Hey, community!
We wanted to tell you a bit about how our AUDIO 🎵 development is going for Profane.
Marlon Kroth, our Head of Audio, has been doing some research so that the audio is always filled with information for the player, while also transmitting the feelings that each moment and environment needs to have.
He also works closely with our Game Design team because we want to allow mindful players to be able to find, in the audio, hints as to what is going on around them, or even as to how some of the elements in Semisus work or behave. 👀
⚠ A quick disclaimer: we exaggerated a bit in the sounds and transitions so we could give you a clearer idea of them. This will all be a lot smoother in-game 🙂
What we bring you today is one of the biomes that we want to have in the Alpha: a 🌴⛱ tropical beach!
As you can see in the video, the main parameter for the player in this biome will be their distance to the beach.
The more distant you are from it, the less they will hear high frequencies.
The closer, the more details you will hear, like the waves washing on the sand. Between these two extremes, sounds will intersect, balancing their characteristics.
To get to this result, Marlon needs to ask himself a few questions that might seem simple at first glance, but that are very important to pinpoint exactly which feeling must be captured.
Questions such as "What is a beach?", "What defines a beach?", "How does the wind behave on this beach?" or even "Is this a rocky beach?". All of this needs to be taken into account when putting all of these elements together.
The wind in a tropical beach, for example, has more freedom of movement and collides only with the character, while in a more rocky beach, we would hear howlings generated by the deformations the rocks create in the wind. And of course, you can't tie all of this together without studying how the wind and waves behave in these environments.
Moreover, another concern our Head of Audio has is to know how to filter what's important and what's not. His main challenges are:
- Doing a good mixing of the sounds so that, i.e., a bird's screech doesn't draw too much attention;
- Work on the range of the sounds and rank them.
The sound of a biome can't conflict with combat sound, right? Or with the sound of another player approaching.
Another important factor is being able to convey that Semisus is a fantasy world, but without exaggerating. The sounds need to keep the balance between what's familiar and known to our reality, while also having a touch of Semisus. After all, even though they share some similarities, the birds on this beach aren't seagulls! The world of Profane houses a unique fauna and this implies knowing how to create sounds that bring this authenticity to its creatures.
Now for the 🌲 FOREST, which Marlon had different parameters to work with.
This biome has a different main parameter: DENSITY!
The denser the forest, the more trees it'll have, which is obviously more room for birds! That will give us a forest full of chirping birds 🐦.
A denser forest is a loud one.
An open forest has fewer trees and more room between them (so less room for the nests) and you'll also be able to hear the wind howling and moving through the trees a bit more (that's very subtle in the audio!).
That's why a less dense forest is a bit quieter.
We got to our last biome (so far): the 🌊 ocean!
The main parameter for this biome is WATER PRESSURE!
Marlon, our Head of Audio, did a fantastic job of simulating the discomfort we feel in our ears when diving deep in the water as pressure rises.
The lower the pressure, meaning lower depth, the more you can hear the water surface, i.e.
The deeper the player dives, the greater the pressure will be, and the more inhospitable the place will feel, and the audio will start to cause discomfort.
The seabed is a whole biome in itself. It is just as complete as the beach or the forest, and it also involves a lot of research.
Our Head of Audio really tried to convey the solitude and gloom that the depths can have through sound.
When closer to the water surface, we want the player to hear sounds from outside, but with a filter that simulates this interaction.
Beyond that, there are other elements that he'd like to implement that are still undergoing some studies, and we hope we can share more about them soon™:
- Sea Currents! As we mentioned before, Marlon works closely with our GDs, and we are studying the possibility of adding sea currents to the depths, both in sound and mechanically.
- Collectable corals: we want both visual AND sound cues to some collectibles/gathering materials. This includes corals that might glow and/or emit sounds to indicate their location.
We'd like to share one other thing: Marlon loves easter-eggs and little secrets in the game! So you can expect such details in Profane 🙂
Did you like learning about this side of development? Let us know.
