Season Game Audio Asbjoern Andersen


Scavengers Studio's bicycle-based adventure game SEASON: a letter to the future, takes players on a sentimental journey as a young woman named Estelle, who leaves her small village to go out and document the world as it comes to an end. The soundscape is inviting and peaceful, encouraging the player to explore and record all they find. Here, members of the sound team — Spencer Doran, Dylan Escalona, Nikola Viel, and Manuel Silva — talk about how they use sound to encourage players to use one of the game's unique features – Estelle's portable recorder – and how they created the weather, the wind, Estelle's bicycle, the rich ambiences, and so much more!
Interview by Jennifer Walden, photos courtesy of Scavengers Studio
Please share:
SoundMorph Halloween Sale 2025

The word “apocalypse” tends to conjure up images of brutal lawlessness, but Scavengers Studio‘s exploration game SEASON: a letter to the future is the polar opposite of the Mad Max reality one would typically imagine upon hearing the term. Instead of chaotic, it’s melancholic. The world is mostly devoid of inhabitants, so the sounds of nature prevail. It’s a calm, inviting soundscape with a sonic color palette that is as subdued as the visual one.

The player takes on the role of Estelle, a young woman from a small village set on a mission of recording all she can of the dying world using a camera, her audio recorder, and her scrapbook/journal. The audio recorder is an interesting in-game tool that one rarely experiences as part of gameplay, and getting that to work just right posed some interesting challenges for the sound team, like how to replicate the more precise sonic perspective you get when listening to a sound source going into the mic and playing through headphones.

Here, sound team members Spencer Doran (Audio Director & Composer at Scavengers Studio), Dylan Escalona (Lead Audio at Vibe Avenue), Nikola Viel (Production Manager & Music Designer at Vibe Avenue), and Manuel Silva (Audio Designer at Vibe Avenue) discuss their approach to creating the game’s peaceful palette, how they designed the ambiences and winds, how they created the sound of Estelle’s bicycle, her protective pendant, and, of course, her recorder. They also talk about designing specific sounds, such as the Memory Flowers, the giant prayer bell, and the UI sounds. They talk about their use of Audiokinetic’s middleware Wwise in conjunction with Unreal Engine to perfect the in-game recorder’s focus and aim system, and so much more!



SEASON: A letter to the future - CG Story Trailer | PC, PS5 & PS4


SEASON: A letter to the future – CG Story Trailer

SEASON: A letter to the future is a third-person “atmospheric” adventure/bicycle road trip game. The sounds are mellow and inviting. Can you talk about your approach to finding the “right” sounds? What did you use to guide your choices? Were there general guidelines for aesthetics, or was it more of a feeling?

Spencer Doran (SD): There were guidelines that I drafted up and gave as a presentation to the whole production team early on, explaining the more conceptual background to my approach for the audio direction. As part of the game’s over-arching philosophy, we wanted the player to engage with the in-game world on their own terms and be able to set their own sense of pace, affording space for moments of contemplation to blossom and unfurl along the way — nothing forceful or too overtly goal-oriented. This meant that the audio experience needed an overall sense of calm that didn’t necessarily sit in the foreground, but still was interesting and engaging if you chose to tune into the nuance of it.

…we wanted the player to engage with the in-game world on their own terms and be able to set their own sense of pace…

A big influence came from the field of acoustic ecology, thinking about how an individual interacts specifically with their sonic environment to create notions of meaning (something which becomes quite literal with the recorder in the game) and how the different elements of the audio experience (foley, recordable sounds, score, UI, etc.) needed to have an inter-harmonious nature as if they were one big interlinked composition.

SEASON_game-sound-01

Dylan Escalona, Lead Audio at Vibe Avenue

Dylan Escalona (DE): In SEASON, we could take advantage of the contrast between two audio aesthetics. Most of the sounds, including environment, nature, weather, and foley, are very organic and based on recordings, but others, especially the UI, music or for certain particular contexts, are much more synthetic in nature.

In both cases, the general direction was “soft sounds that do not distract nor attract.” We had the incentive to refrain from using harsh sounds and keep the soundscape as pastel as the visual. There are important exceptions to this, but I’ll describe them further in another section.
 

SEASON_game-sound-02

Being an atmospheric game, the sound of the world (the spatialization and panning of environmental sounds and ambiences) is so important for immersion, to make you feel like you’re discovering and documenting this world. Can you talk about your sound work here from both creative and technical standpoints? What were some of your opportunities or challenges? Can you talk about your ambience system(s)? Foley system(s)?

DE: I’ll let Manuel answer in detail; I’ll just note that if it wasn’t for the recorder feature we would’ve used a completely different approach for ambiences and spatialization in general.

SEASON_game-sound-03

Manuel Silva, Audio Designer at Vibe Avenue

Manuel Silva (MS): One of the biggest challenges was that everything needed to be “record-friendly.” After trying different solutions, we decided to hand-place sounds on pretty much every element of the landscape. Each tree and each bush has its own sound source. There are literally thousands of them! We used the same process to fake the continuity of a river or a cliff, placing sound sources all along its path.

It was an extremely time-consuming process that brought its share of challenges, including phase and optimization issues. On the other hand, it was also the system that gave us the most freedom and customization options. We were able to fine-tune every element, tweaking sound assets, random delays, and attenuation curves to taste to make every location unique and interesting to record.

Being an atmospheric game, we also needed to create space for silence. There are sounds everywhere but we still aimed to have some quiet, contemplative moments. Silence without silence is a hard balance to achieve! Moreover, in this kind of experience, you can’t hide behind loud music and sword impacts, so the ambiances and foley really need to be compelling.
 

SEASON_game-sound-04

Can you talk about designing the West Forest Path that’s full of memory flowers? What went into your design here?

SD: The design for the memory flowers arose out of iterating on the concept with the director Kevin Sullivan along with the narrative designer Jane Tan, design director Sébastien Berton, and game designer Melcom Briy.

Each individual flower needed to feel as if it had a memory locked within it…

Each individual flower needed to feel as if it had a memory locked within it that was only unrecoverable if you recorded it, and this needed to also be scalable to the flower field of hundreds in the West Forest Path. After a few different prototypes, I landed on a system where the audio had three stages of abstraction, revealing or hiding different layers depending on if you were walking, listening, or recording them. In all but the final stage (recording), they needed to be unintelligible (due to the particulars of the closed captioning/subtitle system) but also still sound like each specific memory, so I used a long effects chain of granular synthesis, shifting reverb, and vocoding to “scramble” them.

…and this needed to also be scalable to the flower field of hundreds in the West Forest Path.

I then broke these up into small clips for Dylan to randomize within Wwise so they never appeared to be looping and he made a system for them to shift between the different audio states. Because the FX chain was in-DAW instead of in-engine, all of these clips were pre-baked so we had to do the whole process in triplicate for the different voice-over localizations.

All in all, it ended up being one of the more time-consuming systems in the game!

DE: Remember the important exceptions to the soft-sounding audio experience I mentioned earlier? This is one of them. Unlike most of the soundscape, the memory flowers needed to attract attention. They had to create an uneasy feeling as they are dangerous and can harm you if you are not wearing your mother’s pendant.

The initial idea for the flower’s aesthetic is the brainchild of Spencer. We helped him push his vision even further, making those sounds feel strange and disturbing. It’s a totally voluntary move to have them stand out, synthetic and harsh.

 

SEASON_game-sound-05

What were some of your favorite locations to design for the game? Why? What went into the sound of these places?

SD: The cow field in Tieng was a big favorite, with the biophony of the cows intermingling with the radio stations drifting through the air and the rustle of the field. Also, Caro plaza, with the local mechanical instruments melding with the abstracted score and winds through the hanging-wish tree, was a beautiful one to work on, too.

SEASON_game-sound-06

Nikola Viel, Production Manager & Music Designer at Vibe Avenue

DE: The plaza of Caro village has a special place in my heart. It’s where we benchmarked the use of the recorder. A lot of time was spent disseminating details and giving life to it. The central tree has a lot of different layers to catch the player’s attention. Caro Village is your first encounter with the recorder, and one of the most recorded places in the game.

Nikola Viel (NV): I really like when you go down to Tieng Valley right after your interaction with the Greyhand. Great musical moment!

MS: Not to piggyback on Nikola’s comment but my favorite spot is the same (for different reasons). The environment in these sections is the perfect example of what I mentioned earlier about silence without silence. It’s also a moment full of melancholy and discovery. The emotional overtones really help the soundscape and scoring to truly become one with the art direction/aesthetic.

 

SEASON_game-sound-07

What about the weather in the game? How did you create these sounds and manage them in-game? (For instance, there are a lot of different winds!)

MS: Diversity, diversity, diversity. It’s a blend of hand-placed wind and/or rain emitters with different falloff distances tailored to every zone and glued together by the 2D environment. Some areas push the concept a step further. For example, the tunnel outside Caro Village has gusts of wind placed at each of its openings, which gives a nice feeling when cycling through it at full speed.

DE: Since the game is linear, there is no dynamic weather system: every chapter of the game has fixed weather. As Manuel said, to underline this there are a lot of diverse “colors” of wind, rain, and the like. For instance, trees are also emitters of winds and rain. The idea of triggering weather-related sounds on objects came from working on the bus stop keepsake in the rainy environment. It was such a nice touch to hear the modulating raindrops on it (which was Spencer’s idea) that I thought it was worth expanding the idea to trees. We also modulate the wind with your movement speed and the vegetation around you.
 


Popular on A Sound Effect right now - article continues below:


Trending right now:

  • Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects SpellBound Play Track 969 sounds included, 122 mins total $90

    SpellBound is premium sound effects library exploring the intersecting spaces of modern magic and science fiction energy. The result is a polished, designed, and inspiring set of cinematic magic sounds ready to bring new life to your film, game, and media projects. Brian Johnson, the creator of SpellBound and Slipstream is an award winning sound designer who after working in film, and television, has found his home designing sound for the biggest video game franchises in the world.

    SpellBound has 969 total sound effects
    Spells, explos, tails, whooshes, beds, impacts, drones, and more.

    Designed section – 202 designed multi-event show stopping full frequency sound effects.
    Elements section – 767 designed construction kit, layers, sweeteners, and single event effects.

    SpellBound can compliment your fx arsenal with traditional fantasy, modern magic, cinematic impacts, and even as an explosion sweetener. It can take over a fantasy trailer or a compliment a hybrid space magic video game.

    Thank you for licensing SpellBound. I hope it inspires you to create something exciting and magical.

    SpellBound Flyer

    28 %
    OFF
  • Characters speak and so do the items they use. USER INTERFACE will bring the small to life with this collection of clicks, notifications, buttons, and swooshes.

    Included are: Buttons, Clicks, Jingles, Notifications, Organics, Slides, Swishes

  • Environments & Ambiences Suburban Russia Play Track 56 sounds included, 173 mins total $19

    What could be better than summertime in the country?

    Of course summertime in Russian village!

    Those sweet sounds of hammers, lawnmowers, dogs, neighbors activity, forests, fields, rain and, of course, lots of cicadas!

    This library contains authentic atmospheres of villages and small towns of suburban Moscow, as well as sounds of nature, roomtones and doors of the old Dacha from Soviet era.

    KEY POINTS:

    • Authentic atmospheres of dacha, forests, fields, streams, rains, streets of small towns, night and day suburban activity and roomtones!

    • An excellent addition to your library for film, TV and multimedia – Suburban Russia during summer and autumn time

    • Recorded with Mid-Side Sennheiser MKH8040/MKH30 combo

    • Sorted by location-type categories

    • All files have metadata included

  • Introducing MOTION GRAPHICS, a complete Motion Graphics sound effects library from SoundMorph!

    Motion Graphics focuses on all the elements you might need for sound design on a trailer, a cinematic scene or a visual that is heavy with motion graphics, whether it be abstract or straight forward, Motion Graphics has all the elements and textures you could think of. Motion Graphics are something all of us sound designers run into at one point or another, so this library is an excellent addition to your sound effects tool box.

    Motion Graphics was created by and in collaboration with sound designer Rostislav Trifonov (SoundMorph Elemental library contributor).

    Motion Graphics features 650 24bit/96 kHz .wav files, all meticulously embedded with Soundminer & Basehead metadata.

    The library features:

    • 450 + designed sound effects
    • 190 + source audio files
    • Whooshes
    • Impacts
    • Risers
    • Stingers
    • Low end and Sub Bass
    • Impulse Responses
    • Passbys
    • Textures – noise, grit, glitch
    • Ambiences
    • Buttons and Clicks
    • Mechanical Elements
    • Granular effects
    91 %
    OFF

Latest releases:

  • Metal Sound Effects Military Truck Percussion Play Track 321 sounds included, 14 mins total $10

    A US Military Truck is transformed into a percussive instrument and hit with drum sticks and a variety of mallets ( gong, xylophone and timpani ) and sampled using contact microphones and geophones.

    A unique collection of 321 metallic percussive hits perfect for metal impact sound design and transient shaping.

    Type : Source Files / WAV Mono

    Normalised : -6 dbFS

    Grouped Files for Easy Reference Included

    Recorder : Sound Devices Mix Pre 10II

    Microphones : Stille & Klang Spot, LOM Geofon

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O805cKU_XrE

    33 %
    OFF
  • All files are recorded 32bit, 192 kHz, with RØDE NTG1, Line Audio Omni1 and FEL Clippy XLR EM272 microphones, Sound Devices MixPre-6 II recorder. Library contains wav files of driving, interior and exterior foley, mechanical and electrical sounds. It is only available in UCS.

  • Effective Trailer Booms Vol. 2 delivers the next level in cinematic low-end, featuring 232 brand-new one-shot sounds meticulously designed for cutting-edge trailers.

    Building on the original Vol. 1, this new collection is designed for cutting-edge trailers. It moves beyond simple impacts to focus on the deep sub-bass, tonal rumbles, and resonant elements that build anticipation. It’s the perfect tool for setting a dark, mysterious tone at the beginning of a trailer or providing that final, deep punctuation at the end.

    A boom isn’t just a hit, it’s the sound of intrigue. Effective Trailer Booms Vol. 2 delivers the next level in cinematic low-end, featuring 232 brand-new one-shot sounds meticulously designed for cutting-edge trailers.

    Building on the original Vol. 1, this new collection is designed for cutting-edge trailers. It moves beyond simple impacts to focus on the deep sub-bass, tonal rumbles, and resonant elements that build anticipation. It’s the perfect tool for setting a dark, mysterious tone at the beginning of a trailer or providing that final, deep punctuation at the end.

    Inside, you’ll find a massive library of deep tonal rumbles, powerful sub-bass swells, bone-chilling textures, dark resonant drones, and powerful cinematic punctuation, all designed to pull the audience in.

    40 %
    OFF
  • Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects SpellBound Play Track 969 sounds included, 122 mins total $90

    SpellBound is premium sound effects library exploring the intersecting spaces of modern magic and science fiction energy. The result is a polished, designed, and inspiring set of cinematic magic sounds ready to bring new life to your film, game, and media projects. Brian Johnson, the creator of SpellBound and Slipstream is an award winning sound designer who after working in film, and television, has found his home designing sound for the biggest video game franchises in the world.

    SpellBound has 969 total sound effects
    Spells, explos, tails, whooshes, beds, impacts, drones, and more.

    Designed section – 202 designed multi-event show stopping full frequency sound effects.
    Elements section – 767 designed construction kit, layers, sweeteners, and single event effects.

    SpellBound can compliment your fx arsenal with traditional fantasy, modern magic, cinematic impacts, and even as an explosion sweetener. It can take over a fantasy trailer or a compliment a hybrid space magic video game.

    Thank you for licensing SpellBound. I hope it inspires you to create something exciting and magical.

    SpellBound Flyer

    28 %
    OFF
  • Kawaii UI Bundle is the ultimate bundle for cute user interface sounds.
    In this Bundle you get both volumes of our Kawaii UI libraries.
    Kawaii UI + Kawaii UI 2

    These libraries provide an adorable blend of cute, satisfying interface sounds, crafted to enhance user experience and feedback.
    Bring your games and apps to life with the Kawaii UI Bundle.

    It’s ideal for creating joyful menus, delightful HUDs, playful navigation and notifications, engaging pop-ups, and expressive text.

    Kawaii UI Trailer
    Kawaii UI 2 Trailer

    The source recordings inside are a treasure trove of physical button presses, clicks, pops, taps, mouth sounds, toks, shakers, general synthesised UI sounds, FM bells and telemetry style sounds.. Kawaii UI Bundle provides you with the essential building blocks to craft your own distinctive designs.  Combining these elements gives sound designers a robust sonic palette to create new UI sounds.

    13 %
    OFF
Need specific sound effects? Try a search below:


SEASON_game-sound-08

What went into the sound of the burner and the pendant absorbing the physical and mental attributes of objects in the beginning of the game?

SD: This came from some fairly abstract prompts from Kevin, the director: what is the sound of a memory slipping away into the void? What does a pendant built of lost memories feel like?

As Dylan mentioned, there is little overt synthesis used in the sound design of the game but the supernatural sections are a bit of an exception. I used some FM synthesis and LFO-modulated filter processing (using Suzuki Kentaro’s LFO Cluster M4L device).

…there is little overt synthesis used in the sound design of the game but the supernatural sections are a bit of an exception.

The final sound of the pendant (how you hear it in the rest of the game after it is finished in the scene) is actually made up of a pentatonic drone consisting of five different notes (one for each sense/memory) that loop and shift in intensity to give it a “shimmering” quality. It’s very subtle but if you listen closely during the scene in which you’re building it, you hear them added one at a time and ambiently spatialized while the pendant is “cooking” in various states of completion.

 

SEASON_game-sound-09

What went into the UI sounds, like the sounds for the Keepsakes Journal, menu navigation sounds, using the camera and recorder, notifications, etc…

SD: UI is actually some of my favorite stuff to work on, and there was a very large library of sounds I made for this project of which we only used a handful. I very much wanted to avoid the very slot-machine-like sensory overload that a lot of contemporary gaming UI design leans on and instead use sounds aligned with Amber Case’s “calm technology” principles (using the periphery of audio perception, having the least amount of auditory information necessary, etc.) in an attempt to retain the reflective/meditative state of the gameplay and not tip it into dopamine-reward-system territory.

I very much wanted to…use sounds aligned with Amber Case’s ‘calm technology’ principles…

I also wanted it to fit into the overall soundworld of the game’s score, so for the non-skeuomorphic sounds, the same family of instruments were used: positif organ, soft-mallet metallic percussion, glass harmonica, etc., and the same scale systems and chords that appear in the score are used in the UI, in particular the recurring strummed minor 9th chord which goes all the way back to the opening piano riff in the game’s first trailer.

…I did my own foley session with a binaural mic using an old ’80s tape player and some books…

By design, the whole musical universe of the game is in the same key, so all of the UI sounds meld with the score and diegetic audio for an overall unified experience.

For the skeuomorphic sounds, like the recorder and the journal, I did my own foley session with a binaural mic using an old ’80s tape player and some books (the same size/dimensions as the in-game journal), giving them a little spatial dimension to sit better in the PS5 Tempest system’s binaural soundfield.

DE: The UI sounds were mostly done by Spencer. For the camera interactions, we spent a lot of time getting it just right. It’s a blend of sounds recorded by Spencer and straightforward sound design with sound banks.

SEASON_game-sound-10

I love that the protagonist Estelle has a recorder to capture sounds – like the sound of water dripping into the ceramic vessel in the Caro Village. (It has this beautiful, melodic sound that reverberates in that stone-walled stairwell space. Lovely!) Can you talk about how you used sound to subtly encourage the player to want to record sounds in-game?

SD: There were a number of technical approaches here. But on perhaps a more basic level, the sounds needed to simply be strange and interesting. Some of them actually came into the concepting as sounds first; when the narrative department was mapping out the inner workings of the story, they asked me to help make a big master list of sounds that could be enticing to have in the environment, which were then triangulated between the art department (to create the assets for the sound source), the level designers (to place them strategically within the environment), and the narrative team (to work them into the lore and storyline of the game).

We wanted to also encourage the player to engage with the environment through close listening…

These had to catch the player’s ear but still sit naturally in the soundscape so they had to exist on a threshold between general foley beds and what acoustic ecologist R. Murray Schafer called soundmarks — sonic landmarks that denote a specific sense of place which carry a social importance.


Sound highlight - article continues below:

Popular game audio sound libraries:

If you're looking for game audio sound effects for your projects, these sound libraries are trending right now:

  • Strident and Demonic

    Expand the timbre of your horror violins and cellos with CIRCUS, a sinister sample pack featuring 180 WAV sounds of screeching or high-pitched string noises, perfect for horror music and dark sound design.

    Creative Tension

    This collection offers a curated selection of screeches, high-tension tremolo, heavy jeté strokes, dark demonic textures, finger patterns, chaotic string elements, clock loops and bow accents.

    Haunting and Experimental

    Create haunting atmospheres, perfect for horror, thriller or experimental soundtracks. Every element has been designed to unsettle and disturb, blurring the line between music and noise.

    80 %
    OFF
    Ends 1761951599
  • ⏰ For a very limited time:
    Add this library to the cart and enter ah4launch in the cart coupon field – to sprinkle an extra launch discount, on top of the current discount!

    Animal Hyperrealism Vol IV is a sound library containing animal vocalisations, from real to designed creatures totaling more than 2000 individual sounds in 294 files. The sounds were recorded in zoos, and wildlife centers.

    The asset list includes but is not limited to: hippos, hyenas, vultures, dwarf mongooses, elephants, African cranes, parrots, tigers, pigmy hippos, rhea ostriches, brown bears, pheasants, wildebeests, African wild dogs and many more. The content has been recorded at 192KHz with a Sanken CO100K, an Avisoft CMPA and a Sennheiser 8050 for center plus two Sennheiser MKH8040 for stereo image.

    The resulting ultrasonic spectrum is rich and allows for truly extreme manipulation of the content.

    15 %
    OFF
  • The Seagulls sfx library includes 28 tracks of both single, isolated seagull screams, and bigger flocks of nesting seagulls, calling out to each other and their chicks. There are plenty of classic call sounds, but also some weird throaty and raspy screaming, and what could sound like seagull laughing sounds.

    All tracks are recorded with the very useful zoom function of the Telinga microphone and dish.
    Library includes both untreated tracks, and noise reduction processed tracks in two separate folders. Noise reduction processed tracks have carefully been cleaned up with a CEDAR NR system.

    Though these birds are in an abundance around most harbours and industry around here, they are not always easy to record. You mostly hear them from a distance, or from places not easy to access. When you try to get close to them, they will usually fly away.

    Many hours have been spent on rooftops, gardens, backyards, a junkyard, and different harbours to get this material.

  • Bundles Mattia Cellotto – Complete Bundle Play Track 13100+ sounds included $1,187

    Mattia Cellotto’s extraordinary sound libraries are some of the most popular releases in independent sound effects – and here’s your chance to get them all at a nice discount. Here’s what’s you get:

    NEW: ANIMAL HYPERREALISM IV contains animal vocalisations – from hippos, hyenas, vultures, dwarf mongooses, elephants, African cranes, parrots, tigers, pigmy hippos, rhea ostriches, to brown bears, pheasants, wildebeests, African wild dogs and many more. Features 2000 individual sounds in 294 files.


    CATACLYSM is a collection more than 1400 sounds in 400+ files of recorded, synthesized and designed sounds created to support important destructive moments and add a stronger sense of extreme consequence to any sound.


    ANIMAL HYPERREALISM VOL I is a library containing themed animal vocalisations & sounds, from real to designed creatures totaling more than 1300 individual sounds in 290 files.

    ANIMAL HYPERREALISM VOL II is a library containing themed animal sounds & vocalisations, from real to designed creatures totaling more than 2000 individual sounds in 283 files.

    ANIMAL HYPERREALISM VOL III is a library containing sounds themed animal vocalisations, from real to designed creatures totaling more than 1700 individual sounds in 279 files.


    METAMORPHOSIS is a huge collection of recorded source, synthesized material and hybrid sounds – more than 2300 sounds total.

    GLACIER ICE is a library containing over 300 high quality sounds of ice cracking, breaking, shattering in various sizes of blocks – recorded entirely in the Italian Alps over the course of two winters.

    POLARITY delivers more than 950 sounds of electricity, science and technology – captured in several locations around the world, from electricity museums to science labs.

    ULTRASONIC DRY ICE is a library containing over 600 sounds themed metal resonances, scrapes and all sorts of weird.

    ROCKS MOMENTUM gets you more than 1100 sounds of rocks, bricks, wood logs, stones, impacting on different surfaces, rolling, being scraped one against the other and so on. The library was recorded in the Italian alps, and in Inverness, Scotland.

    WATER VOLUMES delivers you over 300 sounds of natural hot-springs, bubbles, and liquids of various densities boiling under the effect of dry ice.

    METAL GROANS AND SLAMS is a library for which metal was kicked, hammered, bowed and… induced to vibrate through feedback loops?! The collection features 346 unique sounds recorded through field trips in US, UK and Italy.

    CRUNCH MODE & THE BORAX EXPERIMENT are also included as a bonus: Crunch Mode features 230 crunchy sounds made with a variety of vegetables, fresh bread, pizza crust & frozen goods, and The Borax Experiment gets you 158 squishy, gory, slimy, gooey SFX.


    15 %
    OFF
Search for more game audio sound libraries

We wanted to also encourage the player to engage with the environment through close listening as well, so there are some sounds that are more deeply hidden or embedded within the environment that result in especially important realizations for Estell (if you find them).

DE: The vase you mention is a collectible. Collectible is the internal name given to sounds we want the player to record and document in order to progress in the game. Most of them have two different states: one before and one after recording.

By design, collectibles are more ‘high profile’ than the rest of the soundscape to attract attention…

Before you record them, collectibles are louder and play more frequently. They also sidechain the rest of the environmental sounds. By design, collectibles are more “high profile” than the rest of the soundscape to attract attention, but after the recording we wanted them to blend with the rest of the ambiences. For example, the crickets emit sound constantly when you initially find them, but then only once in a while after having been documented with the tape recorder.

Another way we guide the player towards collectibles is through haptic feedback. Whenever you hold the recorder in your hand, important sounds cause the controller to vibrate. The closer you are, the more intense the vibration. The effect is particularly noticeable with the PS5 controller, where the vibration indicates not only the distance but also the direction of the sound.

NV: Furthermore, the recorder gave us another challenge. Anyone who has practiced field recording knows how much the sonic perspective changes when listening to the sound of your microphone through headphones. Suddenly, your hearing is completely different; it’s much more precise and “surgical.”

To recreate this shift in perception, the whole soundscape has three different states:

• Normal
• When you have the recorder in hand
• When you are recording

Each of those states changes how the sound feels. With the recorder in hand, the music and the 2D part of the ambience fade out, leaving more space for the 3D elements. Sound sources to the sides and rear are muffled, as in typical cardioid microphone fashion. We also add a touch of compression, EQ, and distortion to recreate the feeling of a vintage tape recorder. When recording, the mix is even more focused on the main source, in order to obtain the cleanest possible audio log.

 

SEASON_game-sound-11

Spencer Doran’s recording trip to Soapstone

Did you go on any field recording trips for the game? Or capture any bespoke sounds? Where did you go? What did you record? How did you record it?

SD: As far as locational recordings went, my pre-production period for the game was during the early days of COVID lockdown/isolation. I came onto the project in May of 2020 so there wasn’t quite as much of that as I would have liked, but I was able to do a few outdoor sessions here in the Pacific Northwest throughout the course of the project. A number of the ambisonic water recordings (that we re-worked for stereo placement in the forest river systems) and forest ambience, I captured in Western Oregon while staying in the Soapstone residence (an amazing structure designed by Portland architect Willard Martin based on the Fibonacci sequence build aside a woodland creek).

SEASON_game-sound-12

I also did some ultrasonic insect recordings in Sea Ranch, California, which are actually the first things you hear on the PS5 profile page for the game.

SEASON_game-sound-13

I used Dodotronic’s Ultramic 384K BLE mic setup, which is optimized for wildlife recordings far outside of the human hearing range. I used the same mic setup for a bunch of general sound design experimentation, as you can do extreme pitch reduction without losing fidelity when you record all the way up to 384kHz.

But overall, we had a typical hybrid approach, collaging bespoke recordings, libraries, and stuff made with synthesis. The Ultramic was also used to make one master bank of bell sounds from one single, aged brass bell that I have in my collection of instruments. Recording in 384K allowed me to pitch it into any tonal range without losing quality, so I was able to use one session to make a whole pentatonic family of bells that are heard on the different cows in the cow field (pitched to match the game’s tonal system), as well as the giant prayer bell that you can ring near the graveyard.

 

SEASON_game-sound-14

Can you talk about the sound of Estelle’s bicycle? What went into these sounds? And did you create a system to handle the bicycle sounds?

DE: The audio assets are a mix of recorded sounds (we kept several bikes in Vibe Avenue’s basement for a long time…) and sound libraries. But it’s the interactive systems that bring the experience to life.

The most interesting aspect of the bike ride audio experience is probably how it interacts with the wind.

The most interesting aspect of the bike ride audio experience is probably how it interacts with the wind. The speed of the bike influences its volume, pitch, and other parameters. This heightens the sense of speed and highlights the wind without the need to hear it constantly.

We have paid particular attention to the different surfaces. There is a specific sound triggered by the actual surface change: think of the feeling when you go from pavement to grass or vice versa. Here again, haptic feedback enhances the experience, especially on PS5. The first pedal strokes are felt intensely via the controller and, once cruising speed is reached, the vibration is all the stronger as the surface is rough.
 

SEASON_game-sound-15

What were your biggest technical challenges in terms of sound on SEASON? What were your solutions to handling them?

NV: The recorder was probably the biggest challenge. It’s a very uncommon feature. We had to write custom code in collaboration with the programming team at Scavengers Studios to develop the tech needed to make it work. What you playback is truly the exact sound you recorded in-game. It is not fake! The mere presence of this mechanic has dictated how many of the game’s sound systems were approached.

What you playback is truly the exact sound you recorded in-game. It is not fake!

DE: The feeling of the recorder was tricky to get right — from the tape effect when Estelle is wearing her headphones to the clean sound you get while actually recording to the spread of what the microphone is actually picking up (focus and aim system). The point is to mostly hear what is in front of you and ignore the rest. If you get the chance to test the game in 5.1 or in PS5 Spatial audio, you’ll get the effect in its purest form.

 

SEASON_game-sound-16

SEASON was created using Unreal Engine. Was this a good fit for the sound team? Why or why not?

NV: Unreal is overall a very solid game engine. We did use Audiokinetic Wwise as an audio middleware, I don’t think we would have had the same results without it, as the whole aiming system or the recorder relies heavily on some of Wwise’s built-in tools.

DE: Unreal is the ecosystem I’m the most comfortable with. It gives a lot of freedom and leeway to sound designers. We took advantage of its ability to place sound sources very precisely in the maps, which allowed us to realize our creative vision of sound environments.

 

SEASON_game-sound-19

What were your biggest creative challenges for this game? Were there locations or specific sounds that required many different iterations? Can you talk about your process of discovery (of getting to the sound that worked best)?

NV: When we started on the project, Spencer had already made a first pass on a lot of features so we already had a framework. That said, some aspects of the soundscape went through a lot of iteration and experimentation. The music system, for example, took many forms over time, ranging from 3D spheres placed directly in Unreal to a complex set of layers controlled by state changes. Ultimately, we didn’t find a perfect solution for the whole game, and the system had to be tailored to the specific needs of each individual location.

DE: I’d say Caro village again, as this was our proof of concept for the recorder. We worked on the collectibles a lot there. All the main features of the soundscape were developed and experimented on in this area.

The second one would be Tieng Valley for its sheer size and the need to be cohesive while still giving each specific subzone a distinct audio personality. Since the level design is more open and less linear, it needed a different kind of attention.
 

SEASON_game-sound-17

How did SEASON help you to grow at your craft? Or, what did you learn while working on this game that’s made you think about new ways of using sound in games?

DE: The aiming system (focus) of the recorder opened my ears to this aspect of the sound. It’s a feature that I now take greater care to set up in my other projects since I spent so much time working on it in SEASON.

MS: Limitations and attenuations. It sounds obvious, but you cannot understate the importance of those aspects in such a game. We also needed to be very careful about phasing or artifacts. We were not trying to have the loudest and most intense mix; it was all about subtlety.

We were not trying to have the loudest and most intense mix; it was all about subtlety.

SD: Though I had a bunch of extremely relevant experience in other tangential fields, SEASON was actually my first time audio-directing a game. My perspective was very much of an outsider from the industry, which was a big part of why I was first brought onto the project. So the entire thing was a really fascinating experience for me, which I think allowed me to apply some outlooks and approaches that are perhaps unique to the field (or at least articulated in a very different way).

NV: From my side, the ideas and the passion for these ideas that Spencer demonstrated in relation to the music system were refreshing and helped me grow as a music designer. When you’ve been using Wwise for many years in many different setups, you get a sense of how the music should be implemented and what kind of systems work. Spencer, for his part, knew exactly what he wanted and the challenge was to find ways to execute his vision within the constraints of the middleware, which I think turned out great in the end.

 

A big thanks to Spencer Doran, Dylan Escalona, Nikola Viel, and Manuel Silva for giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the sound of SEASON: a letter to the future and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!

 

Please share this:


 



 
 
THE WORLD’S EASIEST WAY TO GET INDEPENDENT SOUND EFFECTS:
 
A Sound Effect gives you easy access to an absolutely huge sound effects catalog from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement - a few highlights:

  • Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects SpellBound Play Track 969 sounds included, 122 mins total $90

    SpellBound is premium sound effects library exploring the intersecting spaces of modern magic and science fiction energy. The result is a polished, designed, and inspiring set of cinematic magic sounds ready to bring new life to your film, game, and media projects. Brian Johnson, the creator of SpellBound and Slipstream is an award winning sound designer who after working in film, and television, has found his home designing sound for the biggest video game franchises in the world.

    SpellBound has 969 total sound effects
    Spells, explos, tails, whooshes, beds, impacts, drones, and more.

    Designed section – 202 designed multi-event show stopping full frequency sound effects.
    Elements section – 767 designed construction kit, layers, sweeteners, and single event effects.

    SpellBound can compliment your fx arsenal with traditional fantasy, modern magic, cinematic impacts, and even as an explosion sweetener. It can take over a fantasy trailer or a compliment a hybrid space magic video game.

    Thank you for licensing SpellBound. I hope it inspires you to create something exciting and magical.

    SpellBound Flyer

    28 %
    OFF
  • Kawaii UI Bundle is the ultimate bundle for cute user interface sounds.
    In this Bundle you get both volumes of our Kawaii UI libraries.
    Kawaii UI + Kawaii UI 2

    These libraries provide an adorable blend of cute, satisfying interface sounds, crafted to enhance user experience and feedback.
    Bring your games and apps to life with the Kawaii UI Bundle.

    It’s ideal for creating joyful menus, delightful HUDs, playful navigation and notifications, engaging pop-ups, and expressive text.

    Kawaii UI Trailer
    Kawaii UI 2 Trailer

    The source recordings inside are a treasure trove of physical button presses, clicks, pops, taps, mouth sounds, toks, shakers, general synthesised UI sounds, FM bells and telemetry style sounds.. Kawaii UI Bundle provides you with the essential building blocks to craft your own distinctive designs.  Combining these elements gives sound designers a robust sonic palette to create new UI sounds.

    13 %
    OFF
  • Environments & Ambiences Suburban Russia Play Track 56 sounds included, 173 mins total $19

    What could be better than summertime in the country?

    Of course summertime in Russian village!

    Those sweet sounds of hammers, lawnmowers, dogs, neighbors activity, forests, fields, rain and, of course, lots of cicadas!

    This library contains authentic atmospheres of villages and small towns of suburban Moscow, as well as sounds of nature, roomtones and doors of the old Dacha from Soviet era.

    KEY POINTS:

    • Authentic atmospheres of dacha, forests, fields, streams, rains, streets of small towns, night and day suburban activity and roomtones!

    • An excellent addition to your library for film, TV and multimedia – Suburban Russia during summer and autumn time

    • Recorded with Mid-Side Sennheiser MKH8040/MKH30 combo

    • Sorted by location-type categories

    • All files have metadata included

Explore the full, unique collection here

Latest sound effects libraries:
 
  • Metal Sound Effects Military Truck Percussion Play Track 321 sounds included, 14 mins total $10

    A US Military Truck is transformed into a percussive instrument and hit with drum sticks and a variety of mallets ( gong, xylophone and timpani ) and sampled using contact microphones and geophones.

    A unique collection of 321 metallic percussive hits perfect for metal impact sound design and transient shaping.

    Type : Source Files / WAV Mono

    Normalised : -6 dbFS

    Grouped Files for Easy Reference Included

    Recorder : Sound Devices Mix Pre 10II

    Microphones : Stille & Klang Spot, LOM Geofon

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O805cKU_XrE

    33 %
    OFF
  • All files are recorded 32bit, 192 kHz, with RØDE NTG1, Line Audio Omni1 and FEL Clippy XLR EM272 microphones, Sound Devices MixPre-6 II recorder. Library contains wav files of driving, interior and exterior foley, mechanical and electrical sounds. It is only available in UCS.

  • Effective Trailer Booms Vol. 2 delivers the next level in cinematic low-end, featuring 232 brand-new one-shot sounds meticulously designed for cutting-edge trailers.

    Building on the original Vol. 1, this new collection is designed for cutting-edge trailers. It moves beyond simple impacts to focus on the deep sub-bass, tonal rumbles, and resonant elements that build anticipation. It’s the perfect tool for setting a dark, mysterious tone at the beginning of a trailer or providing that final, deep punctuation at the end.

    A boom isn’t just a hit, it’s the sound of intrigue. Effective Trailer Booms Vol. 2 delivers the next level in cinematic low-end, featuring 232 brand-new one-shot sounds meticulously designed for cutting-edge trailers.

    Building on the original Vol. 1, this new collection is designed for cutting-edge trailers. It moves beyond simple impacts to focus on the deep sub-bass, tonal rumbles, and resonant elements that build anticipation. It’s the perfect tool for setting a dark, mysterious tone at the beginning of a trailer or providing that final, deep punctuation at the end.

    Inside, you’ll find a massive library of deep tonal rumbles, powerful sub-bass swells, bone-chilling textures, dark resonant drones, and powerful cinematic punctuation, all designed to pull the audience in.

    40 %
    OFF
  • Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects SpellBound Play Track 969 sounds included, 122 mins total $90

    SpellBound is premium sound effects library exploring the intersecting spaces of modern magic and science fiction energy. The result is a polished, designed, and inspiring set of cinematic magic sounds ready to bring new life to your film, game, and media projects. Brian Johnson, the creator of SpellBound and Slipstream is an award winning sound designer who after working in film, and television, has found his home designing sound for the biggest video game franchises in the world.

    SpellBound has 969 total sound effects
    Spells, explos, tails, whooshes, beds, impacts, drones, and more.

    Designed section – 202 designed multi-event show stopping full frequency sound effects.
    Elements section – 767 designed construction kit, layers, sweeteners, and single event effects.

    SpellBound can compliment your fx arsenal with traditional fantasy, modern magic, cinematic impacts, and even as an explosion sweetener. It can take over a fantasy trailer or a compliment a hybrid space magic video game.

    Thank you for licensing SpellBound. I hope it inspires you to create something exciting and magical.

    SpellBound Flyer

    28 %
    OFF
  • Kawaii UI Bundle is the ultimate bundle for cute user interface sounds.
    In this Bundle you get both volumes of our Kawaii UI libraries.
    Kawaii UI + Kawaii UI 2

    These libraries provide an adorable blend of cute, satisfying interface sounds, crafted to enhance user experience and feedback.
    Bring your games and apps to life with the Kawaii UI Bundle.

    It’s ideal for creating joyful menus, delightful HUDs, playful navigation and notifications, engaging pop-ups, and expressive text.

    Kawaii UI Trailer
    Kawaii UI 2 Trailer

    The source recordings inside are a treasure trove of physical button presses, clicks, pops, taps, mouth sounds, toks, shakers, general synthesised UI sounds, FM bells and telemetry style sounds.. Kawaii UI Bundle provides you with the essential building blocks to craft your own distinctive designs.  Combining these elements gives sound designers a robust sonic palette to create new UI sounds.

    13 %
    OFF

   

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags are not allowed.