It wasn't a priority for the final project, however sound effects were a layer of detail that we wanted to add to Maive, especially before the arcade. We'd intended to record the foley sounds ourselves, giving us an opportunity to experiment with how they're made and make sure we had the perfect sounds for our game. The issue was that by the time we reached a point where we could consider foley sounds for the game, we had gone into lockdown, making it impossible for us to use the university's media store to get the right equipment to do the job ourselves.
In the end, I was the one who took on the task of organising the foley sounds. I tried to record some myself, with the equipment I had, but I didn't have a sound-proof space to record in, nor did I have a good microphone to record with. The result was good sounds, but poor quality, and I knew the time it would take to clean up each sound would be too much.
Instead I turned to the internet, to websites with free downloadable foley sounds that I could use royalty-free in Maive. After a lot of searching, I found www.zapsplat.com, which had a really good variety of sounds that I could use for my purposes. I compiled a list of sounds we would need in the game, starting with Maive-centric noises - footsteps, book opening, etc. The footsteps in itself were more of a challenge than I anticipated. If I wanted soft footsteps on grass, I'd often be met by a wave of hyper-realistic noises that just didn't suit the style of the game. A major issue I had was that most recorded "footstep" sounds involved a human foot, one that leads with the heel then rocks forward onto the ball of the foot. Each footstep comprised of these two contact sounds, and Maive has paws for feet, little stubs that only make one sound at a time. In the end, Maive's footsteps on grass are actually the sound of shoes on grass cuttings.
Many of the other sounds I sourced followed this pattern. Maive's footsteps on stone are actually footsteps on wood, Garveet's cart being moved is the sound of cardboard boxes being crushed.
Thinking outside the box for finding sounds ended up being really important. I'm glad I had this experience, as it feels like I got a bit closer to the experience of creative thinking that's involved in making the foley sounds.