Another Dreams update has arrived! If we listen carefully, we can hear the cheers of players all over the world… Oh no, wait. This is game audio playing in our headphones. Makes sense, because this latest Dreams update – V2.42, available to download from today, April 7th – brings a huge collection of created and recorded monster screeches, grunts, grunts and gurgles. by professionals that you can use in your creations.
Captured on PS4 Pro.
“Why monster sound effects?” you might ask. For the release of our latest game, Ancient Dangers: A Bat’s Talewe worked with the talented team at The Monster Factory, who voiced all sorts of creatures, orcs and dragons for the game. We were so pleased with the results that we wanted to make this amazing audio available for the community can use it and remix it into anything they can imagine.
The secrets of sound effects
What makes the hellish howls of our monsters so high quality? Well, first off, a good old fashioned collaboration between the teams at The Monster Factory and Media Molecule.
“To M [Colvin] and Lisa [Devon] had a clear vision of what they wanted for their monsters”, explains Sébastian Croteau, co-founder of The Monster Factory. Croteau listened to their audio references, then started the casting process in Montreal. The team stayed true to the voice direction they were given, but also put their own spin on the monster characters.
“It came naturally,” says Croteau. “We can get a lot from how the monsters look, their body type, and their facial features. Those visual elements really help shape our creative and sound design process.
But there’s something else that gives Croteau’s voice work an edge: his background as the lead singer of a death metal band, Necrotic Mutation.
“Being a throat singer and a metal singer really helps,” Croteau says. “Metal singers have the unique ability to produce otherworldly, distorted yet organic sounds without having to resort to digitally modifying their voice. Additionally, our training allows us to perform these guttural sounds for live sessions. of recording for several hours, without damaging our voices.
Sébastien Croteau from The Monster Factory, as Dragon Guard
“A lot of people would think these types of voices are just screams, but they’re so much more than that,” Croteau continues. “There is a precise technique behind them and believe it or not, the technique used in throat singing is very similar to the technique of metal singing.”
Roxana BL of The Monster Factory, as Hypatia the Dragon
It was a pleasure to work with these talented performers – and the feeling is apparently mutual.
“Working with Tom and Lisa and the rest of the Media Molecule team is something we will remember for a long time,” says Croteau. “We are usually hired to voice nightmarish zombies, demonic creatures, or horrifying monsters. Working on Ancient Dangers: A Bat’s Tale allowed us to voice scary but fun characters, instead of the kind of demon-from-hell sounds that clients usually ask us for.
“We were really happy with the end result, and we all really enjoyed playing the game.”
Aww – thank you, Sebastian!
But wait… There’s more!
This audio update includes some exciting new features for creators looking to optimize audio. Test mode now has an audio analysis feature that lets you check the memory usage and cost of audio clips in a creative.
Captured on PS4 Pro.
We’ve also added a new audio thermometer that measures sound readiness – basically whether the sounds you’ve included in a creation are playing properly, how much memory they’re using, and more. You can find more details about these tools in this release of patch notes on indreams.me.
Captured on PS4 Pro.
Again, all of this audio goodness is available to download now: start Dreams after installing the update, and you can experience the new audio tools in Edit mode – as well as listen to, use and remix the incredible monster performances of The Monster Factory for your own creations. Have fun!
