Designing ‘Dune: Awakening’s Amazing Game Audio

Dune: Awakening game sound team members Arild Iversen, Eirik Johansen, Aaron Gallant, Jason Ng, Carlos Jiménez, and Maren Holm share insights into designing new sounds that fit the established Dune IP, designing a procedural audio mesh system to dynamically create and destroy emitters to create an immersive soundscape, building an adaptive music system and working with composer Knut Avenstroup Haugen, and more. Find out why air-conditioning vents were mixed with real Egyptian tomb recordings, what creature voice incorporates environmental sounds like hissing sand and processed rock scrapes, and how fidget spinners can make cool bass drops.

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Interview by Jennifer Walden, photos courtesy of Funcom; Eirik Johansen

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Dune: Awakening — from Funcom — is an open-world survival RPG set in the epic world of Dune. Here, Audio Director Arild Iversen, Lead Audio Designer Eirik Johansen, Senior Audio Designer II Aaron Gallant, Senior Technical Audio Designer Jason Ng, Senior Audio Designer Carlos Jiménez, and Audio Designer Maren Holm discuss their approach to designing sounds for sandworms, weapons, environments, and UI that fit the Dune aesthetic established in the films, series, and even ’90s games, crafting environmental sounds for this huge open-world game, and building a procedural audio mesh system to dynamically create and destroy emitters to make an immersive soundscape. They also talk about capturing custom recordings using unique setups, recording and mixing foley, creating an adaptive music system, and more.

Find out why air-conditioning vents were mixed with real Egyptian tomb recordings, what creature’s voice incorporates environmental sounds like hissing sand and processed rock scrapes, and how fidget spinners can make cool bass drops.

Dune: Awakening — Official Launch Trailer

How did you honor the established Dune sounds from the films and series in the sound design for Dune: Awakening? Were you able to collaborate with the sound designers on those films or ask for sounds as reference? Can you talk about creating your own versions of the ‘iconic’ Dune sounds for the game?

Arild Iversen (AI): It’s definitely a challenging and strange universe, but I think the ideas came pretty naturally. We wanted the experience to feel grounded and raw yet still have that kick and dynamic range that Arrakis deserves. It was important for us to stay original and experimental, and to think twice (or even thrice) before just punching sounds into the game.

We did have access to a lot of material, but we always made our own sounds, using the films more as inspiration than direct reference

We’ve taken inspiration from both the old and the new films, including a few nods to the ’90s games. It’s such a serious, merciless world, and it’s easy to get lost in all the grit, so pretty early on, we realized we needed to find places where a bit of fun and contrast could live, too.

We did have access to a lot of material, but we always made our own sounds, using the films more as inspiration than direct reference. Starting with a small team, and knowing the kind of IP and expectations we were dealing with, we really had to find our own way. I feel that we managed that pretty well, while still keeping the new Dune universe in mind.

I remember seeing the 2021 film before its official release, with god-fear, I admit. By the end of it, I felt some relief. The films felt so organic and natural, and that gave us a lot of room to experiment and figure out how to approach things from a game perspective.
 

What went into the UI sounds?

AI: Survival games are very UI heavy, and Dune: Awakening is no exception. We wanted the UI sounds to feel musical, informative, and recognizable. But since these are sounds you hear often in the game, they also need to stay friendly over time. Still, we like to deal a few punches now and then.

we played around with the idea of a kind of feudal tech vibe — less steam and cogs and more voice and strange mechanics

For the initial direction, we played around with the idea of a kind of feudal tech vibe — less steam and cogs and more voice and strange mechanics. We needed a lot of musical or even liquid color and contrast in the UI, in a world pretty much made of sand… at least in the beginning. Carlos did an amazing job bringing us to where we are now, after a lot of experimentation.

Carlos Jiménez (CJ): For the UI, we discussed wanting some of the same flavors as in other parts of the game: grounded, dirty, organic, and industrial. But how could we approach this from a UI perspective?

After some experimentation, we ended up with three main categories:

1) The mechanical layer: here we used recordings of big and heavy metal — sounds you wouldn’t imagine for UI if you heard the raw recordings

2) Synth layer: we experimented with several different VSTs and synths; we wanted this layer to feel UI-like, but not the typical bleeps and blops one often associates with UI in games.

3) The organic elements: here we used sources mostly from sand and ice, with some layers of water as well; these layers we especially useful in the tail of the UI, so if you have a heavy impact, it’ll often have an organic tail consisting of real-world materials.

To blend the UI more into our game, we use several types of reverbs baked in from the DAW together with a dedicated UI reverb in Wwise

Eirik Johansen (EJ): We also have a fourth layer, which came in fairly close to release. Arild had the idea of experimenting with some more musical layers to mix in. So he gathered a bunch of stingers consisting of sources from our in-game music, which Carlos then put together with certain HUD elements. Those are used, for instance, for pop-ups indicating new contracts, or when you level up your character.

To blend the UI more into our game, we use several types of reverbs baked in from the DAW together with a dedicated UI reverb in Wwise, which all sounds within this category send to.
 

Can you talk about the sound work on the cinematics?

EJ: We have a few different setups for our cinematic audio. All of them contain a certain amount of linear audio production, while we blend in various levels of in-game audio depending on the setting.

For some, such as the really sound design-heavy “Spice Dreams,” we mute the in-game audio completely. Here, we wanted the horror like acid trips to be in your face, which was a really cool and creative challenge.

We also have a system that changes the in-game sounds while in a cinematic based on different triggers

We also have a system that changes the in-game sounds while in a cinematic based on different triggers. So, for instance, the ambience changes character through mix states when the camera perspective changes, to make the environment feel more immersive and reactive to what is happening on the screen.

For linear audio, we split it up quite granularly, both in stems but also with shorter clips, usually triggering right before noticeable transients. This is to always make sure the audio is aligned with the visuals on sounds that are sensitive to slight timing delays.
 

What were your biggest creative challenges in designing sound for a massive open-world, multiplayer game?

AI: It’s been an inspiring challenge to carve out our own expression throughout the production. In a big production like Dune: Awakening, the game changes a lot over time as we search for the right balance between survival elements, online systems, core gameplay experiences, and the often pretty wild ideas coming from creative direction and lore.

What felt right in the early iterations sometimes felt completely wrong later on

What felt right in the early iterations sometimes felt completely wrong later on. Sometimes that meant a total remake of sounds; other times, it was just about adjusting a few parameters to make something hit the player in a better way, sometimes literally.

As a director, my job is to empower the sound designers with ownership, to make sure they have a natural flow and confident approach through all the constant changes, new features, and shifting priorities. Keeping everything aligned across a long production like this was definitely challenging but also a lot of fun. I think, in the end, we landed on both legs.

EJ: The challenge was creating a compelling, immersive, and interesting soundscape that both feels alive and informative, but also not fatiguing over time. Our players can often spend hours at a time repeating the same type of actions at the same location.

The challenge was creating a compelling, immersive, and interesting soundscape that both feels alive and informative, but also not fatiguing over time

This means that the signature emitter you placed nearby, even though it triggers only once per five minutes, can start to feel annoying quite quickly.

But if things are too static, and we get too afraid of pushing the boundaries, the game easily can feel dead as well, so there’s been a good amount of experimenting getting this balance right.

CJ: It was a lot of experimentation for how to give nice feedback to remote players about the combat and action happening across Arrakis. Weapons needed a lot of testing here. How can we effectively communicate what’s going on, what are the biggest threats, while balancing making the environment come alive?

EJ: One thing that helped greatly with this was Jason’s work on HDR together with Carlos’s tweaks on attenuation and leveling. We have had quite a lot of playtests testing everything from different perspectives, observing NPCs fight, and discussing which elements you should be able to hear from a distance to make it easier to notice what exactly is going on, while not being fatiguing to listen to.
 

Ambience change elevation and time of day

The environment in Dune: Awakening is beautiful and dangerous. Can you talk about designing the different environmental sounds? And how did you design your environmental sound system? What went into creating this dynamic, immersive environment for the game?

Jason Ng (JN): We have a lot of different systems to create the immersive soundscape. The main bed of the ambience is the wind. We decided not to use any procedural wind tools but record and source a variety of wind sounds. The game is 99% desert with lots of different biomes, so we wanted detailed and unique winds. The base wind is implemented simply: a few different quad loops affected by wind speed, direction, obstruction, time of day, and elevation.

Wind add-ons change based on surrounding area

We use a procedural reverb system where we cast rays away from the listener to grab information such as the distance of the rays and the types of material it detects. So, we are able use that information to layer on additional wind elements such as determining if the player is in a tunnel, a canyon, a player-built building, an entrance, etc.

Rays for debugging distance to obstructions

With the reverb system, we’re able to send sounds to different reverbs based on material detection and distance to inform us of whether the player is in an enclosed space or not.

To bring in detail for the environment, we built a procedural audio mesh system to automatically attach and remove emitters as you traverse the world

To bring in detail for the environment, we built a procedural audio mesh system to automatically attach and remove emitters as you traverse the world. There are also lots of environmental objects like sandworms, wrecked ships, spice explosions, and sandstorms, where there are many different distance layers and each of those layers has some effect on the ambience, carving out its own space.

EJ: One of the interesting challenges for me with Dune: Awakening is how to make a vast desert feel alive and varied. If you have a game that features very different biomes, there are a lot of distinct categories of sounds to choose from, while in our game, there’s generally a lot of sand in most places you go — at least in the Hagga Basin, where players will spend the most time.

Luckily, Arild has been great at collaborating with the directors here, both giving us a lot of inspiration while making sure we have a lot of sources to choose from that are lore-accurate in respect to Legendary and the Frank Herbert estate.

in Jabal Eifrit, there are a lot of slaver camps that Jason worked on, so especially at night, you can hear the distant screams going on

For instance, the Vermillius Gap has red sand because it has a heavy concentration of iron in it. So the debris there will be a bit more crisp, and in Jabal Eifrit, there are a lot of slaver camps that Jason worked on, so especially at night, you can hear the distant screams going on.

O’odham is another great example, where Maren had a blast with chanting and drum sources set up for a lot of the NPC locations. Those sounds have their own distance layer that helps the desert there feel different, and it’s also the place where there’s a bit more organic biome, which we really took advantage of with various insect and wildlife sources.

The further north you go, the more distant warfare is audible, with filtered explosions and gunfire

The further north you go, the more distant warfare is audible, with filtered explosions and gunfire. This was, however, also an interesting challenge; how do you make warfare ambience that does not lead the player to believe they can go to the sound location for a fight?

For this, we decided on a distinct blend of reverb and EQ that we hope makes it feel less like a gameplay event and more part of the atmosphere.

Aaron Gallant (AG): The Imperial Testing Stations were also a good opportunity for the game to expand its biome diversity. One highlight for me was the dungeons in the first DLC, one made as a holographic virtual reality, and one that’s a more horror-like, genetics lab.

I think about the environments in these spaces as what I can see and what I cannot see

I think about the environments in these spaces as what I can see and what I cannot see: visual game assets such as art props and VFX on one end, and sounds off in the distance that provoke the imagination and rustle up emotions on the other.

In the genetics lab, there is a main villain at the end. The concept art of this creature showed a cybernetic humanoid with a mix of organic and machine elements. His eyes glowed, his flesh was grey and wrinkled, and many tubes were sticking out of his body. Since this was a major focus, I also wanted the player to “feel” his presence before even getting to interact with him. This led me to create a persistent heartbeat that could be heard throughout the dungeon. I wanted something subtle that opened up once you actually saw the character, so I set up an RTPC that would cross-fade between close and distant-sounding sound effects depending on the player’s proximity to the physical villain in-game.

To achieve this, I split the heartbeat effects into a “heartbeat” layer and a “liquid” layer, allowing the liquid layer and finer details to be more prominent as you get closer to the character through volume and EQ. The addition of an HDR bussing system was also included, allowing the thuds of the heartbeat to stand out more in the mix, ducking other sounds with lower priority.

I wanted entering certain areas to have a shocking reveal vibe, highlighting shifts in tone and making it feel intimidating to go deeper into the dungeon

Given that this dungeon was a horror-themed experience, I wanted to add more of the types of sounds that really help raise the hairs on the back of your neck. I wanted to give a sense of not only a scary scene, but one filled with uncertainty, vulnerability, and all those extra little emotions that make it hard to pinpoint what specifically is giving you the shivers. I added volume triggers with cooldowns in strategic spots in the dungeon to make the character look over their shoulder. There are sounds of items being dropped nearby right before an enemy ambushes, a scream in the distance that you are not sure if it is human or not, and slams behind you after looting a small room that feel too close for comfort.

My favorite sounds in this dungeon came from a warped group of samples of my wife’s medium-sized harp, creating dissonant chords on purpose and warping them like they came straight from the bowls of Hell. I wanted entering certain areas to have a shocking reveal vibe, highlighting shifts in tone and making it feel intimidating to go deeper into the dungeon.
 

What went into the sounds for more populated areas, like Harko Village or Arrakeen?

JN: When designing for Harko Village, it needed to sound harsh, foreboding, and oppressive. As you travel there, you arrive at the Spire Keep, which is a towering monolith overlooking the village. There’s lots of activity, high nobles, and a massive machine with eyes keeping strict security. My inspiration for this was Rehoboam in Westworld, morphing between static glitches, metal groans, voices, and analogue blips to create something like a distorted alien language. As you move through the village, there’s lots of suffering, deep drones, and propaganda echoing down the streets.
 

What were some other custom recordings you did for the game?

CJ: The Voice (a Bene Gesserit skill) sticks out to me. The initial sounds needed a LOT of voice experiments. I did a good amount of the recordings myself and also got my colleagues to help out.

There were several types of screams and whispering recorded, and then we aligned with the narrative team who provided us with recordings to blend

There were several types of screams and whispering recorded, and then we aligned with the narrative team who provided us with recordings to blend so we got it to fit even more with the Dune lore.

For the UI, we captured recordings of coins, little clicks, and several other small elements.

For the poisoned state of the player, I recorded cooking my lunch. That particular sound reminded me of poison, and thus I had to record it.

Dune Awakening sound effects: Recording sounds – from a propane tank

AG: For the sound design of the boss in the dungeon spoken about above, I wanted to start with something that had an organic base and then build the mechanical elements around it. During COVID, I had a lot of time to experiment with recording techniques, and being inspired by a YouTube video by Akash Thakkar, I created custom microphones that would allow me to record a human heartbeat in a unique manner with a sound that was in your face.

I created custom microphones that would allow me to record a human heartbeat in a unique manner with a sound that was in your face

The setup consisted of two stethoscopes, some plastic adaptor pieces meant for small pipes, some electrical and gaffer’s tape, and a matched stereo pair of small diaphragm pencil condenser microphones (sE Electronics’ sE7). This setup allowed me to record my friend’s heartbeat in an almost surreal-sounding way. Using the heartbeat as a skeleton of the looping sound, I began to add various layers of mechanical and liquid samples to reflect the horror I felt staring into the glowing eyes in the concept art.

I also enjoy finding unique ways of recording low-frequency sounds — usually by putting my ear really close to the source. One day, I was playing with a fidget spinner and noticed the wind it produces makes an incredibly cool bass drop when up against my ear. I pulled out the most sensitive large diaphragm mics I own and set them up in a quiet, treated space so close to the fidget spinner that they were practically touching. After applying a low-pass filter, the result was a robust bass drop that almost sounded like it was made by a synthesizer, while still maintaining an organic texture and flutter.

I pulled out the most sensitive large diaphragm mics I own and set them up in a quiet, treated space so close to the fidget spinner that they were practically touching

Some of my favorite microphones for low-end are a pair of Lom Geofón contact mics. Both Dune: Awakening and Conan Exiles have some nice rumbly ambience in dungeons that utilize this stereo pair attached via magnet to a set of air vents in my studio. When the air conditioning kicks on, they pick up a wonderful stereo rumble. I like to mix these samples with recordings of real tombs that I captured on my trip to Egypt to give the sounds a bit of authenticity and soul.
 

What went into the sounds for the sandworms? And how did you use sound to help players be aware that they’re attracting a sandworm, and alert players that it’s time to look for safe spots, like rocky ground?

AI: The sandworms are probably the most recognizable element of the Dune universe, so we were very aware of the importance of getting them right. They’re the divine symbol of Arrakis: a force of nature and balance, on many levels. They’re not monsters. We didn’t want to go for that stereotypical dinosaur roar with pig squeals in the middle. No offense to dinosaurs. Or pigs.

A lot of the worm’s “voice” comes from reactive environmental sounds: the trembling ground and the hiss and pressure of the sand

We looked closely at the approach that the sound designers took in the recent Dune films, where the sandworms have this kind of rhythmic, almost communicative language, quite similar to the aliens in Arrival (also by director Denis Villeneuve). Unfortunately, in our game, the player doesn’t really get the chance to have long, meaningful conversations with a worm without getting eaten, so we had to build that sense of presence in other ways.

A lot of the worm’s “voice” comes from reactive environmental sounds: the trembling ground and the hiss and pressure of the sand, as described in the lore. Our goal was to make the worms feel like a natural extension of the planet itself. It’s almost like the gaze of Arrakis is upon you. You should feel that weight, that awareness.

We also wanted to explore the weirder side of the worms. For instance, when a worm submerges, it leaves behind a cloud of spice, so we’ve been experimenting with crystalline, almost psychedelic textures. Overall, the sandworms have to remain mysterious and extremely dangerous, a constant, living threat that players never get too comfortable with. You should only hear a worm in moments that truly matter, usually accompanied by a heart-pounding, otherworldly soundtrack that reminds you just how small you really are.

The main sources for the worms are whale sounds and heavily processed earth/rock scrapes for the vocals

EJ: We ended up experimenting a lot with how to make it sound big and intimidating. The main sources for the worms are whale sounds and heavily processed earth/rock scrapes for the vocals. There is also a lot of rock and sand for the movements, while for the iconic “gunks” we rely mainly on synths with a bunch of effects on. It was the sound designer Craig Owen who did the initial exploration, and a lot of that is still present in the game.

Debris changing based on material hits on raycasts

But at the end, we also wanted the worm to feel more part of the atmosphere in the distance when roaming around Arrakis, and we achieved this by creating a lot of new layers for when not close by — both distance variation of roaming loops, as well as several random containers with different debris and processed and reverberated gunks triggering at different ranges, with randomized delays. This was done with the help of an amazing sound designer called Pål Baglo.

Also, to make the worm really frightening when on open sand, but not taking all the focus while building, etc., we have lots of RTPCs and states that, for instance, lower bass frequencies when on a safe rock island, or muffles it more when the player is sheltered.
 

What was your approach to character foley?

AG: Character foley is an important part of feeling the weight and momentum shifts of a character. There were 3 main points for footsteps in the game:

1) The material being walked on
2) If wearing boots or barefoot
3) The intensity of the step

To accomplish this, we had recordings of many different surface types, each with a bank of walking sounds and a bank of running sounds. The material type is controlled by a switch set up in Wwise, using a raycast on each foot-ground contact to feed Wwise the proper material switch.

The material type is controlled by a switch set up in Wwise, using a raycast on each foot-ground contact

We set up a blend container in Wwise for each material that uses the parameter of character movement speed to crossfade between two banks of sounds: softer and slower walking samples, and harder and faster running samples.

Clothing works in a similar way, changing samples based on the speed of the character’s movement. Since clothing pieces can be mixed and matched, a data table was set up listing every individual piece of clothing with an event selected for the weight of armor and its main material. The data table also contained a priority number for each piece to avoid foley being too busy, with every piece of armor making sound at the same time.

a data table was set up listing every individual piece of clothing with an event selected for the weight of armor and its main material

This system lets only one set of sounds (weight and material) play at a time, with the chest piece being the top priority. This means that sounds will almost always reflect the main piece of clothing, muting other clothing pieces. If the player decides not to wear a chest piece, the system will play the set of sounds for the next highest priority clothing piece.
 

How did you handle foley in the mix for a large group of players? For example, in the Deep Desert (endgame PvP zone), or Social Hubs like Arrakeen and Harko Village?

EJ: There was a lot of trial and error in getting the mix right for footsteps and foley sounds, both for players and NPCs. Since you are walking around so much, it’s important that the movement doesn’t feel too repetitive. Because of this, we also put our movement sounds in the more quiet range compared to other games, especially for local variants.

we have custom Wwise Meters analyzing the loudness of the environment and sometimes heightening player movement sounds based on this data

For story levels that are more time-limited and easier to control from a linear and storytelling perspective, we have some additional parameters implemented. Some states heighten certain movement sounds. Since we often use louder ambiences here, we have custom Wwise Meters analyzing the loudness of the environment and sometimes heightening player movement sounds based on this data.

For the footsteps from other players, it’s mainly a combination of short attenuation and heavy voice limitations. You will never hear too many footsteps and foley sounds at the same time, but with priority by distance, it is still quite easy to make the closest ones most audible.

if the melee enemy close to you is also from an angle you can’t see, we up the volume of the sounds, as these audio cues are less critical when enemies are visible to the player

We also utilize the priority by distance, and an RTPC to check if the NPC is behind you, to work on what gets space in the soundscape. For instance, melee enemies’ footsteps can have similar priority as a sniper rifle shot from very close, but the priority falloff makes the footsteps almost impossible to play from 50m, while the sniper will have almost the same prioritization.

And if the melee enemy close to you is also from an angle you can’t see, we up the volume of the sounds, as these audio cues are less critical when enemies are visible to the player.
 

What went into the sound of the personal/body shields, and gear like the suspensor belt?

CJ: This is a special one. The suspensor technology was the first big Dune lore element I had to work on. It took time to really understand how this would work.

You should be able to hear the difference between the three effects while still hearing it’s the Holtzman technology

The first sound was for the knee charge. How can you use the tech here? The initial ability consisted of activating the belt and using the Holtzman technology.

After that, we started working on suspensor fields after throwing grenades and mines. These had three main fields: amplification, stabilization, and reduction.

We needed a base suspensor sound and variations to differentiate the categories. You should be able to hear the difference between the three effects while still hearing it’s the Holtzman technology.

The main sounds come from our own patches from Massive X. We have an amplification patch and a stabilization patch

We ended up mainly using synthesizers, after a lot of experimentation. The main sounds come from our own patches from Massive X. We have an amplification patch and a stabilization patch, and this later evolved to the cutteray as well. It’s a base that we used to create various patches for other elements.

To complement the gritty reality of Dune, we also play a lot with distortion and saturation. So first, find a good source, then destroy it, hehe.
 

What went into the sounds for the different weapons’ classes: blades, ranged weapons (rifles, sidearms, scatterguns, heavy weapons, and lasgun), and cutteray? What were your favorite weapons to design, and what went into their sounds?

CJ: Very similar to the UI, the weapons have a lot of mechanical elements. We don’t have the typical gunpowder in our game, so we had to stay inside the limits of using mechanical stuff, having a dart aspect, and gas and spring sounds, while avoiding your typical gun explosion.

We have some layers of gun recordings, but these need to be complementary and not the main part.

Also, for the weapons we have split it up in a three-layer system:

1) Heavy mechanical sounds
2) Sprint or dart part
3) The whooshiness of the gunshot achieved through gas or air elements

Guns are also associated with different factions of the game: Harkonnen, Atreides, and Smugglers.

We don’t have the typical gunpowder in our game, so we had to stay inside the limits of using mechanical stuff

Harkonnen weapons should sound mean and menacing, but also modern and expensive. A very controlled sound, this is a system and a construction that is refined, and it works in an elegant, but evil way.

Atreides is similar in terms of modern tech, but we wanted these to feel more adventurous and bright.

The smuggler weapons are the complete opposite in terms of technology. These are weapons made by parts scavenged from all over the world. The scattergun should, for instance, feel like it’s falling apart when using it, made by scrap metal, and loose and unstable since it is homemade.

Crafting is a fundamental aspect of the game. What went into the sound of the fabricator? And the refiners? And the recycler?

Maren Holm (MH): Our goal was to make the machines feel organic, believable, and satisfying, and we wanted each machine to have its own distinctive sound while keeping some consistency across all of them. We tried to achieve this by layering a variety of sounds, often including metallic sources, to convey the weight of heavy machinery, along with high-pitched transient sounds for a satisfying feeling.

fabricators come in many shapes and sizes, but they all share a signature buzz when fabricating, created using electromagnetic sources

The machines are divided into categories, with each category having its own identity with variations of sounds within it. For example, fabricators come in many shapes and sizes, but they all share a signature buzz when fabricating, created using electromagnetic sources.

Refineries feature spinning, turbine-like movements that we tried to convey using the Audio Ease Speakerphone plugin to simulate a spinning mechanism.

Since players can have many of these machines in their bases at once, we had to balance the attenuation of these machines a lot to avoid overwhelming the player with noise. Ultimately, we ended up keeping the attenuation very short for the machines.
 

Dune: Awakening — The Sound of Arrakis (Soundtrack Behind-The-Scenes)

Can you talk about your collaboration with composer Knut Avenstroup Haugen, and your approach to creating an adaptive music system for the game?

AI: Working with a seasoned composer like Knut is just great. We already knew each other well from other productions, so there was a good foundation of trust and understanding. In the beginning, we experimented a lot with different expressions, taking inspiration from ambient to synthwave, as we only had the landscape to play with. But soon we started bringing in inspiration from the beautiful but brutal world of the late Jóhann Jóhannsson, the grandeur of Zimmer, and series and films like Westworld and The Revenant, where the world itself becomes a character, before eventually landing on our own musical signature.

We wanted to […] make sure the music actually felt like songs, not just atmosphere

The music often feels nostalgic and, in many ways, represents Arrakis itself — the endless wars and the struggle for survival. We wanted to bring some color into that and make sure the music actually felt like songs, not just atmosphere.

We did the final recordings at AIR Lyndhurst in London, about six months before the game’s release. It was both fun and very demanding, trying to populate such a huge world and find the right balance with so much superb material from Knut A. Haugen. It meant countless hours of just feeling and listening. We’re really proud of how it all came together. With such wonderful music sources, careful planning, and years of testing and reflection, it actually went pretty smoothly in the end.
 

What were your biggest technical challenges in creating the sound of the game?

JN: One of the technical challenges was how to fill this vast world with sounds given our small team. We knew early in the project that we needed a solution to dynamically place emitters in the world, that it should run and update during runtime, and that it should work with many different spec requirements.

we needed a solution to dynamically place emitters in the world, that it should run and update during runtime, and that it should work with many different spec requirements

We have so many maps across Hagga Basin, Deep Desert, and all the story content and social hubs, and these are always evolving. It was not possible to keep up with the changes that level design or art was making. Additionally, certain assets load depending on gameplay factors. It was possible to have hundreds, if not thousands, of meshes in any given scene. For this, we leveraged some internal tools like FGL (Fast Game Logic) to spread the workload across threads and multiple frames. We have a system to define what meshes we would like to attach a sound emitter to.

as you play and roam, emitters are dynamically created and destroyed, giving you an immersive soundscape

When an actor is added to the world, this goes into a queue and is processed further by determining if the actor is out of attenuation range, how close the actor is to the listener, and many other limits and rules set by the procedural audio mesh system. This way as you play and roam, emitters are dynamically created and destroyed, giving you an immersive soundscape. This system greatly freed up time for designers to focus on creating great sounds and have it quickly populated into the world.
 

What was your approach to mixing Dune: Awakening? What were some of your biggest challenges in mixing this game?

JN: My approach to mixing in Dune was to be dynamic, sustainable, and easy. Knowing that this is a live game and it’s projected to be worked on for years to come, we needed a solution that not only helped control dynamics but also was easy to learn, implement, and test.

Knowing that this is a live game and it’s projected to be worked on for years to come, we needed a solution that not only helped control dynamics but also was easy to learn, implement, and test

For me the biggest challenge for the mix was that we worked on HDR quite late into the project, which meant a lot of changes to the structure were needed in a limited amount of time. We had some temp mix solutions that focused on Wwise meters, but they were quickly getting out of hand. For this, I devised a tool that gets all relevant values needed for the HDR busses and actors (Bus volume, make-up gain, HDR envelopes, etc.) through WAAPI. These values can then be sorted, filtered, and updated by bulk, allowing me to very quickly manipulate priority and have the mix in control.

We used a 2:1 ratio — this was to preserve the natural dynamics and prevent the mix from flattening too much. We have a lot of cool, quiet details, especially dotted around rock islands and dungeons, so we wanted these sounds to have their place when not much is happening in game. In addition, it’s easy to calculate the make-up gain needed to compensate for loudness.

We used meters to track the sum of loudness of many different categories of sounds over short and long term durations and fed those values back to the busses to lower/heighten certain sounds

The other challenge was that players were playing (on average) 4.5 hours in a single sitting. We have this unique opportunity in our game where players can do all these crazy dogfights with ornithopters, gather spice, raid ecolabs with their guildmates, and at the same time, take it slow by mining resources and building their bases. We needed to maintain the impact of large vehicles, explosions, and loud sounds but not in a fatiguing way over the duration of playtime. We used meters to track the sum of loudness of many different categories of sounds over short and long term durations and fed those values back to the busses to lower/heighten certain sounds.
 

A big thanks to Arild Iversen, Eirik Johansen, Aaron Gallant, Jason Ng, Carlos Jiménez, and Maren Holm for giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the sound of Dune: Awakening and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!

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