ARID
Developed by Sad Viscacha Studios in collaboration with Breda University of Applied Science.
Arid Trailer
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ARID OST
THE NOTES OF THE WIND
The Arid OST was composed by Flavio Cangialosi, and it features 12 tracks with a smooth and ambient mood. The music was made with a minimal approach, in order to blend with the wind and the atmosphere of the most ostile desert in the world.
The sounds were inspired by the ancient instruments and rituals of the Atacameño culture, mixed with a modern way of working with the sound.
Some of the most curious instruments played in Arid:
- Chalumeau, Psaltery, Kantele, Isigubhu, Prepared Piano and Double Bass, Ehru, Karimba, Morin Khuur, performed by the composer.
- Cello performed by Claudio Aiello
SOUND DESIGN
TIME OF DEVELOPMENT: 9 MONTHS.
SOUND DESIGN: AMBIENCE
The Sound Design of Arid was tricky at the start. I had to imagine a sound of a Chilean Desert, the Atacama, which is 11.072km away from home, it has almost no living animals and it is in the middle of nowhere. I had the opportunity to talk with a guy that has been there, and he literally told me "there's almost silence and wind". So here's when I started focusing on wind, and I found that wind can have so different sounds and enhance different emotions. In our minds, the wind in the night does not sound as the same as the wind of the day.
So I made a dynamic ambience system, based on different sounds of the wind through the day cycle and with randomizations on volumes and equalizations (image below)
SOUND DESIGN: INTERACTIONS
In order to achive the best interactive experience, we used FMod, which really helped a lot.
We also found quite soon that the best experience in a survival is given by a great level of detail in the interactions and round robins.
Almost all the items and interactions have a different asset, and I shared the work with Giuseppe De Luca in order to split the work and having two trained ears listening to the same mix.
SOUND DESIGN: INTEGRATION
A smooth and natural sound design needs a good integration system.
Even if FMod helped a lot during the process of placing occlusion trigger boxes and creating snapshots for menu, cutscenes, music etc., I had to work on Unreal 4, using Perforce as Source Control, to create customized behaviors (like the one in the photo).
The teamwork with the tech department has been really helpful and fun!
