Behind the Thrilling Sound of ‘Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’ – with Audio Director Pete Ward

Audio Director Pete Ward at MachineGames explores the thrilling sound of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle™. He talks about putting the player into Indy's shoes, safely recording whip sounds, designing realistic environments, collaborating with composer Gordy Haab, crafting a dynamic mix, and much more!

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Interview by Jennifer Walden, photos courtesy of Bethesda Softworks; Pete Ward

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What’s better than watching Indiana Jones go on archaeology adventures? Playing Indiana Jones on those adventures! MachineGames action-adventure Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (published by Bethesda Softworks) lets players explore foreign lands and spider-filled caves, crack that whip, land punches and dodge bullets, solve puzzles, collect relics, and untangle historical mysteries.

Audio Director Pete Ward at MachineGames and his sound team put the player in Indy’s shoes by defining the essence of his movements, weight, and character and delivering that through foley performance of footsteps and old leather jacket creaks. Indy’s signature weapon and all-around helpful tool — his whip — was also a key sound to create. It had to feel reactive and satisfying every time the player used it for whatever purpose.

Here, Ward talks about designing the game’s opening level, which recreates that famous scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), collaborating with composer Gordy Haab (who echoed John Williams’s classic “Indiana Jones” film sound in his game score), using sound to lead the player through environments and encourage exploration, capturing custom IRs, mixing for intelligibility all while making the action scene exciting, offering accessibility features for the hearing impaired, and much more!

Official Launch Trailer: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Audio Director Pete Ward

The game begins with the opening scene from Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. How did you make the game experience match the film in terms of sound?

Pete Ward (PW): We wanted the first level in the game to match the original film as closely as possible in style and tone, but take the opportunity to update and extend some of the sound and music cues to fit the game experience and upmix or improve the quality of the original sounds where we could.

We were lucky to receive some of the key original sound effects from Lucasfilm Games, although we used these for reference only, rather than actually using them in the game.

There were some key beats we focused on. We re-recorded the iconic score by transcribing the original John Williams score and then composer Gordy Haab composed extensions for interactive gameplay. The film dialogue we matched as closely as possible in timing, performance, and tone. Our sound designers re-made a lot of the iconic sound effects from scratch, carefully referencing the original film.

This was a different challenge from the rest of the game. In recreating this incredibly famous sequence and making it interactive, we needed to take our time to get the details right, while also having the soundscape fit well with the rest of the game. Some of the most fun sound effects were the demon statue reveal, the spike traps, the floor traps, the weird monkey sound that happens while Satipo and Barranca are discussing the poison dart, and, of course, the boulder.

You get to be Indiana Jones in this game, how cool! Of course, you want the player to feel connected to this character. So, what went into the sounds for Indiana Jones: his footsteps, his leather jacket, his whip, his breaths and efforts? How did you handle variation for his sounds in-game?

PW: Starting with the foley, we did a huge amount of custom recording, using a variety of shoes and clothes, and several old leather jackets. Some of these assets were designed for general use in-game, with small, medium, and large movements, for example, yet lots of animations have very bespoke foley recordings.

We wanted the foley and footsteps to really anchor the first-person player perspective and feel as real as possible, and we wanted the player to feel as “Indy” as possible. We asked ourselves what the essence of Indy was in his movements, weight, and character, and we took those ideas and tried to capture them in our recordings. Indy is a college professor, archaeologist, and adventurer. He’s not a ninja or a fighter or a superhuman in any way. He’s lucky, and clumsy, and he improvises a lot.

The whip was one of the most important sounds to get right in the whole game. Again, Lucasfilm Games was kind enough to send us some original recordings from their archive, and these were incredibly useful for reference. We experimented at first with recording our own whip cracks with a variety of whips we bought in.

It turns out that whip cracking needs quite a lot of space and practice, and can be dangerous when it goes wrong, so we hired and recorded an expert whip maker in Sweden who knew exactly how to get the sounds we were looking for.
Our sound designers spent a day with him and then worked on the recordings to prepare them for in-game use.

We wanted the gameplay whip to feel just like the original film whip sound, but to be interactive and responsive to all the different things you can do with the whip in gameplay. It’s Indy’s most useful tool, from attacking to traversing to pulling levers and disarming enemies.

For breaths and efforts, actor Troy Baker did an amazing job at capturing Indy’s character and emotion. We recorded lots of different breathing types and intensities with Troy so we could match Indy’s breathing to the gameplay context, and we built a breathing system that works seamlessly with the VO system — VO interrupts breathing, and breathing resumes on an inhale once Indy has said something or reacted to something (like getting punched by an enemy).

we built a breathing system that works seamlessly with the VO system

Reactions and emotes were recorded for more general combat gameplay but also for very specific cases, like emerging from a swamp, getting bitten by a huge snake, or getting stung in the face by angry scorpions. We always wanted to get as much variation as possible into the gameplay sounds to avoid hearing repetition.

How did you approach the sounds of combat? How did you want the player to feel during conflicts, and how did you reinforce that using sound?

PW: The punching and the weapons are another iconic part of the soundscape from the original films. Everyone knows the classic Indy punch sound. We had to get that just right, and we went through a fair number of iterations before we were satisfied.

In the films, there aren’t actually that many instances of ‘that’ punch sound, whereas in gameplay, you can punch enemies, get punched, and attack with a wide variety of random objects you find in the world. Punching had to feel satisfying and powerful and achieve that nostalgic over-the-top sound.

We recorded a lot of new material using the same techniques as Ben Burtt and his team used — baseball bats and other blunt instruments thwacked against leather jackets — and then compressed and distorted and tweaked and processed to match the character of the beloved originals as closely as possible.

We recorded a lot of new material using the same techniques as Ben Burtt and his team used

We also carefully analyzed the combat scenes in the movies, and the older matinee movies that the Indy movies in turn were referencing, to try to capture that feeling. Brawling and gunfights are chaotic, loud, not necessarily particularly accurate in terms of weapon sounds, most bullet impacts ricochet, and so on. We wanted gunfights in particular to feel dangerous and chaotic. Indy is not a bullet sponge and getting shot is very damaging, so we wanted to make gunfights sound dangerous with ricochets, bullet pass-bys, and impacts.

The player is encouraged to explore the environment they’re in — they can find skill books, collectibles, and other useful items. From a sound standpoint, how do you encourage exploration? Or reward the player for exploring their environment using sound reinforcement?

PW: We wanted our environments to be rich and detailed, and give a sense of space and discovery. Sometimes we try to lead the player through the environment with sound – maybe you hear a distant radio, or enemies talking, or mysterious sounds in dark caves that prove to be key later on.

We wanted our spaces to feel real in terms of acoustic behavior and reverberation. We recorded and manipulated our own impulse responses as well as using library IRs. In some more mystical, sacred spaces these IRs can relate to the main musical theme of the relics Indy is searching for, which is a nice touch.

We did a lot of work on sound propagation through spaces, and trying to have remote sounds exist in the appropriate reverb spaces (so when someone is talking in the next room, it sounds as ‘real world’ as possible). We also try to reward players who explore with interesting little sound cues, like perhaps creatures scurrying in the undergrowth, some nice wet drippy sounds off a rock face, or some workers singing digging songs in the desert as a direct nod to similar songs heard in Raiders.

How did you take advantage of spatial audio for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle? What did spatial sound or 3D audio allow you to do (or do better) that you could not have done with stereo sound?

PW: Our reference mix in The Great Circle is Dolby Atmos for Home Theatre, or 7.1.4. The height channels gave us a great opportunity to extend the soundscape upwards, whether for jungle canopy fauna or an imposing 1930s airship rumbling overhead.

The implementation in Wwise makes it nice and easy to mix in 7.1.4. The more challenging thing is to get sounds out of the height channels that we didn’t want there. We created our base ambiences using first order ambisonics, which has the great advantage of scaling easily from mono to multichannel speaker setups, and we added more focused spatial details and spot effects using emitters in our engine.

The goal was to have our environments feel deep and spacious (or tight and claustrophobic as necessary!) and using 7.1.4 meant we could aim for an epic, cinematic experience more easily than we might with stereo.

Can you talk about working with composer Gordy Haab? How did the tone of his score influence the sound team’s tonal palette?

PW: Gordy was such an amazing composer to work with on this project. He understood the brief incredibly quickly and delivered exactly what we were looking for, with a score that hearkens back to those great original John Williams scores, while also creating themes specifically for our characters and storyline.

We even positioned the orchestra in Studio 1 in the same way, to get a deep rather than wide soundstage.

We recorded the big bombastic cues and the classic themes at Abbey Road — where the original Raiders score was recorded — to be as authentic as possible to that original sound. We even positioned the orchestra in Studio 1 in the same way, to get a deep rather than wide soundstage. As a small fun anecdote, one of our session harp players also played on the original scoring sessions for Raiders.

In terms of sound design influence, we did lots of the cinematic scoring fairly early on, at the rough cut stage, well before the sound editing for the scenes was done, so the cinematics sound team had those scores available during their work. This way we could leave space for the music and the sound design to coexist, making mixing easier. There are also elements of the main relic themes heard in the sound design of certain spaces and items.

There are some really interesting, eerie environments/locations in the game, like catacombs, decrepit buildings, hidden passages, secret chambers, and labyrinths. What was your favorite location for sound design? What went into the sound for that location?

PW: It’s quite difficult to pick out personal favorites because of the variety of locations we have in the game, but I think there are a few key locations for me such as the jungles and temples of Sukhothai because of the dense, drippy spaces and weird sounding creatures, the resonance chambers underneath the desert sands of Egypt because of the way the sound design complements the musical themes, and the battleship interiors because of the mournful wind and the claustrophobic feeling in those tight metal corridors. The sound designers had a lot of fun with these spaces!

What was the most challenging location, puzzle, or combat instance to sound design? What required the most iterations before you found the perfect sound?

PW: I think the most challenging location was the first level — the Peru game introduction — because it was one of the first levels we did. We had a lot of tools development still to go, we were trying out a lot of new things, and we had to deliver an interactive version of one of the most famous film intros ever.

Our style and tone in sound effects, music, and dialogue had to be spot-on in emulating the original film

Our style and tone in sound effects, music, and dialogue had to be spot-on in emulating the original film while also being consistent with the rest of the game mix. We really worked on the Peru level for the entire duration of the game development, constantly tweaking, updating, and improving things.

Other than that we have a few very action-heavy setpieces which also took a lot of iterations and updates when things changed. Aside from making it sound as cool as possible, the main challenge was always to keep on top of developments made in other disciplines like art, animation, and VFX.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle uses a custom version of the id Tech 7 game engine called “Motor.” What did that mean for the sound team?

PW: The coolest thing about using our own game engine is that we have our amazingly talented engine programming team, who can take all of our wildest creative and technical ideas and actually make them work.

our amazingly talented engine programming team […] can take all of our wildest creative and technical ideas and actually make them work.

It means that as a studio we can be flexible and build custom engine features or tools for specific game features in a way that might not be possible with a commercial engine.

It also means that anyone new to the development team has quite a steep learning curve in an engine they haven’t seen before, so the onboarding process can take a bit longer.

We do use Wwise though, so there is that familiarity for sound designers with an industry-standard middleware.

Can you talk about your approach to mixing The Great Circle? What were some of your challenges in mixing the game?

PW: We wanted to create a cinematic experience where gameplay and cutscenes flowed seamlessly between each other, and I think that was the biggest challenge to pull that all together at the end.

We set specific dialogue loudness targets that applied to gameplay and cinematic dialogue, and that helped as a mix anchor point

We set specific dialogue loudness targets that applied to gameplay and cinematic dialogue, and that helped as a mix anchor point to which everything else in the game is mixed around. Because the game is so story-driven, it made sense to use dialogue as the reference level — players tend to turn their volume knobs so the dialogue is at a comfortable level.

Then we wanted to make sure the impactful things landed solidly — the punches, the whip, the gunshots, the traps and explosions, and impacts. We wanted quite a large dynamic range in the game so that the loud things could feel loud, but without losing out on hearing the quieter elements and details, like in ambiences.

Another challenge in game mixing is to keep the dialogue clear and intelligible without it stomping all over the music and sound effects too obviously

Another challenge in game mixing is to keep the dialogue clear and intelligible without it stomping all over the music and sound effects too obviously, so we did things like frequency-based ducking of music and sound effects to notch out room for dialogue, rather than overall ducking.

Similarly, to control bass levels when music and sound effects were all kicking off in action sequences, we duck out bass from music based on the bass present in sound effects. We try to always get the kick and thump from the revolver and the punches without feeling like the music is disappearing as a result.

How did the sound team help to make this game more accessible for people with hearing impairments?

PW: Accessibility is an area we have worked on more in this title than we have been able to in previous titles, but there is so much more to do. We have several volume controls that allow players to turn down background sound effects, and/or turn up dialogue, and of course to turn down music if they wish.

We have several volume controls that allow players to turn down background sound effects, and/or turn up dialogue

We also have a very comprehensive subtitling system for almost all the dialogue in the game, along with some closed captioning to describe narratively important sound effects. Our goal is always to be able to play, understand, and enjoy the game if the sound is turned off completely.

What are you most proud of in terms of sound for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle?

PW: The audio team has done such a great job and I am so proud that we have been able to deliver so many of the key elements – the things that make it Indiana Jones – for Indy fans.

the best reward is watching players react so positively to the music, or hitting someone over the head with a guitar or a frying pan.

There are so many cool moments in the game, whether it’s giant puzzles, or action setpieces, or little discoveries in remote chambers, or a musical theme, or a classic Indy quip that hits just at the right moment. I think I’m most proud of the way it’s come together in audio, not just because of the sound designers and VO designers and technical people and programmers with gigantic brains and foley artists and recordists, but also the way the studio has supported us in our audio goals with production and legal and logistics and contracts. It’s been an amazing few years with a whole bunch of very talented people, and I think the best reward is watching players react so positively to the music, or hitting someone over the head with a guitar or a frying pan.

A big thanks to Pete Ward for giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the sound of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!

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