Jerry likened it to old-time radio, where you always see some guy with a saw making thunder noises. In truth, it’s kind of the same today. Only now, they have such higher fidelity, and aren’t limited by the medium with which they deliver the sound. The Chonomancer’s time wells are literally brought to audio life by old cuckoo clocks, watches, and stuff like that, all tweaked and messed with digitally to give it the right sound.
How could I let this chat slip by me without asking about the Super Adventure Box? Sure enough, Jerry and Drew were more than happy to talk about the way they used Chipsounds and other tech to emulate the Atari and SNES soundboards. They even pitched their own voices up highly to make the Infantile Cloud voice. It’s really fun, they both agreed, to be given tasks like that and they hope soon we all get to return to the SAB. Wink-wink, nudge-nudge courtesy of your humble writer here.
One thing I’ve always been keen to know is how sound designers go about making a sound like a dragon’s roar. A lot of times, it’s a happy accident. Jerry owns a standup bass. They brought it into the studio and started sawing away at one string with the bow to get the grumble. They made tons of those sounds, and used the side of the string, the back of it, getting screeches out of nowhere with it. Then they noticed the way a cardboard box tends to scratch and screech as it rubs against itself, giving a woody sort of clawing they were looking for. Then they used a bunch of hooks, clacking together, to create the sound of the dragon’s mandibles clacking, chattering, and so on. In this way, Drew and Jerry agree that having layered sounds like this really gives a more threatening tone to the monsters than just a bland basic roar.
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Our call was almost over at this point, so for one last question I asked the guys to shout of their favorite sounds from Heart of Thorns. It’s a bit like singling out a child, but they kindly obliged. For Jerry, it’s all about the Jalis Ironhammer, one of the Revenant Legends. He has a skill that’s literally spiritual bricks slamming down and building a road in front of the player. It gives a real sense of power through sound, and the rocks are even layered into the voice of Jalis himself.
For Drew, it was all about the Vinetooth. Creatures are really hard to create sounds for, especially when there’s nothing like them already out there. They need to be able to be somber, yet crazy and rash when they come to life. So each different state has its own sound set, and Drew didn’t stop tweaking it until it got to the exact spot he heard it in his head.
The next time you’re playing Guild Wars 2, or any game, close your eyes, turn up the sound, or put your headphones on. Listen… there’s so much to the audio part of these worlds that you wouldn’t really think about unless it wasn’t there at all. Tyria is one of the liveliest MMO worlds I’ve ever experienced, and it’s largely in part to the work of sound designers like Jerry and Drew here. So definitely take a moment the next time you’re in the Golden City and see if you can hear Drew’s old toilet breaking… and feel just how well it works to create the vibe of the city as a whole.
