Hello Travelers,
We are officially on the road to Last Epoch: Convergence, which means it’s time for Pre-Patch Hype Week! In the coming days, we’re going to be covering some of the major updates coming alongside our Multiplayer Beta in Patch 0.9 - Convergence. While the main feature of this patch is, of course, the new Multiplayer environment, we also want to highlight many of the other improvements coming in Convergence.
In today’s blog post, we’re starting off in the world of sound, covering some of the fantastic new SFX and music that the team has been working on. Sound plays a critical role in any game, from Combat Feel to atmosphere; sound design can immerse you in the experience or take you out of it. Of course, our goal is the former, to create sound and music which emphasizes the gameplay. For today’s look at Sound in Patch 0.9, we’ve got some direct insight to share from our team members who breathe life into the audio-world of Eterra.
To really dive into some of the sound reworks, we’ve brought in our sound designer John, to talk about their experience in creating a few of these new sound effects, their ideas behind them, and some details regarding what goes into making a sound effect for an ARPG. Then for Music, we’ve brought in our Music Composer, Erik, who we’ve shared insight from before, to once again share their insight regarding some of the new tracks, which help set the tone and atmosphere in Last Epoch. So without further ado, Let’s let John take it away!
Sound Design
Hi everyone! I’m John, Sound Designer at Eleventh Hour Games. Let’s go over some of the cool sound design projects that I’ve worked on in the lead-up to 0.9 as part of a teamwide effort to improve the feeling of combat in Last Epoch.
Meteor SFX Rework
Meteor is one of those skills that need to feel great and powerful when you use it. Since the original sound effects were made, the visuals for Meteor have been massively upgraded, so I thought it was only appropriate to bring the sound design up to standard!
Ultimately, the intention was to make Meteor sound “big,” “crunchy,” and “powerful.” Initially, I went through a few designs, which went a bit TOO hard on the crunch and power. Considering that this is a skill that can be spammed, should the player decide to craft their build that way, I had to make sure Meteor sounded bigger and better whilst not being too overwhelming in the mix.
For the design, I utilized the sounds of fire, rocks, and jet engines (believe it or not). The final result is a set of sound effects that I feel better represents that the player is literally wrenching a meteor from the sky and slamming it into the ground.
New Bone Golem Vocals
Bone Golem got a total overhaul recently. It looks and moves so much better now, so naturally, the sound design needed an upgrade also, particularly the vocal sound effects.
Before starting the design, I split the visual aesthetics of the Bone Golem into three categories: Monstrous, Necrotic, and Bony. I took those concepts and approached the Bone Golem updated sound design with those in mind.
The monstrous elements were achieved using a lion’s roar and several layers of hog and duck callers being blown into slime and other weird textures. Necrotic characteristics were added to the vocals using human screeching sounds and squeaking friction on glass. And lastly, because the Bone Golem is made of… well, bones… I made sure the vocals “rattled” with pitched-down growls.
Void Knight’s Echo SFX Rework
Not unlike the other examples, Void Knight’s Echo recently got an awesome new visual upgrade. This was an excellent opportunity to get those sounds feeling better. For those who don’t know, an Echo is a passive effect that’s received when selecting the Void Knight mastery in which some of your character’s attacks will be repeated by an “echo” of yourself.
The old sound was very whispery and a little boring when compared to these great new visual effects. I thought it would be fun to have the sound be more reminiscent of a player splitting through the space-time continuum to deal a blow to the enemy and then zipping straight back out. To achieve this, I used synthesized and weird, wobbly layers to match the creepiness of the Void and really sell the idea of time travel.
That’s all of the sound design updates we could squeeze in for this post. It was pretty hard to round it down to just three examples because there have been MANY things updated in the soundscape of Last Epoch over the past year. Some of my other favorites include the new sounds for Snap Freeze, Idol of Ruin, and the new Bull Groles - but maybe we’ll leave that for the next blog post.
New Music
Hi, I’m Erik, the composer for Last Epoch. I’m excited to share some of the music I’ve been writing as an update for the Ruined Era in Patch 0.9.
Ruined Era Music
Most of the other music for the game has a natural, acoustic sound with more traditional instrumentation. This era focuses on synthetic sounds and acoustic instruments that have been warped - almost beyond recognition. Themes that are played at other times in the game come back but are altered in both sound and rhythm.
The Ulatri Cliffs - Ruined Era
This piece starts off with an explosive, destructive sound, similar to the sound of a large stringed instrument breaking. This is the first time in the game that the players travel to the Ruined Era, so this sound sets the tone; we’re far from the more peaceful place where Last Epoch begins and far from it in time!
The high-energy string parts become manipulated and warp and break down over the course of the piece, much like how the world breaks down to bring us the Ruined Era of Last Epoch.
The Council Chambers
This music creates the feeling of being in a large cavern where the council has set up and is trying to hold back the forces from the void. A feeling of anticipation of upcoming battle is overlayed with a feeling of subtle calm. The familiar Last Epoch theme comes back, but it’s played by guitars and in a different rhythmic setting from the other times that you hear it.
The Ritual Site
A gang of cultists have created a resurrected version of one of The Brotherhood, and this music helps create the mood for his insidious plot as you battle. The melody is played using an Ebow on a distorted electric guitar. It uses an electromagnet to vibrate the strings, this helps to give it an unfamiliar, cello-like sound. This is one way that the guitar was warped to sound unconventional.
And that’s all of the featured music examples for the 0.9 patch.
An exciting week ahead!
A big thank you to both John and Erik for taking the time to provide their direct insight! I know I had put them in a hard spot trying to only pick a few of their works for this post, but on March 9th, we’ll see everything they’ve been working on over the last year.
That’s all for today’s look at a few of the new SFX and Music improvements coming to Last Epoch in patch 0.9 - Convergence. As mentioned previously, We have a bunch of these inside looks coming up, so keep an eye on our Discord, Twitter, Forums, and other socials for more inside views on updates and changes coming in our next major patch.
We hope you’re as excited as we are, and we’ll see you all again soon Travelers!
