Hello everyone!
We’re pleased to present you with this blog about the music and sound of Necromunda: Hired Gun. It will be divided in 3 parts, each one explaining a different aspect of the sound design. This first article will go through the thinking and creation process behind the original soundtrack of the game. We hope you’ll enjoy reading it as much as we did writing it!
A brief introduction of the Streumons
Maybe you still don’t know, but “Streumon” is a way of saying “monster” in French… but reversed. Here at StreumOn Studio, we are a team of 15 people working every day to bring you the best possible experience on Necromunda: Hired Gun.
15 people, including three leads - Jonathan, Pierrick, and Christophe - who are obviously also focused on producing the game, keeping the studio running, while also working in their respective fields. Streumon is a multi-skilled team and all huge fans of Necromunda, one of the great parts of the 40K universe that we love.
I’m Olivier, one of the Streumons, and today I’m going to give you an overview of how I worked to bring the sound of Necromunda: Hired Gun to life.
Finding the musical art direction
During the pre-production phase, with the early concepts and the first prototype in front of me... but also all the books, rules, and faithful 40K resource websites; I came up with the first musical intent.
The music was going to work based on two main layers throughout the levels. 7 to 9 minute-long themes, with one main layer: the ambient theme. An additional battle theme went back and forth on top of the ambient theme depending on the action happening on the screen.
The idea behind that was to leave a lot of space for the weapons, the environmental sound design, and the violence of Necromunda’s universe while you were gunning your way through the Domes.
With a big emphasis on metallic or massive percussion instruments (like Les Tambours du Bronx) and subtle ambient layers, at first it was really working on our early levels and gameplay mechanics.
But two things made me drastically change this initial design idea:
- We had a technical issue to sync both layers, even though the audio desynchronization happened in extremely rare cases. I wanted to have something that worked flawlessly all the time. And we didn’t have enough resources internally to have someone working on the code to avoid that (and using middleware like FMOD was also out of the question).
- On the production side, a couple of people raised the concern that percussion driven music may seem strange or odd during a solo campaign and asked to explore alternative leads.
After a long discussion with Pierrick, he suggested that I should explore any type of musical lead that should fit Necromunda. “Carte blanche” as we say in France: “do whatever you want”. At the time, I think he knew where I would go since 90% of the time we are on the same page when it comes to music.
Following this discussion, I tried a bunch of different approaches. Classic orchestral/epic music. Orchestral music with an emphasis on electronic sounds. Electronic music only… and then, I grabbed my guitar.
The result of this long night of research was the new direction I would use for the rest of the production. 32 and The Pit are the two tracks I wrote that night and are used in the level called Koloss.
The new music direction was then structured like this:
- Anchoring the music in the universe. This meant using instruments that would really work if you were someone trying to make music in the Underhives.
- Bells, metallic and big percussion, metallic strings and bowed instruments, analogic synths sonorities that remind you of old electronic equipment.
- Big ambient pads that would sound like they reverberate through the immensity of the Domes.
- Splitting the music between ambient themes with discreet melodies complementing what you see on screen and brutal battle tracks during the biggest encounters of the levels.
- Battle tracks should always be divided into three parts: the main battle theme, a middle part with epic percussion and cool riffs, and the big finale.
- Strings (guitars, acoustic guitars, plucked strings or assimilated synths) are the voice of humanity.
- Synths, analogic leads, high pitched leads or big pads are the voice of either the bad guys or the creatures that have powers coming from the warp (like the Wyrds).
With these guidelines in mind, I tried to capture a feeling that I had in my head since I knew we were playing a bounty hunter: a portion of the musical identity for the ambient themes that should have a “western” feel to it, like the cowboy/outlaw themes from the cinema. The themes you will hear in Martyr’s End (the game’s hub) are the best example of that.
Another part of the ambient themes is a combination of this “westernish” feeling with analogic sounds and percussion. I always loved writing my music as a part of the game’s universe, and I pictured some of the themes in my head as if it was a band of Orlocks or Eschers slapping big metallic barrels and strumming some old rusty metallic strings while an Ogryn tries to get electronic sounds out of an old industrial device.
And for the battle tracks I wanted to have themes that were always pushing you to be aggressive and feel empowered during the encounters. Not only metal music to just lay down riffs to support the action, but great riffs supported by melodies that makes you feel like you are the one with the upper hand no matter what opponent you are facing.
Anecdote: since I had an incredible amount of work on the overall sound design and music, my brother is the session guitarist who performs all the guitar and acoustic guitar parts on the soundtrack.
The rest is history! I hope you enjoy the direction we took on the music. Here is another sample of the soundtrack. The first track, The Fists, is the battle theme of the Goliath Boss, and the second track, Issues of Mine, is an ambient theme that you will hear in a level called Cold Black while you wander through strange mines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9mLcqODvdw
We hope you enjoyed this first part, as well as the music that came along! Necromunda: Hired Gun releases on June 1st on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Pre-order are open here: https://www.focus-home.com/games/necromunda-hired-gun#shop
Stay tuned next week to learn more about the voice recording process!
-The StreumOn Team