From thundering mechs to moody synths and cinematic rainstorms, MechWarrior 5: Clans – Ghost Bear: Flash Storm packs a lot into its audio experience. We caught up with audio lead Sean Kolton to talk about what’s new in Ghost Bear, how the audio has evolved since Mercenaries, and what it takes to make everything—from weapons to voiceover—feel cohesive in a battle.
Here’s our quick 10-question interview with Audio Director Sean Kolton on how he brings the world of MechWarrior to life through sound.
Audio for a Mechwarrior game is unique from other projects I have worked on. First off, during gameplay you are always inside the mech and the mech itself with the footsteps and engines carry a lot of energy in the low/low mid frequency range. Then you add on ballistic weapons, explosions, weapon impacts – there is a ton of effort required to manage all these sounds that love to eat up the lower end of the frequency spectrum. Mechs also carry multiple weapons that can be fired at once. Its not uncommon to have multiple lasers and ballistics firing off in parallel from the players mech. Now multiply that by 3 or 4 for your lance or starmates. These all need to be audible for the player. At the same time, you also have enemy mechs/vehicles firing at you and those sounds need to be heard. Add in explosions, impacts, dialogue, various cockpit warnings and music – the number of simultaneous triggers becomes quiet staggering. So besides finding balance with so many competing frequencies we are always trying to balance in priorities and what gives the player the most feedback in battle. Luckily, we have a great tool in Wwise that helps us try to achieve this.
I find it easier much easier to be honest. Just the nature of working with something that is static removes any potential dynamic unknowns. Composing music for cinematics is its own enjoyable puzzle with manipulating tempo and time to work with the ebbs and flow of what is on screen.
With cinematics I feel like one has more control and is not influenced/affected by so many factors/variables that are common in gameplay audio. However, that dynamic and interactive aspect of gameplay audio is what makes game audio exciting. Besides creating the gameplay audio, we also spend a lot of time problem solving and looking for solutions to improve the experience.
I feel we have improved on the atmosphere and grit. We wanted to add some more sonic depth to the battlefield and improve on the positioning of the audio. Furthermore, certain missions have a stronger environmental soundscape. A couple missions take place during some large rainstorms and Taj Wheeler our sound designer was able to really capture a dingy/depressing rainy vibe with his work. Living in Vancouver I’m sure influenced him haha.
Musically I wanted to get a bit more visceral and aggressive. The music maintains the darker synth influence of the base game while picking up the pace a bit and bringing some harder edge epic moments – maybe similar to some Mercs stuff but not with layers of guitars.
I also feel the audio presentation in the cinematics is a step up as well. The audio has more dimension and a deeper soundscape. This is something John Sawa our cinematic sound designer and I talked about from the outset, and I think we succeeded there.
Every time we have an opportunity to release something new for a MechWarrior game we look for ways to improve the audio experience. As mentioned, we wanted to improve on the battle experience, the immersion and spend some more time giving the overall audio mix additional polish. Each release we want to improve on what is there as we are never satisfied.
That’s a good question, the simple answer is I just work with what feels right. Luckily, I’ve been able to compose stuff that combines those types of styles and I really do not have to overthink it.
I tend to gravitate towards darker music whether it be in the electronic world or the metal world and this has served as good starting points of inspiration when it comes time to write new music for MechWarrior.
Vibe for sure is the first thing I go for. The music has to feel right within the parameters of the game. This goes for cinematics too as the music needs to enhance the story, not distract from it. Its like playing guitar, yes its fun to play a million miles and hour sometimes, but in many cases just playing a couple notes is all you need to get the point across. I hope that analogy makes sense as I feel its same with composing music. Then placing music in the levels becomes like a puzzle as I work with variations of the music to fit the mission.
Yes, I have watched those and they are fantastic! I felt honored someone would take the time to put those together. Its really inspiring and kicked me into action to improve my chops on guitar! When someone else can play your riffs better then you can, it’s a wake-up call ha-ha..
I try to include all base tracks that are in game. You will hear different variations and mixes in gameplay that are not included as they are manipulated in Wwise.
The whole process of tying all elements of audio together into a cohesive unit is a lot of fun. Its challenging, but that is the exciting part as you are solving problems and looking for ways to create a full audio experience for the player. I also love writing the music and the whole process of creation, mix and implementation. Plus, I very much enjoy scoring and working on cinematics.
Sure, here are some samples of the music included in the DLC. They are just snippets of much longer tracks heard during gameplay.
Ghost Bear: Flash Storm launches May 7th 5 PM PDT (May 8th 00:00 UTC)