Most video game studios, or at least the larger ones, have experience with foley, a long-standing craft that involves creating cinematic sound effects with everyday objects.
It’s nothing new. Many of War of stars’ Most of the iconic sounds were made with stuff such as television tubes and vacuum cleanersAnd there are tons of excellent features on the web that show how each dating Bungie To cheeky dog have used Foley to bring their own games to life. Self unpackinga cute little pixel game about putting things on shelves, presented 14,000 different sound effects.
Today is God of War Ragnaroks turn, in this excellent Video compiled by Wired, and this is already one of my absolute favorites, mostly because of the sheer volume of effects it shows.
When we meet PlayStation Studios’ Joanna Fang, we see how many of the game’s crunchiest, squistiest sound effects were made. A galloping horse’s hooves are really just a pair of toilet plungers. Kratos smashing in an enemy’s skull is actually Fang crushing a melon with a crowbar. One of the most interesting is that you can get a perfect replica of the snow crunching underfoot by walking on charcoal instead.
I love that the sound of floorboards comes from simply banging on a shipping pallet. Twisting leather sounds like someone strangled
Like I said, nothing particularly new or revealing here, foley is a relatively old craft in modern show business, but this video is a fantastic example of how deep and diverse sounds can be produced in a single space, and the passion a Foley artist for the job can be one of the most important – albeit unsung – parts of our experience with a game.
