Hello fellow Vikings!
As every month, we got a devlog for you! The newest material was prepared by Maciej, our sound designer, who will tell you about sound recording for the city builder game! Have a nice read!
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I started the process of working on the sounds for Viking City Builder by taking a very close look at all the Viking activities that will be presented in the game. After preparing a list of sounds, I started looking for items that would best simulate the sounds of tools, manufacturing, or mining processes. The basic assumption describing how our game should sound was the statement "it has to be natural". Therefore, all the sounds you'll hear in the game are recordings of real objects.
Some of them sound one-to-one. This means, for example, that when recording the sounds of chopping wood, I chopped firewood. Using two types of axes. I scored some solid cardio in the process ;)
Some of the samples, however, were recorded based on sounds that only mimic what you will hear in the game. How does record digging in the mud avoid an outdoor recording session and thus a mass of unwanted sounds? Birds, combines, cars, or neighbors who just decided to mow the lawn can be a really big problem! The best solution was to "put" the mud in a wheelbarrow and then carry it and its contents to the garage. After that, all that was left was to wallow in the mud with my hands or dig with a shovel. Worked like a charm!
What sounds similar to forging a helmet? A metal scoop hit with a hammer fits perfectly! Tanning leather? Old leather welding coats worked quite well! Extracting honey from a beehive? The sound of ripping oranges sounds good! I could give many more such examples, but let's move on to the next production process - a sound implementation.
During recording sessions, I always remembered to keep a lot of variety in the recorded sounds. These sounds, once they were processed and prepared for implementation, I was guaranteed that the audio you would hear in the game would be diverse. The greater the variety of samples, the more natural the perception of sound. Let's remember - "it has to be natural".
When preparing sounds for character animation, I created a randomly played list of sounds each time, thus avoiding the artificial repetition of the same samples. That's why the animation of one hammer strike on an anvil has about six modulated variations. When creating the sounds of work and life in buildings, I decided to use the same method. This way when you listen to the work of, for example, a Smelter you’ll never hear an identical loop of sounds.
Thanks for reading! We hope you liked the material about recording the sounds of the work and life of our Vikings! Remember to write us your feedback and visit our Discord!
