Hey everyone,
Welcome to this week's Dev Update from VOID Interactive's Community Manager Guinevere!
This week Guin's been chatting to Ready or Not's composer, Zack Bower, about what goes into the creation of a soundtrack for a game like ours.
On top of that we've got two previews from in-progress tracks to give you a feel for what's coming!
Much like when playing Ready or Not, you'll want to listen closely to this post...
Soundtrack Design in Ready or Not
A game's soundtrack is vital to its identity. The tension it builds, the action it intensifies, the moments it brings to new heights. Each song has to be crafted not only to stand on its own, but to compliment the game's setting, tone, and experience. With this goal in mind, Ready or Not's soundtrack is being made to be as 'vertical' as possible, allowing us to add or remove layers during key moments in gameplay.
For example, the drums on a combat track may kick in when the player engages a suspect, and as the firefight goes on for more time or if more suspects are involved, the track will have more layers of music added in. By contrast, non-combat tracks are made to be unintrusive so as not to distract from the player's ability to gather information from other audio cues: you'll still be able to hear distant footsteps and voices through walls, but you'll have that underlying tension accompanying your actions.
Above: Click the lick above to hear a snippet of one of Ready or Not's in-progress tracks, 'Broken Clock'.
Above: Click the image above to hear a snippet of one of Ready or Not's in-progress tracks, 'No More Lights'.
Both of the above tracks are small slices of Ready or Not’s soundscape.
Composer Q&A - A Chat With Zack Bower
Here to talk more about Ready or Not's soundtrack is our composer, Zack Bower, who recently joined our team and has proven himself to be incredibly hard working.
How did you end up joining VOID Interactive?
Believe it or not, two ingredients - A lot of luck, and a ton of persistence in the face of that internal voice going ‘don’t upload, this ain’t it’. I moonlight as a composer when I’m not at the day job, and if I’m not working away on a smaller project, I like putting time into remix tracks where I ask myself “how would I write this piece?” With that in mind, I took a sliver of Ready or Not’s main theme composed by the extremely talented Dan Liston and expanded on it, slowing it down and giving it a darker coat of paint. After a few days of hovering over the upload button and chewing my fingernails off, I finally decided to pull the trigger and post it around. 2 weeks later, I see a message from our Community Manager (the amazing Gwynn) asking if I’m up for a chat with our Creative Lead. The rest is history. I still lose sleep thinking about how exciting the whole thing is. Moral of the story - push against that ‘block’ as hard as you can.
What's your overall vision for Ready or Not's soundtrack?
I love Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory’s plunderphonics style. I think Amon Tobin nailed the atmosphere with this crazy cacophony of sound that perfectly matches the game. Being able to grab some of that style, mix it up with more orchestral music, and spread it out a bit more (a la ambient Eric Brosius) to give players as much situational awareness as possible is the #1 priority. Gritty, dark, hard hitting when it needs to be, these are some of the goals when working through the music for Ready or Not.
How do you tackle creating music for a game where environmental awareness and audio cues are so important? How does the soundtrack serve to enhance the experience?
The tactical shooter genre is tricky with music - how much do you pull back before you don’t have any music at all? In this case, we’re balancing it out through FMOD using a few parameters to mix things up. Busting a door down but not in combat? Let’s turn the ambient intensity up. Have a few suspects ganging up on you? Let’s turn the combat intensity up. Today’s tech lets us take full advantage of crafting a really immersive and intense soundscape, with a lot of expanded nuance. What’s really exciting is that line between ‘this is combat music’ and ‘this is ambient music’ can be blended to a point where there is no line - it’s music catered to how you’re experiencing the game.
What would you say are your greatest musical influences?
When it comes to sound textures and sheer experimentation, Amon Tobin is definitely my main go-to. Again, his work on Splinter Cell was so raw and visceral that it stuck with me long after release. He really nailed down the atmosphere just based on whatever textures he was exploring. On a more melodic note, Jonny Greenwood steals it. He dabbles in a lot of experimental stuff too, but his orchestral work on Phantom Thread is out of this world. Anyone with a command of emotion like that in the orchestrator’s chair gets a gold star from me.
What has been the most difficult, but most rewarding, part of working on Ready or Not's soundtrack so far?
It’s terrifying sitting on a track that’s about to go public - you really wanna please as many folks as possible, while maintaining that personal overall vision that encompasses everything. At the same time, that fear totally washes away working on some new tracks and being pumped to finally show ‘em off. It’s a game of balance that keeps my blood pressure in a good spot.
Conclusion
This concludes today's biweekly briefing, the first of three which will focus on elements of the game's audio design. A big thank you to our composer Zack Bower for taking time out of his busy schedule to talk to us a bit about his work. I hope to see you all next time for more development news!
P.S. -- This briefing's banner is a fan made render, courtesy of Natjvin. Check out the whole image here.
Keep your feet on the ground.
Guinevere