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Exclusive Fuel Developer Diary – Part 4
“Even in silence, you can identify multiple layers of sound happening in your environment”
The production and evolution of a video game is a long process, taking years to accomplish, and there are few things more satisfying than seeing this labor of video-game love near its completion. The folks at Firetoad Software are in the home stretch of a racing title called Fuel. Published by Dreamcatcher, Fuel will ship for both the PC and Xbox and may just have the high-speed action gamers are craving.
But Fuel is not your typical turn around the track. Slated to release at the start of May, players will have the opportunity to go off road, use an ATV or personal watercraft and hustle their way to the finish line at top speeds. There are 10 characters to choose from, courses from around the globe and the choice of more than 35 vehicles.
There are no rules in this all out frantic race. This is a no-holds-barred, free-for-all, action-packed game, with one goal - get to the finish line first …and scoring points along the way helps.
So, what does it take to pull together such a varied title? In this exclusive developer diary, we get a look into the making of this title.
(For Part 1 of the diary, please see http://xbox.gamezone.com/news/01_25_06_02_13PM.htm; Part 2 may be found at http://pc.gamezone.com/news/02_08_06_11_02AM.htm) ; Part 3 is located at http://pc.gamezone.com/news/02_22_06_12_03PM.htm.)
Fuel
Developer Diary # 4
By Kelly
Sereda (Sound Editor), Firetoad Software
It is 5:16am. This time has become part of my work day, although not in the same way as many others who are starting their day at this time. I've just added a round of tweaks and changes to the sounds in Fuel. My ears will judge them in the morning before I go to work, and again when I return to make sure that what I've added sits nicely with everything else. It’s easy to fall in love with a piece of sound that you've spent a couple hours on getting just right, but sometimes a particular sound just doesn't mesh with the context of the overall sound picture when rested ears hear it the next day.
The big picture! What started as a blank slate has slowly become a tapestry of audio life. When I was first offered the opportunity to work with Firetoad on Fuel, I not only saw a world, but heard it in my head. It is my goal to present this world in such a way that players won’t specifically notice that a blue jay is calling from a nearby copse of trees, or that a dog is barking from the character’s house, or the sound of a Cessna flying overhead for a peek at the race. If my goal is achieved, there will be enough happening sonically that the player will simply accept this total picture as a temporary, new reality.
Stop and listen. Even in silence, you can identify multiple layers of sound happening in your environment - cars driving outside the window, a furnace kicking in, a computer fan, a fridge. Silence is something that simply doesn't exist unless you lock yourself into a hyperbaric chamber. With the vast and varied environments of Fuel, the ability to travel anywhere within them, and the varied surfaces they yield for the players to trek, we knew that ambience was going to play a huge part in Fuel. While other members of Firetoad were tasked to playtest Fuel to win -challenging the AI and pushing physics to the limits - I puttered around in a sort of scenic country tour, getting to know the little seen background areas of the levels which helped to establish a believable world. As I playtested, I was looking for places that an animal was likely to inhabit, listening to make sure that tires were reacting properly to the plethora of drivable terrains or tuning the sound of someone wrenching some speed out of their ATV. Needless to say, I don't win races when we playtest at our meetings.
For a first-time game sound designer, it has been a challenge and an adventure to work with Fuel’s diversity, and it has allowed me to grow rapidly in learning my craft. As we move toward Fuel’s release and everything, from the many vehicle engines to the little chipmunk in one tree, are adjusted and tweaked into an organized chaos (kudos to Chris, I’m borrowing that saying), I hope that the result of our efforts will resemble what the world provides to our ears each day. Turning on the game will sound just like you would imagine. And then finally, I will get some sleep!
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