Hello everyone!
I’m Philippe, my favourite Fool is Shelbie, and I’m the composer and lead audio designer on Ship of Fools! I’d like to share with you all some cool details about what you hear in our game.
The music of Ship of Fools started with a live meeting with Antoine and Étienne back in 2020, where I’d play the piano and we explored ideas together until we found a melodic direction that we all liked. The material of that recording session eventually became the main theme of the game, and I often went back to it to pull motifs and ideas to keep a good cohesion throughout the OST. Here’s what that track became when I had to arrange it for our very first pitch:
Sound on! 🔊
The soundtrack was then composed over the next two years. For each new sector, I’d receive some early concept art and I would draw inspiration from it when writing the music. About 95% of the OST was made using virtual instruments with plugins within Nuendo, and I challenged myself to try to imitate a real orchestra as well as I could by playing every part separately on my MIDI keyboard. I learned a lot about sound and arranging by doing so! Every so often I’d use some live instruments like a pandeiro or nylon guitar, and besides these few layers, only the electric guitar in the Eye of the Storm wasn’t a sampled instrument. 🎸
Once a track was done, I’d implement it in Wwise, the audio engine we used for the game. Since I knew I’d use its features from the start, I was able to think ahead about some elements while composing. I wanted the soundtrack to have dynamic cues, but also be melodic and rhythmically “busy”, which proved to be a challenge sometimes. For example, when going into battle and transitioning from a “calm” state to a “combat” state, just fading between two music tracks with a different intensity didn’t really give me the feeling I was looking for. Instead, I made it so that most of the musical transitions happen exactly on a bar (or a beat sometimes), often skipping to the beginning of the next section, and with a percussive element added on top to help it flow better while adding impact. 🥁 Here’s what it sounds like:
Sound on! 🔊
I also chose to split most tracks into different sections so that I could add “horizontal” variation when implementing the music in the engine. For example, the structure of a song might go from ABCDE to ABACD on the next repeat, then CABD, etc. This also meant that I had to carefully balance the chord progressions and not stray too far from the original key. In contrast, the music that plays on islands is dynamic on a “vertical” level; it is always the same 4 chords pattern repeating, but the layered instruments are chosen at random. Give it a listen next time you play a run!
Now for more fun little technical details! Using Wwise also allowed us to do some pretty funky things when we wished to. For example, all the resonance projectiles are tuned to the track that’s currently playing 🎶 We got the idea in part from Mario Odyssey when we heard the many cool musically-informed elements like the tropical wiggler. Here’s a little snippet of how it sounds on our side:
Sound on! 🔊
How does it work? Well, I had to annotate every chord of every song in the game (which may or may not have taken ages), triggering an event that basically says: “Hey, we’re playing this chord now! If you fire a resonance projectile, you should only play these notes over it!”
Speaking of notes, I’m not sure anyone has found out about this easter egg I’ve hidden in the audio, so here’s a hint! I’m a big fan of Koji Kondo, and you might be able to recognize some of his music in the soundscape of the game. Those with good ears could spot it near a ripple or some moss, slowly singing the passage of time..
Well, on that note, I think it’s time for me to rap things up! Thanks everyone for taking the time to read this little blog post!
Sound on! 🔊
Alright everybody please get on board
The ship of fools devblog is sailing the fjord
I thank you for reading this humble verse
About the sounds of our little made-up universe
I really had a good time working on our game
And if you don’t like the soundtrack i’m the one to blame (shame)
Now if you got a question just give me a whack
And be sure to let me know via feedback! (In our Discord)
drops mic
Now that the Stormstrider is ready to sail into the Forgotten Waters make sure that you...
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