Attention Wolfpack!
For this week’s update, our sound engineer presents a variety of new sound effects for our game, along with a special video around ‘soundscape’ track creation for world-building!
You can find the links to listen to these tracks here in our announcement channel and throughout this write-up.
Due to the nature of this update, it won’t be as text heavy as other updates, however our sound engineer has a few words for us about each track below!
We’ll pass it over to him now.
Hey Wolfpack!
These are a few of the sound effects I’ve been working on over the last 2 weeks, other work outside of these has just involved retouching previous-sound effects, so I thought you’d enjoy hearing these new ones for now.
I’ve had a good time making these sounds, it’s interesting because you’ll have odd effects that sound best when they’re purely synthetic, whereas others will need mixtures of synthesizers and real-world noises to get the best outcome — and there’s a good mix of both in these.
Up next is Attack, Heal, Summon From The Grave and a ‘Soundscape’.
Attack:
When attack is used, the sound has different iterations depending on who is receiving vs dealing the damage.
This particular sound is for dealing damage to an opponent, it’ll have a different tone when you’re receiving it.
As you can tell by the sound, there’s quite a lot of body and weight to it, this is made so you really feel the sense of impact.
To help capture that feeling, I’ve inserted a ‘kick drum’, which helps make the sound a lot thicker and more threatening. Attack should well…make you feel attacked!
2. Beast Summoning
Watch & listen to Beast Summoning here.
Transparently, I don’t have too many notes for my creative process with this one. Not all sounds take the same levels of creative thinking depth, although I think you’ll like the details on the next two coming up.
3. Heal
I had fun making this one. You can see that the sound is made to ‘light up’ and ‘fade out’ with the effect itself, and I think it’s come out really well.
I wanted it to sound both magical and airy, that’s why the sound doesn’t have the same kind of ‘depth’ as the attack sound.
On a technical level, the sound is purely synthesized using frequency modulation and cut-off frequencies.
The challenge with a sound like this is it’s quite easy to sound ‘tinny’ or ‘harsh’ due to the high pitch, but it doesn’t sound piercing because I’ve ‘shaved off’ the higher levels of the frequency spectrum.
It’s easy to think a sound like this could just come pre-loaded on software, but a lot of thought goes into the little details to get it right.
It’s important because a sound like this will be heard regularly throughout the game, and at the end of the day, no-one wants their ear-drums pierced regularly with a really harsh sound.
4. Summon From The Grave
Watch & Listen to Summon From The Grave here.
I really wanted this to sound ‘dark’, kind of like a resurrection. I was toying with the idea of a coffin creaking sound, then I ended up taking inspiration from thinking about something breaking out of a sarcophagus (like in Egypt).
I thought of something just bursting out, awaking and taking it’s first breath of fresh air. So that’s the sound I’ve tried to capture, our wolf being ‘awoken’ and taking it’s ‘first breath of life’ from the grave.
There’s also a little growl in it, it plays during the very first part of the effect as the wolf's face comes through the smoke. I thought this would subtly add to the feeling of ‘being ready to fight’ straight out the grave.
5. The soundscape.
Watch & Listen to the ‘Soundscape’ creation video here.
Creating soundscapes is one of my very favourite things to do. A soundscape is meant to be something that makes you feel transported to another world.
I like using visuals to inspire my creative processes, which is why I made this one attached to a visual of the UI.
This soundscape will actually play through the UI/background of the game in a really low volume, much lower than in this video and even ‘behind’ other soundtracks.
You’ll hear it at times, like when you’re changing tabs and the main music may stop/dim for a moment, or when a loading screen is coming up.
Soundscapes are made to give what we call 'subconscious spatial programming’, it’s something that gives your brain a sense of depth and environment, whether you register it or not.
Like when you’re sitting at home, things aren’t purely quiet, you may have cars that drive in the distance or the sound of birds chirping outside, that’s like a ‘natural soundscape’.
Another example would be in horror movies when we hear ‘creeps’ or eerie track moments that create a sense of tension, it makes you ‘feel’ the situation with that much more depth.
This will do the same thing for Shiryo, there’ll always be something keeping your mind locked into Shiryo's world.
That’s it for today, I’ve always enjoyed sharing new sounds with you and I’m thankful the community has received them all really positively so far.
Hopefully, I’ll have some more good work to share with you all soon!
Until next time, Wolfpack Strong!
P.S If you liked what you heard today, check out this article for more work from our sound engineer!
https://medium.com/@shiryo/weekly-shiryo-update-from-the-shiryo-team-43-520bb17df404
