Hey, Super Animals! As promised, we’re back with another monthly Mooseletter to share development updates with you directly. While we’re hard at work on Super Animal World, we want to share highlights and insights into different areas of the expansion’s development.
But first, let’s address the most asked question (or the moose in the room, one might say):
When?We know “when it’s ready” isn’t the most satisfying answer, but the scope of this expansion is huge, and we want it to be at its very best when it launches. It’ll lay a strong foundation for future content and welcome many new players to the game, so it's essential we get it right. Our goal is that the next timeline we announce will be final and won’t change. We deeply appreciate your patience and promise it'll be worth the wait. We hope you’ll enjoy the
triple-holiday Respawning Day event we built for you in the meantime, which begins this coming Tuesday, April 1st. Now, let’s dive into this month's devblog!
In our last
Mooseletter we mentioned that our Vertical Slice was successful and we've since significantly expanded the content for Super Animal World. We’ve added more questlines, characters, animations, UI, and more. One area we’ve made significant progress in is sound and music, so for this Mooseletter we’re featuring an interview with the person behind it all: our very own Catbaux. Let us know what you think!
Interview with Catbaux
In this interview, Pixile Community Director Logan sits down with sound designer and composer Catbaux to discuss the creative process behind the music and audio design for Super Animal World. The conversation has been transcribed from audio for readability and accessibility, particularly for our non-English speaking audience.
L: Hey, Charlie, thanks for chatting! For those who don't know, what do you do at Pixile and how long have you been doing it?
C: Yeah, I wear a lot of hats, but broadly, I'm the audio gal at Pixile. I've been doing the music and sound design since our alpha in 2018, and I also do voice work for in-game animal sounds, chatting, pings and emotes. A lot of that's me. More recently, I also co-host our live streams on YouTube and Twitch, and I help with Unity audio integration and some backend coding tasks alongside Clogg.
L: Your music is a big part of the game, especially the animal sounds and wabadas. Do you have a favorite track?
C: So my go to answer for this is usually the Rebel March from Super Animal Royale Tonight. Early on, we needed a Rebel theme, and after a lot of ideation we settled on this sort of worker-folksy song. We had over 20 community members record vocals, and then I got to mix them all together, which was very, very, very fun. Now we have this rebel instrumentation and musical material that we can use across the game, like in S.A.W. vs. Rebellion, Super Animal Royale Tonight, and some of the new biome background tracks for Super Animal World.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
L: Ooh, nice segue into sounds. There’s this big thing coming out called Super Animal World.
C: I've heard, wow.
L: Yeah, I'm glad. That means I’m doing my job. But now back to your job. What kind of new sounds can we look forward to in Super Animal World?
C: Obviously, the big new audio project is background music for Super Animal World. On the sound-effects side, I've been working with our new sound designer, Nathan Corr, creating a whole new collection of sounds for mechanics like fishing, bug-catching, and hamster ball racing. We care a lot about the game's sounds having polish and unique identities. We want each new mechanic to feel just as fleshed-out audio-wise as our combat modes, giving everything its own character. We've also got a lot of new NPC dialogue, which I've been very excited about ever since we introduced NPCs like Dogna and the First Skullcat back in 2019. Plus, there are many little UI sounds for all the new systems. These subtle elements aren't always consciously noticed but are super important for the game to feel polished and satisfying. It's a long, long detailed list of little audio touches going into the expansion.
L: You mentioned the new ambience tracks, which are a huge addition since we don't currently have biome-specific music in the game. Do you have a favorite track you can share?
C: Probably the quintessential one is the forest track. It feels like the Super Animal Royale theme, but in a completely new, violence-free way. It’s just this relaxed, chill, and fun version that still echoes the original sound profile. But I'm also really happy with how the swamp track came out. I have a soft spot for Pete’s Song, and the swamp ambience is completely inspired by it. It's very cozy, so you'll probably find me hanging around in the swamp a lot once Super Animal World is out.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
L: Were there any challenges when designing these ambient tracks?
C: Yeah, the biggest challenge was finding the balance. Looping background music needs to be engaging and fun to listen to, but not so prominent that it distracts from moment-to-moment gameplay. Ongoing loops can kill the vibe if they become too distracting, so striking that balance was really tough. Another challenge was ensuring cohesion between biome tracks, so as players walk from biome to biome, transitions feel natural yet distinctive. I tried to address this as much as possible during the composition process with instrumentation and musical material, but I ended up also having to design and code a system that smoothly transitions tracks synced to the beat as you move from biome to biome. We care a lot about it feeling smooth and seamless.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
L: Was there an instrument you had to revisit or even learn to create these new ambience sounds?
C: Yeah, from the very beginning of Super Animal Royale, I've really enjoyed writing bass lines—I've gone hard on the bass lines. Initially, it was all digital since in 2018 I didn't know how to play bass. Finger or pick-style bass was easy enough to simulate digitally, but slap bass was incredibly difficult. You can hear my earlier attempts at digital slap bass in
Crustacean Oscillation, but it just didn't quite hit right for me. Slap bass has all these little percussive noises that just happen as a result of playing that are super tough to write in a digital way. So I've spent the past few years learning bass, and recently I've focused specifically on slap bass because I really wanted to use it. So I just hunkered down and learned it. I'm still very amateur at it, because it's incredibly difficult, but I finally got comfortable enough to record and edit slap bass for a track in Super Animal World that I'm really excited about.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
L: You mentioned NPC voices earlier. Do you have a favorite new voice from the characters we've revealed?
C: I really love Captain Sea Dog, who greets you right off the ferry. It's such a great example of how different an individual Super Animal’s voice can be while still sounding like a Super Animal. It blows my mind that Ruben is able to do that with his vocal performance, and then the processing and editing we do to the characters just still feels Super Animal-y, which is so cool. There’s a lot of characters I'm really looking forward to in Super Animal World. We've had so many distinct voices in Super Animal Royale Tonight over the years, so it's great to finally feature a wider range of character voices prominently in-game too.
L: Nice! Yeah, I'm very much looking forward to all the little voices that you and Ruben and our other amazing voice actors have created. To close things out with a fun question for anyone wanting to know you better, what's your favorite video game soundtrack?
C: God, this is always a really hard question.
L: I know, that's why I asked.
C: Oh, it's fun for you.
L: I enjoy watching your agony. :)
C: Well, I won't name an absolute favorite, but I'll highlight one of them. It's kind of a niche pick: the soundtrack for
Furi from 2016. It introduced me to amazing artists that I still listen to like Danger, Toxic Avenger, and Lorn. It also has Carpenter Brut, who I'd already loved since Hotline Miami 2 and who has been a huge influence on my music. But it also just fits the game incredibly well, even with such a huge range of artists involved, because the tracks are composed so well to be adaptive and dynamic for the different stages of stage-based boss fights. It feels so smooth in game, and it fits the vibe so well. And then when you listen to the soundtrack on its own, it's still this incredibly powerful collection of electronic music that's just really, really good. I highly recommend everyone give it a shot.
L: Nice. That's all my questions for now. Thank you again for your time and have fun making more tracks and doing things we can't announce quite yet!
[h2]Ask us (almost) Anything![/h2]
Every month, we put out a call for questions on Pixile’s
Twitter and
Bluesky and answer them right here in the Mooseletter!
Make sure to follow us so you don’t miss the call next month, and as always, feel free to also share your feedback in the
SAR Discord or start a discussion right here on Steam. :)
[h3]Question: Character Themes[/h3]
From: Unlucky GatoI love pete's song and the idea of giving characters a special feeling with music, Can we expect more animals to get their own theme songs?Answer: We’d love to if we have the time and there’s a strong story motivation for it! Which characters would you like to hear themes for?
[h3]Question: Map Updates[/h3]
From: AngelaWill there be relevant updates to the map design after the release of the DLC?Answer: Yes! Super Animal World will launch with some pretty cool new locations on the island, and we have a roadmap planned for even more in future updates as well.
[h3]Question: Weapon Sound Design[/h3]
From: les7the sound design is my favorite aspect of this game. how do guys decide which melee weapons have unique sounds and which have the generic one?Answer: Honestly, we typically go with what’s the most fun to do and what we have time for. Certain weapons naturally spark creative ideas, and sometimes we add special sounds and effects later when inspiration strikes. We use the same approach for weapon skins and their audio/visual effects too!
[h3]Question: Collaborations[/h3]
From: starboundMercenaryAre y’all interested in doing any other collaborations after the Turnip Boy event? I love seeing indie games get together to do cool stuff, so even as someone with no knowledge of TB that event was such a nice surprise.Answer: Absolutely! We’re particularly excited about teaming up with other indie developers like ourselves, and we definitely have more collaborations planned. We’ve actually been redesigning a few things in Super Animal World that should make our future collabs extra fun. Super glad to hear you enjoyed the Turnip Boy event, we love our friends at Snoozy Kazoo!
[h3]Question: New Super Animal[/h3]
From: Silly GooberDo u plan to release a new animal along side SAW?Answer: Maaaaaybe. ;) There are plenty more Super Animals and breeds we’d love to introduce. After all, what’s Super Animal World without its Super Animals? If there’s one you’d especially love to see, let us know!
Community Roundup
[h2]Super Fanart Showcase[/h2]
Super Animal Royale has an amazing, one-of-a-kind community filled with talented artists, and we love highlighting your creations each month. Here are a few of our recent favorites:
Art by El Otis
Art by leaper (unflappedflea)
Art by Resh1maru
Art by Noko
Art by CraneChaine
Art by Alexys MyersWhen you post your fanart on social media, use the hashtag #superanimalroyale or tag us directly so we can see it! Our
Discord server also has an incredibly active community of artists, as well as channels for you to display your work in. :)
[h2] Respawning Day is almost here![/h2]
Our triple-holiday Respawning Day event kicks off on Tuesday, April 1st! Huge thanks to concept artist Unicorn Dominion (who actually got started by making SAR fan art), for the awesome teaser image!
Each week of the event features a new theme (starting with April Fool’s), plus event cosmetics, challenges, and a new Super Animal breed. More details coming Tuesday—stay tuned!
We hope you enjoyed this devblog. Let us know in the comments what you’d like us to cover in the next edition of the Mooseletter!
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See you on the island, Super Animals!
