October 4, 2006

dSonic Shows Off What It Takes to Sound Like a Winner
 

Mage Knight Creature Audio Showcase

dSonic is excited to showcase why Mage Knight: Apocalypse sounds like a winner with the next installment of creature audio QuickTime installments. dSonic, an audio company for the games industry, whose recent credits include creature sound work on Oblivion IV: Elder Scrolls and ambient soundscapes for Might and Magic: Dark Messiah, were responsible for the entire audio roster of Mage Knight: Apocalypse. Mage Knight: Apocalypse, in stores this week, is an action role-playing game that allows fans to take on the role of one of five characters. The player must band together with other legendary heroes to face The Apocalypse Dragon and defeat the forces of Chaos.

The characters and environments comprise a grand total of over 850 MB of sounds (the most dSonic has ever done for a single title) that were implemented into the game using the latest realtime mixing techniques. The characters and environments come to life with over 40 - 60 unique sounds per creature for the most diverse world possible.

In these two movies, the first features "Khan Bharga." (“01-MageKnight-KhanBharga-dSonic.mov“) dSonic created a set of vocalizations based on the sound of a tiger and walrus.  They then cross pollinated these sounds with some edited human speech to give his voice a gruff, primative quality.  Each animation for Kahn has multiple sounds that are played back in realtime via the audio engine so in the game it sounds like he is talking his own language during combat. Additionally, this movie showcases a ‘rattle’ of his armor as he moves around.  dSonic went to great lengths in Mage Knight to make sure every character has its own set of sounds for running and walking, making them seem more alive with more  ‘weight.’

The second movie is “03-MageKnight-OrcCyclops-dSonic.mov.” In this quicktime featuring the “Orc Cyclops” dSonic had to come up with powerful sounds – the character is huge and angry.  Giant impact sounds were mixed and processed with musical instruments (like a french horn playing mulitple dissonant tones) to create movement sounds that reflect the massive, slow motion feel of this creature.  His attack sounds are powerful, and when he hits the ground fans will hear the ground cracking.  This movie will give you a small taste of what it will be like to encounter him in the game.