{"id":638,"date":"2016-08-19T16:04:29","date_gmt":"2016-08-19T07:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.criware.com\/?p=638"},"modified":"2016-09-06T11:02:27","modified_gmt":"2016-09-06T02:02:27","slug":"638","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.criware.com\/index.php\/2016\/08\/19\/638\/","title":{"rendered":"Camouflaj’s R\u00e9publique Innovates with ADX2"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Interview with Audio Director David Liu<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Founded by former Halo 4 creative director and METAL GEAR SOLID 4 producer Ryan Payton, Camouflaj is a Seattle\/Bellevue-based game studio committed to developing games that are deep, sophisticated, entertaining, and imaginative.\u00a0<\/em>Developed by Camouflaj’s veteran creative team, R\u00e9publique is a thrilling, critically acclaimed, stealth-action game that explores the perils of government surveillance in the Internet Age. Audio director David Liu, formerly a member of the Halo 4 audio team, used CRIWARE ADX2 to shape the Republique audioscape to “fit squarely in the middle between the subtle, cerebral sound design of Japanese titles and the bombastic approach to many Hollywood produced games.”\u00a0 David shared some revealing and inspiring insights with us in this short interview.<\/em><\/p>\n

R\u00e9publique is driven by a rich story. How did the story inspire and influence the direction for VO, sound, and music in the game?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Throughout production, director Ryan Payton, writer Brendan Murphy, and I would\u00a0often collaborate and bounce ideas around of how each facet of the R\u00e9publique\u00a0world would sound. The script that Brendan wrote evokes a highly oppressive and\u00a0claustrophobic tone, and with most of the gameplay taking place on CCTV footage\u00a0and cell phone recordings, the soundscape and music had to reflect the feeling of\u00a0being caged in\u2014helping players empathize with our protagonist, Hope. Early on in\u00a0our Kickstarter campaign, we set our goals very high to pursue a AAA experience for\u00a0mobile devices, which allowed for the likes of Rena Strober, Dwight Schultz, Jennifer\u00a0Hale and David Hayter to lend their voices and talent in helping bring to life their\u00a0characters in R\u00e9publique. Their performances helped mold and influence not only\u00a0our story direction and character development, but also how certain characters\u00a0animated and acted in the world.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Camouflaj team in June 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Generally, what is the role of music, sound, and VO in a stealth-action game\u00a0<\/strong>like R\u00e9publique?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Music plays a vital role in telling players how they\u2019re performing at present,\u00a0whereas sound and voice can clue players in on how to either pursue or avoid risk.\u00a0There are also moments throughout the game where R\u00e9publique utilizes the lack of\u00a0music, sounds, or voice to help draw anticipation and create pockets of audio space\u00a0for players to plan ahead. Too much audio all the time becomes fatiguing, so with\u00a0the game\u2019s use of the game\u2019s \u201cOMNI View\u201d hacker mode, players are able to suspend\u00a0time and pause character movement, as well as audio and all other concurrently\u00a0playing ambient audio.<\/p>\n

What was your creative approach to music and sound design creation? Did\u00a0you work with external composers and sound designers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our main approach in making the narrative come alive was by way of informing\u00a0players through our in-game radio plays, which we internally refer to as \u201cPoint of\u00a0Interest\u201d (POI) scenes. Voiceover performances were extensively used to inform the\u00a0player as to how best direct Hope\u2019s escape from the oppressive world of\u00a0Metamorphosis. There is a total of 198 \u201csecretly recorded\u201d POI that spans over three\u00a0hours and twenty-seven minutes in play duration that help immerse players with\u00a0stories of inhabitants in our Orwellian fiction. POI are also meant to help guide\u00a0players towards uncovering the truth of Hope\u2019s journey and escape, with each\u00a0episode providing perspectives and themes that expand upon the protagonist and\u00a0the secret fictional nation.<\/p>\n

To accomplish such lengths, we worked closely with narrative designer Nathan\u00a0Scott to hash out every minute detail of each recording: Where is the microphone\u00a0placed? What kind of microphone is it? Where and when will the recording take\u00a0place? Is the recording old, or recent? Is it noisy around where the conversation is\u00a0taking place? What kind of weather is it? Will they be walking and talking, or are\u00a0they sitting down? The list of questions depended on the initial draft delivered by\u00a0Brendan, but once these details are confirmed and everyone signs off on what\u00a0they\u2019re assigned to design, we, as sound designers, take on the role as storytellers.<\/p>\n

Most, if not all of the in-game sound design was generated in-house with some\u00a0external help from a Japanese studio called Forcewick, who assisted with a lot of the\u00a0cinematic Foley. For R\u00e9publique, the audio team consisted of (not all at the same\u00a0time,) four very talented and indispensable audio contractors: Noa Lothian, Rob\u00a0Pearsall, Tabitha Doonan, and Chris Burgess. They added a personal touch as to how\u00a0they imagined each character, vignette, cinematic, and in-game recording sounded.\u00a0The music was composed and mastered off-site, thanks to the very talented Zinc\u00a0LeMone. Our music direction changed with the theme of each episode, so the first\u00a0episode sounded a bit more cold, ambient, and synth-like, as opposed to Episode 2,\u00a0which featured more piano and orchestral instrumentation. Depending on\u00a0availability, Zinc LeMone would drop by the Camouflaj office to observe and take in\u00a0what the team has envisioned for the episode, from concept art to line-by-line story\u00a0beats from our writer. It was vital for our composer to be clued in on every detail of\u00a0the game, so that the music would be a natural fit for the narrative.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Foley pit used for R\u00e9publique<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How did you approach the voice talent casting, directing, and recording?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We were very lucky to have Kris Zimmerman Salter director the voiceovers of the\u00a0game. Together we auditioned and cast based off of Kris\u2019 suggestions and\u00a0recommendations. Then we\u2019d start recording every few months, based on our\u00a0production schedule for each episode, and we\u2019d sometimes schedule make-up\u00a0sessions for any schedule conflicts, as well as any edits to our script. During\u00a0scheduling, we often pushed for Kris and Formosa Interactive to have our talent\u00a0perform in the same booth as much as possible, to help make the interactions of our\u00a0talent feel more genuine and alive.<\/p>\n

How was your experience using CRIWARE ADX2 to implement R\u00e9publique\u00a0game audio? Did you use ADX2 in any creative or unique ways for music,\u00a0sound, or VO playback?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Using CRIWARE\u2019s ADX2 is relatively easy after my experience working with\u00a0Audiokinetic\u2019s Wwise and Firelight\u2019s FMOD. I found many similarities with alternate\u00a0audio middleware systems in how Cues play essential roles in audio playback\u00a0behavior, akin to Wwise\u2019s Container and Event system, but combined as an all-in-one;\u00a0then drawing a partial parallel that Cues are stored in Cue Sheets, whereas\u00a0Sounds\/Events are stored in Sound Banks.\u00a0After careful examination of the documentation provided, lots of experimentation,\u00a0and support from CRIWARE\u2019s technical support team, I was been able to accomplish\u00a0many amazing sounding dynamic ambiences and music through the use of ADX2\u2019s\u00a0AISAC real-time parameter control and lots of \u2018Subsynths\u2019 set to randomly trigger.\u00a0Additionally, I took full advantage of being able to manipulate down to each sound\u00a0asset regarding how I\u2019d like the pitch and volume randomization to play, the\u00a0weighting of each randomized asset and cue, and how their envelopes are shaped.\u00a0There was also considerable ease of massively affecting and categorizing large\u00a0amounts of cues, and creating different REACT behavior ranging from auto-ducking,\u00a0to triggering different AISAC interactions between cue categories. Lastly, the ability\u00a0to pull up cue sheets in a spreadsheet (.CSV) format is far more desirable than\u00a0nested work units in something like Wwise. The workflow requires less clicking,\u00a0traversing in-and-out of submenus, and allows for more mass editing of\u00a0randomization parameters, compression settings, etc.<\/p>\n

Looking forward to your new projects and emerging platforms like VR, what\u00a0will be the most audio middleware functionality and features for Camouflaj?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know that with my suggestions and answers in this day and age of VR\u00a0development, somebody will have already thought of, patented, and released some\u00a0sort of beta for me to try for a limited 30-day license, but I would suggest for\u00a0middleware to start thinking of providing a means to allow users to choose their\u00a0own, or preferred HRTF profiles, as well as continuing support for all current and\u00a0upcoming VR platforms.<\/p>\n

\"Republique\"<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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