Audio BreakDown: How I Approached the Audio for Wasteland

Intro — What is Wasteland

Wasteland is game done for a school project in a game arts degree. This is an exploration based metroidvania style game where the main protagonist is searching through a series of landscapes ravaged by radioactive waste to find a creature of his own kind even though his species seems to be extinct. Through this adventure the protagonist will encounter a wide variety of environments and faces a plethora of intimidating enemies.

Some Inspirations for the game were Rain World and Hollow Knight.

How did I get into the project?

My partner who was at the time a student doing the project with a group of classmates knowing I was into doing music asked if I wanted to try my hand at doing the music for the game. So I experimented with a title track for the game and sent it to the group doing the project and the rest was history.

My role in the game

For this project I just did the music. It was my first introduction to game audio and really I had no idea at all about sound design as a discipline. I think at the time neither did the rest of the team because none of us even considered the implication of sound on the game and so music was my only role. Again at the time I lacked a lot of the knowledge about the game audio scene and so was not aware of how it was implemented either.

My Process

Planning and Discussion

First, I decided to try and find out a bit more of what the game was about in order to figure out what kind of music would fit. I think people forget a big part of making games is that a big part of it is a collaborative effort. I think it is important as an audio designer to interact with the rest of team as much as possible as it gives some clarity to how your music and sound can play into the game. Looking back, I wish I did this more at the time but being fairly new to the game audio scene I got a general gist of the project and its inspirations as well as what levels and atmospheres would make up the game.

Research and References

When deciding how to paint the music of the game I wanted to get some references and kind of see what kind of sonic palette (instruments, melodies, arrangements) would fit. These references were found from places such as the soundtrack from the inspirations (mainly rain world), YouTube and tracks provided by the rest of the team that they thought fit the sound they were going for. From this the main points I gathered were:

· Orchestral/Ethereal in Nature with some Synthy Undertones: Based on the soundtrack for inspirations and the general feel of the game and what it was trying to convey orchestral and ethereal sounding tracks seem to capture the fit however in order to capture this post-apocalyptic world driven to ruin by radioactive waste some synthy undertones seemed good in order to capture this aspect. This meant instrumentation such as strings, pianos, harps, flutes, pads and again slightly synthy sounds so a contrast of more commonly found “natural” instruments and more sampled and electronic sounds. In order to express that ethereal atmospheric, feel the instruments were bathed in heavy reverb with long releases.

· Dark and almost Sad Tones: In order to illustrate that this was a wasteland and to reflect the nature of the atmosphere darker and sad tones were used. This reflected mostly in the use of minor scales and the melodies also having slower padded elements to support the track allowed for a melancholy feel.

· Interesting Textures and Backgrounds: I wanted to make the music sound more like something alive or worldly as a result I used some interesting textures and backgrounds of tracks to give the listener something to hook onto.

· Thematic Tracks Based on the Level: I wanted each level to feel connected and different again just like the world, so I wanted each track to reflect the theme of the level but still share those commonalities talked about above. I did this through varying the instrumentation and sounds used but also the melodies and drum sequencing used to fully encapsulate the theme of the level.

· Subtle but Direct Drums: In a game such as this it wasn’t important to have drum heavy pumping tracks as though it had some action the main role of the game was to immerse the player in adventure and exploration of worlds. I went with subtle but booming tribal drums for some tracks and simple drum patterns throughout.

Making the Title Track

As mentioned above before I really started the project I was asked to do the title track as a sample of my work. I really enjoyed this and the process of doing this track flowed more than the others and probably more than any other track I’ve done. For one I did the whole thing basically in one session which literally never happens due to the type of person I am..lol. But yeah, I started with a wind sample I found and slowly ramped it in to build tension and really capture a barren wasteland. I then improvised on a violin VST until I found a melody I like. I produced a haunting long droning melody to really keep people on edge. As I said to capture the atmosphere, I tried adding some reverb to the strings and found it really bought the melody to life. I then wanted to fill out the track a bit more, so I added a padded string element underneath and played with a bit more layers of melody under the string. Finally, being the title track, I wanted to be slightly cinematic, so I made it all end with that railing note and reverb.

Other Points throughout the Soundtrack

· Sampling and panning in Skyscraper: Skyscraper was the kind of rundown city themed level for the game. As a result, I wanted to get a heavy synthy feel to the track, so I used a synthy sample that had some very interesting panning to capture a kind of more unnatural and angular undertones of the city.

· Rain in Nesting: I added rain as the background of nesting which was a level which would take place in a kind of rainforest rooftop sky level. This added a nice texture to the track and grounded the track to the level matching it up with the theme of the level.

· Ghosting Notes in Deep Down: This track was for a subterranean level which would be a deep dark cave. As I result, I wanted a much darker tone for this but also just a more creeping feeling. I added very ghosted delayed notes in the melodies and percussion, and I think this added to the slightly haunting feeling of the level.

· Unique One Shots in the Drums of Sludge: For this track I had fun pitching up and down some kick drums to make more unique drum samples as well as using raindrops for percussive elements in the track.

Iteration

I think in any aspect of game development something that rings true is the concept of iteration. Iteration is termed as a repetition of a process. Specifically, this is doing something over in the aims of improving or changing the thing for the better. When it came to wasteland especially with it being my first project, I would say homing in on what the desired sound was provided for an interesting process. There was grappling between what the game itself looked like it should sound like, the sound of inspirations and the sound that the main developers want. As a result, a couple of tracks were done even 3 times in order to find the right style. The original iterations are still in the soundtrack and bonus tracks because personally I still love these tracks and wanted to include the listeners into the process.

Challenges I Faced

As mentioned, I think the main challenge presented by this project was finding the balance between the style to developers liked personally and the style that would fit the game. Basically making tracks that would fit the developers vision.

What I Learned from the Project

I learned a lot from this project. This was:

· Game Audio Exists as a Career : The project that started it all before I didn’t even realise audio for games was a career. I don’t know why but I think as consumers we tend to not fully grasp what goes into making a product and all the different facets that go into pulling it off. This made me realise it was a career I could do and set me along a path of pursuing game audio.

· Understand Clearly the Vision of the Game: I think I would have taken more time o establish the tone of the game and fully clarify what sound was needed and why.

· References are useful: These help with the last point of conveying the vision of the game’s sound in addition it also helps to shape the type of music that will be made. It can also be used as a basis of comparison in terms of the quality of your track and the mix.

Where to Listen

Check out the soundtrack here: https://tr.ee/oqmxUxNLAb .

Unfortunately, currently Wasteland was scrapped as a project because game development is hard. As a result, there is no build or demo out but I would have loved to see the game brought to life.