How does it work?
Let us quickly run through what went through our minds while designing these spells!
We wanted to create our magic sounds in the various short section so you can mix and match any magic sounds to sync to your animation. Usually, the magic sound effects we created for our clients come in 1-3 different parts and more depending on the nature of the spell.
Have a look at this gif from The Iron Oath – The fire would likely be separated into two different audio files. The first sound (cast) is triggered when the character cast the spell and the second sound (impact) will be triggered when it hits the skeleton.
For the magician class in most RPG games, usually, there are 3 parts to the sound for each spell. The first part is ‘Cast‘ where the magic spell appears or ‘charges’, before being ‘shot‘ (2nd Part) out and then finally hits the target (Part 3 – where we call them ‘Impact‘). They are usually triggered at a different time, so that it can sync better to the animation instead of having one long audio file to playback the whole magic animation. (A long audio file can easily go off-sync when the game lags)
→ For the first category of sounds – ‘Basic_Attacks_Impacts‘ folder
The sounds in this folders are mainly for ‘impacts‘/(Part 3) in a game, and the swooshes are for when the spells are being ‘shot'(Part 2). Most of the sounds here have a few similar variations so that it wouldn’t sound too repetitive when the sound gets triggered often. Although it may be the same action, usually there will be a few sound variations for each action, or you could change the pitch slightly in your game engine to create variation as well.
→ For the second category of sounds – ‘Spells‘ folder
The sounds here are the main building blocks for creating the magic spells.
1. Sounds with the word ‘Cast‘ in them like ‘Postive_Small_Cast_01’, ‘Positive_Large_Cast_01’, are meant to be used to start, cast or
charge the spell.
2. Sounds with the word ‘End’/’Impact‘ are intended to end off the spell and only be triggered when it hits the target.
3. Sounds with the word ‘Loop‘, means the sound is loopable so if you have a spell that ‘continues’ for a period of time/loops.
(It would be good to let the loop sound fade in and fade out when the magic effect stops.)
Most of the sounds (buffs, debuff, heal, revives) here could be used as a standalone sound, or be used
as any part 2 or part 3 of the spell.
→ For the final third and fourth category of sounds – ‘Misc‘ folder & ‘Music‘ Folder
They are more for notifications in games as suggested by the name of the sound file. We also threw in a piece of free music to help you get started on your game!
For RPG Magic SFX Pack 2, it has the same concept as the first magic pack, but with even more designed parts and elemental sounds.
In this new RPG magic SFX Pack 2, we also designed many more retro magic sounds like in the earlier Final Fantasy series such as FF7-9. We have more designed magic sounds with even more different parts and even combo sounds, which we will be delving into greater details!
→ For the first category of sounds – ‘Basic Whooshes‘ folder
They are useful for any ‘movement’ sound – when the game character swings their wands or when a spell is being ‘shot’ and even when the game character jump and leaps into the air.
→ The second category of sounds – ‘Basic_Magic_Attacks_Impacts‘ folder
Similar to the ‘Basic_Attacks_Impacts’ folder in RPG Magic SFX 1. The sounds in this folder are an expansion to pack 1 and is also mainly for ‘impacts’/(Part 3) in a game. What’s the main difference in this new RPG Magic SFX 2 impact folder, is that we included ‘Combo’ sounds. Sound files with a ‘C’ at the end means they can be used as a combo sound progression.
Listen to the example above: S4_Magic_Attack_Combo_FULL_Heavy_End (which has 5 parts to the sound)
S4_Magic_Attack_C0_Skill_Trigger.wav
S4_Magic_Attack_C1.wav
S4_Magic_Attack_C2.wav
S4_Magic_Attack_C3.wav
S4_Magic_Attack_C4_Heavier.wav
→ Third category of sounds – ‘DucVu_Spells_SFX_[Video_Demo_1]‘
and ‘Se-uk_Jeong_Spells_SFX_[Video_Demo_3]‘ designed magic folders
These spells were designed based on two different Game FX Showreel. Each of these magic spells has a ‘FULL‘ version where all the sounds are combined into one long wav file, and their various sound ‘parts’ and variation. It’s up to you if you want to use them all together or as a single magic spell or mix and match them and combine them with other sounds from other folders! Some of the files also have the word ‘Cast‘, ‘Shoot‘, ‘Impact‘ in them which works the same way as mentioned at the start of the post.
Example of a magic spell in the Designed Magic Folder:
Hell_Sword_Strike_Cast_1_Sword.wav
Hell_Sword_Strike_Cast_1.wav
Hell_Sword_Strike_Cast_2.wav
Hell_Sword_Strike_Cast_3.wav
Hell_Sword_Strike_Cast_Long.wav
Hell_Sword_Strike_FULL.wav
Hell_Sword_Strike_Impact_1.wav
Hell_Sword_Strike_Impact_2.wav
Hell_Sword_Strike_Impacts.wav
→ The fourth category of sounds – The ‘Long Spells‘ and ‘Short Spells‘ folders
The spells in these folders are inspired by magic spells found in Japanese RPG games in the 1990s. The ‘P’ in the P1-P4 of certain sound file stands for ‘Part’, it’s a suggested order you could use to craft your spell. → ‘Part 1’ would come first and ‘Part 4’ would be triggered last within the same spell.
The ‘v’ stands for variation of the same spell, for example, ‘S2_Medium_End_Impact_2_v1’ and ‘S2_Medium_End_Impact_2_v2’. The sound is similar but with a slight variation.
To help you get started, we group some suggested magic sounds that works well with each other.
S1 to S7, sounds with the same prefix has a similar sound theme
S1 Example:
S1_Small_Cast_P1.wav
S1_Small_Cast_P2.wav
S1_Small_End_P3_Buff_1.wav
S1_Small_End_P3_Buff_2.wav
S1_Small_End_P3_Buff_3.wav
S1_Small_End_P3_Debuff_1.wav
S1_Small_End_P3_Debuff_2.wav
S1_Subtle_Shield_1.wav
S1_Subtle_Shield_2.wav
→ The final category of sounds – The ‘Elemental_Magic_Layers_Impacts‘ and ‘Misc‘ folders
We added some elemental sounds to this sound pack, they are pretty straight forward as suggested by the names. There’s some electric, fire, plant, water and wind sound for you to layer them on top of any magic spells you have created or use them as a standalone skill.
The Misc folder includes notification sounds like UI Skill trigger (think Disgaea 5, a skill trigger SFX is played before a character cast a skill), MP potion, Hp potion, and Epic Boss Death SFX (imagine wind and magic circling the final boss as it breathes out its last breath!)
That’s all we have for the tutorial on how to use the RPG Magic sound packs! A final tip on how to design a nice-sounding magic spell is to let your sound combination have a good balance of the low, mid and high frequencies unless you are going for a dramatic effect!
We hope that this tutorial has been useful to you and if you still have any questions, feel free to ask us in the comment box below or send us an email! 🙂
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