We strongly encourage to use headphones when listening to all videos below!
There is an old saying and rule - show, don’t tell. We are quite fond of that little sentence because it encapsulates our approach to these devlogs. While trying to show as much as we can we always make sure to cover a variety of topics when talking with you. This time we want to come back to audio and show you something new.
As you can see (or hear!) in this particular devlog - we have few examples of how we are going to set the mood in the game through sounds, noises and different kinds of ambient we have prepared for liquidators venturing to various locations in the game. Combining that with atmospheric music that will be our companion during the tasks we need to perform will create an audio experience that will enhance the gameplay and set the overall mood of the game.
For the task of making this experience as realistic as possible we have used a special system managing different types of ambience sounds. What you will be hearing in certain places might be a little bit different each time you visit them. Why? Because a lot of the sounds will be generated procedurally. That means that our system will find appropriate noises that should be played in particular locations and will add them to audio tracks you’ll be hearing in game. You’ll be hearing quite different sounds depending on whether you’re currently going through a dark and wet tunnel or through a relatively peaceful room. The system will intelligently craft the experience for you from different parts it possesses.
To quote our developers - what you actually hear in game is the combination of three distinct elements that make up the ambient sound-scape in our game:
- Static music track (library of which we grow steadily).
- Dynamic ambient system which is composed of spatial emitters spawning in the 3d space around the player and playing randomised ambient samples based on weight.
- 3D-sound changing volume which affects stuff such as reverb, echo and other parameters responsible for how the audio is being emitted.
Helicopters flying, dogs barking or even wind howling louder or quieter - hearing them will completely depend on that system which will carefully find appropriate moments to insert into our audio experience which we’re trying to weave seamlessly into our story. More precisely - thanks to the system wind that you'll be able to hear up on the rooftop of any building will be much more pronounced than something you could hear over the window. It’ll be much more possible for you to hear dogs barking in the habitable areas than in dark tunnels. Those audio cues will also have different parameters - loudness is one of them but we are also incorporating many effects into them to make sure that they sound as natural as possible. Don’t be surprised when you’ll suddenly hear echoing sounds in places where those are absolutely feasible.
Let us know in the comments what you think about the examples we prepared for you. Do you feel the atmosphere we’re trying to create?!
Kind regards,
Chernobyl Liquidators Simulator Team
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1113010/Chernobyl_Liquidators_Simulator/