Planet of Lana News

Hello there,

Francesco here, sound designer and noise maker for Planet of Lana. I’m thrilled to dive into the sound of this beautiful journey and share a bit of the behind the scenes.

Where should I start? I was so lucky to jump on the project at the very early stage of production (that’s almost 4 years ago!), this is something that doesn’t happen very often in the game industry but the core team had a clear vision of the game and we found each other on the same page from day one.

Since I’ve joined the team during pre-production there was a lot of concepting going on while the gameplay was still very rough, but as soon as I saw the first arts of the game I was so inspired that I’ve started throwing ideas, sketching and recording sounds and planning possible interactive systems that might have come useful later in the production.

Me and Klas, the co-director and writer, had a lot of inspiring chats. Our main goal back then was to figure out what the planet of Novo would sound like. A few keywords were coming back very often such as Contrast, Alive, Breathing, all useful ingredients when sketching the ambience and setting up the general mood of the experience.

From day one it was clear that we would have had different biomes, each one with its own characteristics, both visually and sonically. Ambiences came to be one of the main pillar of the soundscape in Planet of Lana. Not only do they increase the immersion and enhance player experience, but they can also be used as powerful tools to tell a story. Sounds can go beyond the screen, they can tell what our eyes can’t see and that was crucial while building the soundscape of the game.

I was keep asking myself: “What would Lana hear if she stopped here, sat down on that rock, closed her eyes and just listened?”. I’ve tried to identify myself with Lana as much as possible, especially on her sonic experience in that place and in that specific moment within the story. This also led to the design of one of the interactive audio systems of the game: the Listening to the World system. We wanted to make the environment feel alive but also dynamic, constantly changing but without being intrusive.

[previewyoutube][Youtube embed: https://youtu.be/HsJz6tnfVHs ][/previewyoutube]
In real life, when we stop for a while and we just listen carefully we start hearing more details but also things that are very far away from us. So what happens if the player decides to stop for a moment, maybe to focus on solving a puzzle, or just to admire the surroundings? We have come up with this idea that if the player stops walking for more than a certain amount of time the ambience will slowly become richer, new layers will be added, particular sounds will get to the foreground, like a mosquito buzzing around or very distant explosions. Each biome has its own additive layers and the player can enjoy them by just stopping and closing the eyes. These are the little things hidden in the game that makes this experience so unique.

Something we also spent a lot of time on during the early phase of production was giving a specific and original sonic identity to the robots. They were inspired by insects but they also have a robotic side. It’s like having a mechanical structure containing an organic soul at the same time. How did we turn this into sound? We’ve recorded a lot of machines, press, tools, nails smashed on metal plates, scraping boxes on concrete, old cameras, broken gizmos and a long session with a double bass player making the weirdest sounds out of his instrument and of course insects such as flies, wasps, cicadas. All this material was then sent to a digital instrument that is able to morph sounds and gives a very expressive outcome.

[previewyoutube][Youtube][/previewyoutube]

None of this would have been possible without the help of my fantastic colleagues at Settete, Marco Furlanetto and Andrea Bo who joined the project in 2022 and crafted some of the most beautiful sounds of the game.

There are millions of other things I would love to tell you about the sound of Planet of Lana and all the small details behind it, but I don’t want to spoil the experience and I hope you will enjoy it as much as we do. Don’t forget to close your eyes sometimes and just listen to the story unfolding.

Ciao!
Francesco
settete.com


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1608230/Planet_of_Lana/

May marks the beginning of summer, the end of spring, and National Paper Airplane Day. Oh, and another fresh batch of Game Pass comings and goings. The rest of this month welcomes a few gems (Chicory: A Colorful Tale and FIFA), and bids farewell to others (Europa Universalis and FIFA).

Read more

Heya friends of Lana and Mui,

Right in time for the release in the coming week, Planet of Lana was reviewed and got verified for the Steam Deck. This is one of the big goals that we really wanted to achieve. ːsteamhappyː

And we did! ✅ This guarantees that you can accompany Lana and Mui on their adventure on the Steam Deck wherever you want: while relaxing at home on the couch, during you lunch break at work or whilst traveling - just about anywhere!

I don't know about you, but we are counting the days! In exactly one week Planet of Lana will be available. Ha ha, that's damn exciting, and scary at the same time.

You will hear from us real soon again! In the final issue of the "Novo News" this Thursday, our sound designer Francesco Ameglio will share some insights on designing the soundscapes of Novo.

Talk to you real soon, friends!
Adam & the Planet of Lana Team


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1608230/Planet_of_Lana/

Ein Planet, der einst ein Ort des ungestörten Gleichgewichts zwischen Mensch, Natur und Tier war und inzwischen eine ganz andere Gestalt angenommen hat.

» Komplette News auf pressakey.com lesen» Planet of Lana auf pressakey.com

Hi everyone!

Takeshi Furukawa here, proud composer of the original soundtrack to Planet of Lana. I’m very excited to share a little bit about the writing process with you today!

Someone recently asked how I came to work on this stunning little indie opus. It all started with me aimlessly scrolling through my twitter feed one night (as one does) and stumbling across this image that immediately caught my attention;



Rather than the so often missed mark of something approximating photorealism, the artist seemed to have gone for a more unique, hand-painted look that really stood out to me. Of course it reminded me of a classic Studio Ghibli film, but there was also this sprinkle of sci-fi mystery that really intrigued me.

So for the first time in my career I decided to reach out to a potential client and see if a composer had been assigned to this mysterious project yet. Adam Stjärnljus, our creative director and lead game designer, gladly informed me they had not. So fast forward past some boring formalities and we started the journey of bringing musical life to Lana’s home world of Novo.

From the onset, our directors Adam and Klas had a fairly minimalist vision for the game, which they initially felt should include the music as well. But after a period of exploration, and some gentle nudging on my part, we all agreed that the scale of the story and the world really called for a big cinematic orchestral score and that this in turn would serve to reinforce, rather than impede the more minimalist aspects of the game.

Having grown up in the nineties with Hollywood adventures like Jurassic Park, I’m a real sucker for big John Williams-like scores, so this was (pardon the pun) music to my ears. What resulted is an organic, almost completely orchestra- and piano-driven soundtrack full of carefully curated set pieces designed to complement the natural sounds of this colorful world. Because of the sci-fi nature of the story some synth elements are present, which was an exciting challenge to me, but mostly we inhabit the world of the classic hollywood scores of the nineties which i grew up with and love.

[previewyoutube][TGA trailer] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEDn_dRFYQU[/previewyoutube]
The biggest challenge in finding the sound of a game is the thematic content. That’s always where the journey starts. Once you find that theme or motif, you’ve kind of written 80% of the score because the rest is just extrapolations thereof.

Now, I’m treading lightly here in order not to spoil too much, but in the case of Planet of Lana we knew that there was a strong musical element in both story, lore and gameplay and it was always the plan to return to this particular theme both non-diegetically in the score, and diegetically in the hidden corners of Novo. This is the opening piano and acapella motif (dubbed the ‘Progeny Theme’) that you are probably familiar with if you have seen some our trailers.



Finally, in May 2022 me and my long time collaborator Siobhan Wilson (who’s excellent vocals feature on several tracks in the score) met up in Budapest to record the final results. Recording orchestral scores with a live orchestra is something that I am extremely passionate about; The music is the soul of the game. It’s the emotion of the game. And you can’t create that with the computer, you need humans. And in our case about 90 incredible musicians brought the music of Planet of Lana to life by pouring their hearts out.





As parting words I would just like to say I really hope you enjoy Planet of Lana and its soundtrack as much as I enjoyed writing the music for it. It was nothing short of pure joy creating this game with the team at Wishfully.

For the next Novo News segment, I’m told our talented sound designer Francesco Ameglio will share some of his insights on designing the soundscapes of Novo.

Until then,
Takeshi


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1608230/Planet_of_Lana/