How do we bring the vibrant world and gameplay of All Will Rise to living, breathing life? – with music and sound, of course! Ramsey, our composer, and Neha, our sound designer share how they create the heartbeat of Muziris, the ancient city which is the setting for our wild adventure.
Ramsey:
The process starts with finding the right instruments to not only convey the movement on screen but to also rouse the underlying themes of the narrative. It’s about matching the gameplay and visual identity of the game while lifting the story when appropriate.
Collaboration is a key part of that process. Working with game devs early on to agree on a unified vision of what the game should sound like, what its core themes are, and how to amplify them through instrumentation and sound. Throughout, I experiment and prototype different textures and soundscapes, testing how they feel in gameplay until everything becomes a natural extension of the world rather than something layered on top. So I’d say that play testing is important to that process.
Every game is a unique case, so staying flexible is important. Music and sound is highly subjective, so many approaches can work depending on the tone and pacing. Testing the palette of instruments until everything sits naturally within the world of the game is a big part of the process.
Neha:
So my projects are very precise and there’s a clear pipeline for the sound direction. Others, like All Will Rise, give me a lot of freedom. My first step was to play other games that were similar in genre to All Will Rise and carefully listen to their sound design, take notes of unique design choices and look if there were blogs/talks given by the sound designer.
Afterwards, I play through the build and take video captures of everything I need; I prepare an excel sheet to keep track of everything, I come up with a naming convention and get the Wwise (audio middleware software) project ready. Basically, I do a lot of prep work so that once I’m in a creative mode, it can flow as easily as possible. Think of it as cutting up all your vegetables and having them ready for a stir fry! And then starts the most fun yet difficult part: actually creating the sounds! I usually/almost always have a vague idea but, as with most sounds, I only know if it fully works once I get it implemented and hear the ‘feel’ of it in-game. Ramsey’s music has been a huge inspiration to me. I took some of his stems and used them in my sound effects! You wouldn’t ever hear it, it’s subtle, but I believe it creates a cohesiveness that is felt more than heard.
Ramsey:
Early on, Meghna, the narrative director, introduced me to a few Kerala-specific instruments that inspired the aesthetic, and I really latched on to the chenda and the kombu. The chenda is a percussion based instrument, similar to a Dhol, which is like a large drum that you carry, but is higher pitched and has a more rigid sound to it. The kombu is a unique brass horn. Search for images of them online; their shape curves around into a nearly complete circle and struck me as almost otherworldly. It also produces a powerful trumpet-esque honk that I found especially interesting and effective in punctuating this bleak world of eco-terrorism and climate change. This was an instrument of war during the Sangam period, so that drives the sound of the game as the characters battle for justice against massive conglomerate entities who are literally waging war on the general public with anti-humanist policies. I should admit that I do not have access to a real life kombu, so I definitely take liberties with it, as it has a pretty limited range musically. I extend its range and pitch the sample up and down as needed. This matches the surreal vibe of All Will Rise and further feeds my inspiration for it. The simple nature of the kombu’s melody is helping to cut through the instrumentation of the other things I have going on.
Real life climate change events have also inspired me, such as the California wild fires, hail storms in Saudi Arabia and the powerful cyclones that have hit Texas in recent years. These are natural disasters that make us feel helpless and are ominous signs of impending climate catastrophes. The soundtrack conveys that helplessness aspect to the player–we are at the whims of our environment, but these destructive corporations have held the world captive to their bottom lines and created these catastrophes. The people's rage comes through in the music. Other inspirations include, but are not limited to, artists such as Dis Fig and Florist, the Hades soundtrack and the Ace Attorney series and even tv shows such as Twin Peaks all lend inspiration to the soundtrack in subtle, underlying ways. We are aiming for something that is profound yet surreal and otherworldly, that can paint a mirror reflection of the darkness of this universe. Not entirely horror leaning but not afraid to dip its toes in it either.
I think in some ways the game wants to hone in on the prevalent sadness and terrifying implicit realities of climate change. There is something profoundly bleak about a river being on fire, an event that, sadly, wouldn’t be too out of place today. Rivers should not be on fire! It is the by-product of human carelessness and environmental misconduct, and that just resonates with me and leaves me feeling despair. That imagery captures the game's core idea, and represents the relentless assault on our environment and uncomfortable reconciliation between our technological progress and the natural world.
Neha:
When it comes to collaborating, luckily Ramsey is a really good friend of mine, so we already have a basis of trust and honesty. We chat a lot and I request things from him that I need and vice versa. I think because we already know each other, it is easier to give feedback and express ourselves. So in the end, the answer is a little boring but it boils down to collaboration. I have wanted to work with him for years, so this is a dream come true!
Ramsey:
Personally I am a fan of highly collaborative working spaces, and I love getting feedback and targeted direction, so I take into account everyone's feelings on the matter. What does this clip evoke, what does this song make you feel, does this match the aesthetic we are after, is this piece too brazen and so on. Neha, who is extremely easygoing to work with, will often accommodate my music with thoughtful SFX design by using similar instrumentation to build the sonic language of this universe. When it comes to the music, she gives me her honest first impressions on it and vice versa. It's a very vibe-based system but it helps in capturing things in the moment and keeps the collaboration experimental.