Sound has always been a vital part of I Can't Escape: Darkness, it sets the mood and creates the immersion that makes the game effective. There were a lot of sounds we had originally planned for the game, but couldn't add in time for release, but with this update, all of those sounds have been added. Yes, all of them - I think our composer and sound designer, Chase Bethea, needs a big round of applause for finishing them so quickly!
In this update, we have added 146 sound effects for items, weapons and all sorts of interesting events in game. So give it a try, and prepare to be enveloped by all of the sounds of darkness.
Also, for this update, Chase has written a letter to the fans of the game, and shared a documentary - which is very interesting to watch especially if you've ever had any interest in how sounds for games are made!
Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8RcGwY2Qw0
Chase's Letter to Fans
Dear Players,
It has been a great pleasure knowing that you have enjoyed the experience for I Can't Escape:Darkness. The sound and music was extremely important to me and I wanted you all to have the best experience possible.
There were many days that I doubted myself and didn't think that I could do it. I racked my brains and thought, "How can I make this music and sound effects more immersive? How can I make it better than the first score?" I tried to put myself in your shoes as the player and see what would be too much? What would be too annoying?
I did a lot of research by playing old games such as Silent Hill 2, Theif, Dead Space and the first Tomb Raider. I strengthened my atomospheric sound through this research and tried new techniques that I have never done before such as layering and binaural mixing. I balanced and tested the volumes. I tweaked the parameters of the reverb for the reflections. I went through numerous iterations of playback balancing ensuring that you would not be distracted from a monotonous loop.
I spent sleepiness nights, sometimes eight days straight or more, to create every single sound you hear in the game from scratch. Whether it was synthsized or recorded with my own hands with my own props in my own custom made Foley stage that I specifically built for the project.
There were nights that I have awoken out of my sleep to record custom sounds in the mini Foley for the game because there was not enough silence in the day or a milestone deadline was upon me.
I remember sleeping one night and waking up around 5am hearing a whirring sound in the room. At first, I thought I dreamnt it, but I didn't. After a week, I discovered the sound was coming from my vent when the air was on and as it turned off, it made that whirring sound. That sound inspired the sound you hear when the player begins to see the lucid mushroom vision.
I bought PS4 games and ripped the sound from them so that I could make A/B comparisons to the quality of a AAA title to match an Independent title. Then, I would go play the game to see how the implementation was done.
But, to know that when you all are playing, that everything you touch, pick up, encounter, drop and interact with has a sound indidcating that there is a connection and that you are in that maze. That there is no hope and that you can't escape. I know how much you, the gamer, care about the sound and that is why I gave it my all. I am a one man team for the audio.
I did all the 271 sound effects by myself. Originally there were only about 50-75 sound effect assets that were needed but the game grew. I must say, as the asset list grew I felt like I wasn't going to escape making sound effects for the game haha. However, I did. For this sound effects update, after working 9 days straight, and with little sleep, I finished on 12/30/2015 at 10:33am. These are the sound effects that I meant to have completed by the time of initial release. I apologize. I try to live by the standards of the old school. When a game ships it ships with no holes & no pockets. Everything is tight.
For those of you reviewed the game who felt that the sound was not fully complete, I apologize. My expectation was for everything be as top notch quality and have solid implementation for the full purpose of immersion. I assure you that now that the sound is better. I created, implemented, tweaked, and tested everything. David also double checked my work for quality assurance. If you still feel that the sound isn't good enough then I don't know what to tell you. I'll try harder next time. Just remember that it was only me doing it all part-time. I did my best to the very last possible moment and I take full responsibility and pride in my craft.
For the gamers and fans that do love it, Thank you so much!!! You are the reason that I worked as hard as I did with the sound. Why I gladly lost sleep. Why I stressed out about the polish. Why I tried new techniques that I haven't done before musically and technically. I wanted you guys to really love it and be even more lost than the prequel. This is my personal letter and HUGE THANK YOU to you all for giving the game the chance, playing it over and over, caring and being involved.
Game on!
