Albion Online is continuing its Dev Spotlight series, this time chatting with Marie Havemann, an audio designer on the MMORPG. The spotlight ranges from her background to how the soundscape of Albion Online has come to be throughout her time at Sandbox.
Joining Sandbox Interactive in 2017, Havemann spent the first few months on the job fixing bugs, as well as bringing some parts of the game whose audio wasn't "on par with the rest." Working on games for four years as a freelance composer and sound designer, Albion Online was Havemann's first MMO, and was, as the dev described it, a "new and interesting challenge."
For players who currently play Albion Online, you've experienced a lot of Havemann's work as of late, as she's been in charge of audio for everything new in every update.
As we have been bringing in new content with every update, I’ve also been in charge of the audio for everything new. One of my first creations was the sound design and the voices for the Morgana Torturer - who I still enjoy encountering because he brought a fresh facet to the Morgana ranks. While reworking the audio of individual mobs is a fairly small and easy task that brings more variation and narrative to the game (and which is still ongoing, because some of our mobs deserve some more love from my side), my responsibilities and the size of the tasks I tackled grew bigger and bigger over the last two years. The first huge rework I did was a complete redesign and extension of all the physical weapons auto-attack and impact sounds.
It's a pretty insightful interview, and one you should definitely read if you're at all interested in game design and learning a bit more how our favorite games are being made - and learning more about those who create them. You can check out the full Dev Spotlight on the Albion Online website.
