bone-headed Orc were to visit Tobacco Dock

We’re completely honoured and delighted at the news that Disposable Heroes has been selected from almost 300 videogames to appear as part of the Leftfield Collection at this year’s EGX Rezzed!

Organised and hosted by the team behind EGX (formerly EuroGamer Expo), EGX Rezzed is London’s premier videogames event, which returns to Tobacco Dock from Thursday 7th to Saturday 9th April 2016.

The ‘little brother of EGX’, Rezzed features a host of playable pre-release games on both PC and console with a focus on indie titles alongside developer sessions by well-known game designers and the opportunity to chat with developers such as ourselves on the show floor.

Sponsored by SEGA, the Leftfield Collection gives indie developers the opportunity to showcase their games for free at a major consumer event. The Leftfield Collection has a long history of bringing a wide variety of games to public view; from small hobby projects with unique control inputs to beautiful and interesting commercial work.

The Evilized Games team at last year’s First Look Festival

If you would like to come along, play Disposable Heroes and meet the game’s developers, along with all 21 of the other Leftfield game picks and of course all that Rezzed has to offer, click here to find out more from the EGX website.

Appearing at Rezzed will also give us the opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with the creators of dungeon-crawler Barbara-Ian whose eponymous hero gave Disposable Heroes composer David Burrows a close up view of his mighty hammer last time out…

Make a date in your diary for EGX Rezzed 2016 and we will see you there..!

Ben