Hello there,
Francesco here, sound designer and noise maker for Planet of Lana. I’m thrilled to dive into the sound of this beautiful journey and share a bit of the behind the scenes.
Where should I start? I was so lucky to jump on the project at the very early stage of production (that’s almost 4 years ago!), this is something that doesn’t happen very often in the game industry but the core team had a clear vision of the game and we found each other on the same page from day one.
Since I’ve joined the team during pre-production there was a lot of concepting going on while the gameplay was still very rough, but as soon as I saw the first arts of the game I was so inspired that I’ve started throwing ideas, sketching and recording sounds and planning possible interactive systems that might have come useful later in the production.
Me and Klas, the co-director and writer, had a lot of inspiring chats. Our main goal back then was to figure out what the planet of Novo would sound like. A few keywords were coming back very often such as Contrast, Alive, Breathing, all useful ingredients when sketching the ambience and setting up the general mood of the experience.
From day one it was clear that we would have had different biomes, each one with its own characteristics, both visually and sonically. Ambiences came to be one of the main pillar of the soundscape in Planet of Lana. Not only do they increase the immersion and enhance player experience, but they can also be used as powerful tools to tell a story. Sounds can go beyond the screen, they can tell what our eyes can’t see and that was crucial while building the soundscape of the game.
I was keep asking myself: “What would Lana hear if she stopped here, sat down on that rock, closed her eyes and just listened?”. I’ve tried to identify myself with Lana as much as possible, especially on her sonic experience in that place and in that specific moment within the story. This also led to the design of one of the interactive audio systems of the game: the Listening to the World system. We wanted to make the environment feel alive but also dynamic, constantly changing but without being intrusive.
In real life, when we stop for a while and we just listen carefully we start hearing more details but also things that are very far away from us. So what happens if the player decides to stop for a moment, maybe to focus on solving a puzzle, or just to admire the surroundings? We have come up with this idea that if the player stops walking for more than a certain amount of time the ambience will slowly become richer, new layers will be added, particular sounds will get to the foreground, like a mosquito buzzing around or very distant explosions. Each biome has its own additive layers and the player can enjoy them by just stopping and closing the eyes. These are the little things hidden in the game that makes this experience so unique.
Something we also spent a lot of time on during the early phase of production was giving a specific and original sonic identity to the robots. They were inspired by insects but they also have a robotic side. It’s like having a mechanical structure containing an organic soul at the same time. How did we turn this into sound? We’ve recorded a lot of machines, press, tools, nails smashed on metal plates, scraping boxes on concrete, old cameras, broken gizmos and a long session with a double bass player making the weirdest sounds out of his instrument and of course insects such as flies, wasps, cicadas. All this material was then sent to a digital instrument that is able to morph sounds and gives a very expressive outcome.
None of this would have been possible without the help of my fantastic colleagues at Settete, Marco Furlanetto and Andrea Bo who joined the project in 2022 and crafted some of the most beautiful sounds of the game.
There are millions of other things I would love to tell you about the sound of Planet of Lana and all the small details behind it, but I don’t want to spoil the experience and I hope you will enjoy it as much as we do. Don’t forget to close your eyes sometimes and just listen to the story unfolding.
Ciao!
Francesco
settete.com
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1608230/Planet_of_Lana/