Underground Blossom Devlog 2 - Sound and Music
[h3]Underground Blossom Devlog 2 - Sound and Music[/h3]
Hi everyone! 👋
We are back with a new devlog! Since the music and sound devlog we wrote for The Past Within was one of our most popular devlog to date, we are very excited to share more about this interesting process for Underground Blossom as well. From the start, we knew that Underground Blossom’s gameplay experience would depend heavily on its soundtrack and that we needed something beautiful (and different) to accompany you through Laura Vanderboom’s journey. Luckily we have a great team around us that was (and is) ready to help elevate the audio of our upcoming project to new heights.
Music
It was back in May this year (2023) when Victor Butzelaar invited us to a studio session at one of Amsterdam's most iconic music places (Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ). After composing the main theme song on the piano a few months before, Victor was now eager to record the complete soundtrack for Underground Blossom in an official studio - a first in the Rusty Lake series. He was accompanied by Sebastiaan van Halsema, a very experienced cello player, and Arjan van Asselt, who helped record all the input in the best quality possible. It was a magnificent experience for us to hear the piano and cello working together. It felt like we were attending our own Rusty Lake concert!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
That day Victor and his team recorded dozens of tracks for Underground Blossom and we couldn't wait to try them in-game. As expected, the recorded music fit the atmosphere of the game perfectly, so much so that almost all tracks ended up in the actual game. The combination of the piano and cello worked so well to enhance the (emotional) journey of Laura. Each station has its own vibe and feeling, all thanks to the diverse tracks created by Victor.
Fun note: the way the in-game music works is a bit different than our previous games (except for The Past Within), here some music is only triggered in the case of a (special) event. Only then a piano/cello theme will start to play.
Sound
After our first successful sound design collaboration for The Past Within, we couldn’t wait to work again with our amazing sound designers Jorick and Giliam from Driftwood Audio. The sound effects in our first co-op game truly elevated the experience and for Underground Blossom, we wanted to reach at least the same level of quality. This mixed in with the right (background) sound effects would be necessary to achieve the right atmosphere for a game that takes place mostly on metro station platforms. After months of hard work, we are happy to share that they delivered once again, and how! The game is filled with more than 240 unique sound effects and we are sure you will have fun with quite a few of them.
Voiceover and extra effects
There are many characters to meet in Underground Blossom, some familiar faces, but also quite a few new ones. Bob Rafferty, our favourite man of many voices, is back! He even whispers this time. Iris Muller, whom you might remember from The White Door, is returning to voice Laura again. Andreea Bosgan, our very own community manager, takes the role of Young Laura to profess her need for candy. And we have some special guests like Hugo Bonaparte and Mike Wijdenbosch for some new characters. Next to all these voices, we have Remco Mikkers who adds his trumpet solos to the choir - yet another amazing addition to the overall sounds of Underground Blossom.
At the moment of writing this we are still fine-tuning the audio of the game: adding/adjusting some final sound effects and voiceovers. It is always the final steps that make the game feel and sound perfect. We hope you enjoyed getting some insights on the music, sound and voiceovers that you can expect to experience very soon in the game. The release date is very close now.. we have to go… we hear a metro arriving...
Ps. Don’t forget to share your questions below for next week's Q&A session!
Hi everyone! 👋
We are back with a new devlog! Since the music and sound devlog we wrote for The Past Within was one of our most popular devlog to date, we are very excited to share more about this interesting process for Underground Blossom as well. From the start, we knew that Underground Blossom’s gameplay experience would depend heavily on its soundtrack and that we needed something beautiful (and different) to accompany you through Laura Vanderboom’s journey. Luckily we have a great team around us that was (and is) ready to help elevate the audio of our upcoming project to new heights.
Music
It was back in May this year (2023) when Victor Butzelaar invited us to a studio session at one of Amsterdam's most iconic music places (Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ). After composing the main theme song on the piano a few months before, Victor was now eager to record the complete soundtrack for Underground Blossom in an official studio - a first in the Rusty Lake series. He was accompanied by Sebastiaan van Halsema, a very experienced cello player, and Arjan van Asselt, who helped record all the input in the best quality possible. It was a magnificent experience for us to hear the piano and cello working together. It felt like we were attending our own Rusty Lake concert!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
That day Victor and his team recorded dozens of tracks for Underground Blossom and we couldn't wait to try them in-game. As expected, the recorded music fit the atmosphere of the game perfectly, so much so that almost all tracks ended up in the actual game. The combination of the piano and cello worked so well to enhance the (emotional) journey of Laura. Each station has its own vibe and feeling, all thanks to the diverse tracks created by Victor.
Fun note: the way the in-game music works is a bit different than our previous games (except for The Past Within), here some music is only triggered in the case of a (special) event. Only then a piano/cello theme will start to play.
Sound
After our first successful sound design collaboration for The Past Within, we couldn’t wait to work again with our amazing sound designers Jorick and Giliam from Driftwood Audio. The sound effects in our first co-op game truly elevated the experience and for Underground Blossom, we wanted to reach at least the same level of quality. This mixed in with the right (background) sound effects would be necessary to achieve the right atmosphere for a game that takes place mostly on metro station platforms. After months of hard work, we are happy to share that they delivered once again, and how! The game is filled with more than 240 unique sound effects and we are sure you will have fun with quite a few of them.
Voiceover and extra effectsThere are many characters to meet in Underground Blossom, some familiar faces, but also quite a few new ones. Bob Rafferty, our favourite man of many voices, is back! He even whispers this time. Iris Muller, whom you might remember from The White Door, is returning to voice Laura again. Andreea Bosgan, our very own community manager, takes the role of Young Laura to profess her need for candy. And we have some special guests like Hugo Bonaparte and Mike Wijdenbosch for some new characters. Next to all these voices, we have Remco Mikkers who adds his trumpet solos to the choir - yet another amazing addition to the overall sounds of Underground Blossom.
At the moment of writing this we are still fine-tuning the audio of the game: adding/adjusting some final sound effects and voiceovers. It is always the final steps that make the game feel and sound perfect. We hope you enjoyed getting some insights on the music, sound and voiceovers that you can expect to experience very soon in the game. The release date is very close now.. we have to go… we hear a metro arriving...
Ps. Don’t forget to share your questions below for next week's Q&A session!