Happy Friday, friends of the brick!
I wonder, when LEGO® bricks were first designed, did the LEGO group ever think about the distinct sonic qualities that they would possess? I can't imagine there was conscious sound design happening, but physical LEGO bricks certainly has gone on to create a soundscape that fuels everything from childlike joy, to meditative building to creativity and multiple generations worth of nostalgia.
Anybody who has played with LEGO bricks knows the distinct rustle of digging through a pile of bricks, or the unmistakable one-two punch of two bricks connecting. First the bright click of the pieces colliding, then the punctuation with a light creak as they lock together. And yet, creating the sound effects to accompany LEGO Bricktales wasn't just a matter of going to the proverbial plastic well. We had to toy with what the bricks represented, pardon the pun.
It's an interesting conundrum of the fantasy that LEGO bricks draws you into. Yes, if we were all unimaginative and heartless it's just ABS plastic in the end, injection molded at a precision that would make NASA engineers blush. But do you think the kid that drags a LEGO car across the carpet and goes "brrrr" thinks the engine block is anything less than a roaring high octane V8?
Zap!
The result was a two-pronged approach when it came to giving the game audio life. We consider two situations – the diorama and the building puzzle.
When in a diorama, whether you run around with your minifigure, watch a cutscene or zoom out to observe the entire level from all angles, we try to immerse you as much as we can in the idea that what you see is LEGO bricks, but what you experience is the environment and story of a world that is vibrant and alive.
In this context at best we lightly hint at the underlying plastic origin of things and rather lean wholly into what they represent. Portals warble and buzz with electric hum, motors burn gasoline in rapidly firing cylinders, trees shake and leaves rustle with a light crisp, water is, well, wet. It certainly sounds wet. The trademark plastic click is only a small punctuation here and there, like a little wink and nod.
Place bricks and chill.
In turn, whenever you enter a so-called construction spot, we flip the coin and almost do the reverse. We clear the stage, we pare down the environment to give your building prowess and the separate bricks the spotlight, and accordingly, we pull you back into the focused soundscape of small plastic clicks and clacks that you might be very familiar with. Relax, build, solve the challenge, do it your way.
That was one area of work for me and our long-time audio master of choice, Maximilian Stroka. On the other side of the aural fence, conversations with him to nail down the music were ongoing. I have to be honest, it felt like me placing the most annoyingly complicated Starbucks secret menu order under the sun. It kind of went like this:
"The camera perspective is a bit like a 3D platformer, but it's not a platformer where you run and jump, so we don't want something that's really energetic and hyper. It's more of an adventure game, we still want something that propels the player through the story, like a beat. But no, wait, it's also a puzzle game, so multiple times throughout the game you sit down and devote a long time to building, so it should be laid back as well. Can you do something like that? Relaxed, but not too relaxed? And yes, we have outdoor and indoor dioramas. In one moment you are underneath a sunny sky, the next you are in a damp cavern. And yes, we have 5 different biomes, all completely distinct in locale and visuals. So can you do all of that, but in 5 completely different musical styles, some modern, some old? And did I mention? We are still working on putting everything together, so rather than give you screenshots to spur your creativity you just have to imagine everything from the scattered descriptions I'm giving you. Thaaanks."
In all honesty, I think he knocked it out of the park.
"Give me a desert bazaar track. With a slight hint of mummy curse."
Some of the specifics of the music were pretty interesting to figure out. LEGO Bricktales isn't meant to show real world locations, but still we'd end up drawing inspirations from different musical styles across the globe, trying to be respectful towards our influences but also wondering what exactly it could be that reinforces the vibe of a particular biome. In some cases it seemed more straight forward, worlds like the Medieval biome had clearer source materials to draw from.
Others were quite the puzzle to find a good fit. I remember discussing the City biome and trying to thread the needle between something that feels like a city musically, but at the same time shouldn't sound like a sprawling metropolis, we weren't going for sheer size nor busy streets after all. Our musings took us into the directions of a subdued J Dilla style MPC beat, but with the story detail of an otherworldly attack by alien robots and filtered through Max' musical sensibilities it became wholly its own thing over time.
The final Caribbean biome was a fun surprise for me as well. In one track Max manages to evoke the old-timey feel of a pirate hideout, and right next to it the beach features modern arrangements of organ and steel drum without feeling out of place. Not to mention the mysteries that lie in the caverns down below.
And here and there we got to have fun and fall out of line a bit, like a synth-heavy minimalist ambient piece for your robot sidekick's encounter with their previous alien ties, a small shout-out to The LEGO® Movie's "Everything Is Awesome!!", or an entire track devoted to a diorama filled with cats that Max banged out in a delirious late night session. You gotta hear it to believe it.
That’s it for now, a little insight into the sonic side of LEGO Bricktales. Next time around I’ll dive into the challenge of one of our central game mechanics, building with bricks.
But until then, stay safe and keep building!
Tri Do Dinh & the ClockStone Team
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1898290/LEGO_Bricktales/