The magic of sounds in the game Vikings: War of Clans
The effect of complete immersion in the game is achieved thanks to several interdependent elements: the plot, image, animation and sound. The link between them is the fantasy of the player - a direct participant in the events. Only in harmony with each other all the components of this complex system provide a holistic perception of the universe created by the development team.
Today we will tell about how the Plarium studio in the city of Krasnodar created the soundtrack of the Vikings: War of Clans project and the music for the official cinematic trailer of the game.
Unbreakable silence in the game space is evidence of its inferiority. It is necessary to realize that musical scenery in the form of tracks and sounds are the integral requisites of the performance. In Vikings: War of Clans, two successive tracks are used for the city map and the world map. In addition, the game has about 150 sounds, accompanying the receipt of awards, training soldiers, the study of knowledge and many other processes.
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The work on voice acting, as a rule, begins at the stage of pre-production, when developers create a prototype of the interface, choose the genre of the game, form the visual style and the overall atmosphere of the project. At this stage, the sound producer assesses the approximate number of sounds and soundtracks needed, determines their concept.
When writing music for the project Vikings: War of Clans, a tremendous work was done to find authentic melodies characteristic of the early Middle Ages and the era of Viking conquests. At the same time, we analyzed already released games, films, videos and music on this subject, in order to find out with the help of what methods and approaches other specialists realized their ideas and how it affected the quality of the product. After such a thorough study and immersion in the culture of the ancient Scandinavians, it was decided to use their folklore heritage, namely the traditional Viking war song. We made our arrangement of this melody: we added new instruments, while retaining the characteristic ethnic sound.
The work of Viking's Soul was not included in the final version of the game. The visual style of the project does not fully reflect the realities of the chosen epoch and has a hint of fantasy, and the composition created based on the Scandinavian ballad did not emphasize these features and was knocked out of the general atmosphere of the setting.
One of the important conditions for the musical design of the project is the unobtrusive nature of the tracks, as they are repeated throughout the session and can tire the player. Considering this, tracks were written for the city map with a slight touch of fabulousness, which we achieved using bagpipes and plucked instruments. The exit to the world map is accompanied by more formidable music with elements of the march and battle drums - it sets up the player for future battles and conquests.
You can listen to the full versions of the tracks in the official Vikings: War of Clans group on VK or on the YouTube channel .
Music for the city:
Music for the world map:
When choosing game sounds, it is important to consider several factors. First of all, it is necessary to determine which actions will be emphasized with their help. Also, sounds should correspond to the situations, objects and processes that they accompany. In Vikings: War of Clans, sounds for buildings were selected based on their functionality and appearance. Sometimes even the color of the structure could affect the final choice of various instruments and effects, because intuitively we expect a certain sound from it. Purple, for example, requires a mysterious and mysterious melody, and yellow is associated with light and bright motifs.
Sometimes technical details impose some restrictions on the quality of music. In our case, difficulties arose due to the size of the game in the app stores: we could not afford the excesses, and the music files, as we know, take up a large amount of memory. For this reason, they have been optimized and are used in the game itself in the maximum allowable quality with minimal losses.
As Vikings: War of Clans players can be sure, the music and sounds harmoniously fit into the project's setting and convey the essence of what is happening, be it peaceful construction within the city walls or military campaigns.
The creators of the cinematic trailer sought to make it very spectacular and memorable, since from the first viewing it should impress the viewer. As you know, the sound significantly affects the perception of the video, enhancing its impact on the audience, so, unlike the musical design of the game, which used repetitive soft and noble motifs, in the video preference was given to bright and rich sounds.
The process of creating music for the official Vikings: War of Clans trailer consisted of the same steps as filling the game with sound content. Work began already at the pre-production stage, when the theme and script of the video became known. In parallel, the style and character of the music was discussed with the trailer director. Then, with the appearance of the editing concept and the first storyboards to track the timing and sequence of frames, the main accents in the video sequence were identified and the tempo rhythm was selected. We combined the result of this work with video material in order to align the mounting points in accordance with the music, after which the resulting sound skeleton began to overgrow with various effects.
It is worth noting that at this stage another important decision is made: what function in the video does the sound. He can transmit the atmosphere, transfer the listener to a certain epoch and locality, or play the role of a background, emphasizing what is happening in the frame. Also quite often the recorded voice of the announcer or actor is added to the video, which complicates the perception of the video. In this case, it is necessary to bring all these elements to harmony, find a balance and not overload the viewer with an excessive amount of information.
Returning to our track, we can say that its first version was authentic and sent listeners to the folk motifs of the ancient Scandinavians. However, after the final installation of the cinematic trailer, it became clear that the music was quite monotonous, devoid of drive. Then we took a very risky step: we added energetic guitar riffs along with dub drums to the composition. And it worked. The combination of ethnic music with a fatal and electronic sound brought to the track the very toughness for which northern warriors are famous. Thus was created the eclectic symphony of modern Vikings.
Since the trailer video sequence is built according to the classical laws of drama, the soundtrack should follow the same canons. The plot is accompanied by the sound of one plucked instrument, on which, as the narration evolves, new ones are layered - a drum, wind instruments and a violin. The whistling of the firing arrow is the culmination of the plot and takes us from the world of the medieval to the modern world - with a powerful guitar sound and dub beats. The finals remain open: this understatement symbolizes that the adventures are just beginning, and invites the viewer to join the universe of Vikings: War of Clans.
Initially, the Battle Cry track was created exclusively for the video, but later we had an idea to make its full version, which you can listen to on VK or on YouTube. The composition came to the liking of the players, and they left a lot of positive feedback about it on our channel.
Full Battle Battle track:
The creation of tracks, depending on their complexity, took from four days to two weeks. One of the important points in the work on music for both the game and the video is its final polishing - the process of mixing. At this time, the balance of frequencies and loudness is aligned, the last details are added, so that each sound has a place in the musical “mantle” and not one of them is lost, it does not stand out from the overall picture of the work.
Finally I would like to say that writing music and selecting sounds for a project is a creative work and it is not always possible to fit it into the framework of the production process. Sometimes the best ideas come at the most unexpected moment and really transform the work. It is important to listen to your intuition: if she tells you that something is missing in the composition, most likely it is. In this case, it is reasonable to go back a few steps and look at the problem from the other side. So that difficulties in work do not become an insurmountable obstacle for you, listen to the advice of our specialists: they will be useful to those who are just starting their journey into the invisible world of sound.
Sound design, perhaps, is not a fundamental factor in the success of the project, but represents the very detail that is able to tie everything together and strengthen the emotions from the gameplay or watching a video. It is difficult to derive an exact formula for achieving a good result, but one thing is certain: if your music resonated in the hearts of the listeners, you did everything right!
Today we will tell about how the Plarium studio in the city of Krasnodar created the soundtrack of the Vikings: War of Clans project and the music for the official cinematic trailer of the game.
Sound design Vikings: War of Clans
Unbreakable silence in the game space is evidence of its inferiority. It is necessary to realize that musical scenery in the form of tracks and sounds are the integral requisites of the performance. In Vikings: War of Clans, two successive tracks are used for the city map and the world map. In addition, the game has about 150 sounds, accompanying the receipt of awards, training soldiers, the study of knowledge and many other processes.
')
The work on voice acting, as a rule, begins at the stage of pre-production, when developers create a prototype of the interface, choose the genre of the game, form the visual style and the overall atmosphere of the project. At this stage, the sound producer assesses the approximate number of sounds and soundtracks needed, determines their concept.
When writing music for the project Vikings: War of Clans, a tremendous work was done to find authentic melodies characteristic of the early Middle Ages and the era of Viking conquests. At the same time, we analyzed already released games, films, videos and music on this subject, in order to find out with the help of what methods and approaches other specialists realized their ideas and how it affected the quality of the product. After such a thorough study and immersion in the culture of the ancient Scandinavians, it was decided to use their folklore heritage, namely the traditional Viking war song. We made our arrangement of this melody: we added new instruments, while retaining the characteristic ethnic sound.
The work of Viking's Soul was not included in the final version of the game. The visual style of the project does not fully reflect the realities of the chosen epoch and has a hint of fantasy, and the composition created based on the Scandinavian ballad did not emphasize these features and was knocked out of the general atmosphere of the setting.
One of the important conditions for the musical design of the project is the unobtrusive nature of the tracks, as they are repeated throughout the session and can tire the player. Considering this, tracks were written for the city map with a slight touch of fabulousness, which we achieved using bagpipes and plucked instruments. The exit to the world map is accompanied by more formidable music with elements of the march and battle drums - it sets up the player for future battles and conquests.
You can listen to the full versions of the tracks in the official Vikings: War of Clans group on VK or on the YouTube channel .
Music for the city:
Music for the world map:
When choosing game sounds, it is important to consider several factors. First of all, it is necessary to determine which actions will be emphasized with their help. Also, sounds should correspond to the situations, objects and processes that they accompany. In Vikings: War of Clans, sounds for buildings were selected based on their functionality and appearance. Sometimes even the color of the structure could affect the final choice of various instruments and effects, because intuitively we expect a certain sound from it. Purple, for example, requires a mysterious and mysterious melody, and yellow is associated with light and bright motifs.
Sometimes technical details impose some restrictions on the quality of music. In our case, difficulties arose due to the size of the game in the app stores: we could not afford the excesses, and the music files, as we know, take up a large amount of memory. For this reason, they have been optimized and are used in the game itself in the maximum allowable quality with minimal losses.
As Vikings: War of Clans players can be sure, the music and sounds harmoniously fit into the project's setting and convey the essence of what is happening, be it peaceful construction within the city walls or military campaigns.
Soundtrack for cinematic trailer
The creators of the cinematic trailer sought to make it very spectacular and memorable, since from the first viewing it should impress the viewer. As you know, the sound significantly affects the perception of the video, enhancing its impact on the audience, so, unlike the musical design of the game, which used repetitive soft and noble motifs, in the video preference was given to bright and rich sounds.
The process of creating music for the official Vikings: War of Clans trailer consisted of the same steps as filling the game with sound content. Work began already at the pre-production stage, when the theme and script of the video became known. In parallel, the style and character of the music was discussed with the trailer director. Then, with the appearance of the editing concept and the first storyboards to track the timing and sequence of frames, the main accents in the video sequence were identified and the tempo rhythm was selected. We combined the result of this work with video material in order to align the mounting points in accordance with the music, after which the resulting sound skeleton began to overgrow with various effects.
It is worth noting that at this stage another important decision is made: what function in the video does the sound. He can transmit the atmosphere, transfer the listener to a certain epoch and locality, or play the role of a background, emphasizing what is happening in the frame. Also quite often the recorded voice of the announcer or actor is added to the video, which complicates the perception of the video. In this case, it is necessary to bring all these elements to harmony, find a balance and not overload the viewer with an excessive amount of information.
Returning to our track, we can say that its first version was authentic and sent listeners to the folk motifs of the ancient Scandinavians. However, after the final installation of the cinematic trailer, it became clear that the music was quite monotonous, devoid of drive. Then we took a very risky step: we added energetic guitar riffs along with dub drums to the composition. And it worked. The combination of ethnic music with a fatal and electronic sound brought to the track the very toughness for which northern warriors are famous. Thus was created the eclectic symphony of modern Vikings.
Since the trailer video sequence is built according to the classical laws of drama, the soundtrack should follow the same canons. The plot is accompanied by the sound of one plucked instrument, on which, as the narration evolves, new ones are layered - a drum, wind instruments and a violin. The whistling of the firing arrow is the culmination of the plot and takes us from the world of the medieval to the modern world - with a powerful guitar sound and dub beats. The finals remain open: this understatement symbolizes that the adventures are just beginning, and invites the viewer to join the universe of Vikings: War of Clans.
Initially, the Battle Cry track was created exclusively for the video, but later we had an idea to make its full version, which you can listen to on VK or on YouTube. The composition came to the liking of the players, and they left a lot of positive feedback about it on our channel.
Full Battle Battle track:
The creation of tracks, depending on their complexity, took from four days to two weeks. One of the important points in the work on music for both the game and the video is its final polishing - the process of mixing. At this time, the balance of frequencies and loudness is aligned, the last details are added, so that each sound has a place in the musical “mantle” and not one of them is lost, it does not stand out from the overall picture of the work.
Sound Design Newbies Tips
Finally I would like to say that writing music and selecting sounds for a project is a creative work and it is not always possible to fit it into the framework of the production process. Sometimes the best ideas come at the most unexpected moment and really transform the work. It is important to listen to your intuition: if she tells you that something is missing in the composition, most likely it is. In this case, it is reasonable to go back a few steps and look at the problem from the other side. So that difficulties in work do not become an insurmountable obstacle for you, listen to the advice of our specialists: they will be useful to those who are just starting their journey into the invisible world of sound.
- Get knowledge of sound physics and elementary music theory. They will allow you to conduct your own experiments and research, as well as expand the understanding of sound. Music education offers significant advantages, but its absence should not stop you: self-education sometimes brings great rewards.
- Learn the software and features of the hardware you use. The work of a sound specialist is closely related to rapidly developing technologies: what was relevant a few years ago may today become hopelessly outdated. Remember the words of Lewis Carroll that it is necessary to "run as fast as possible, just to stay in the same place, and to get to another place, you need to run twice as fast."
- Listen to music of various genres and directions, analyze the soundtrack of high-quality videos, games and movies, celebrate successful moments, in your opinion.
- Hone your skills in practice: compose, re-sound, record, experiment. In this area, you cannot read several manuals and immediately produce a good result: only practice, supported by a theoretical basis, will allow you to create high-quality sound.
- When working on a project, regardless of whether you fulfill a private order or are on the staff of the company, try to create several options at once. If for some reason one of them does not work, you will have ready-made developments, with the help of which you will get the desired result in a short time. However, if initially given a little time, focus on one or two demo recordings.
Sound design, perhaps, is not a fundamental factor in the success of the project, but represents the very detail that is able to tie everything together and strengthen the emotions from the gameplay or watching a video. It is difficult to derive an exact formula for achieving a good result, but one thing is certain: if your music resonated in the hearts of the listeners, you did everything right!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/401829/
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