![]() Music and dialog treatments have gone through several phases as well, with cop dialog being some of most believable you’ll hear in games (as mentioned by other people). focused mixing), while other methods involved a more defined car experience or putting you in the world. Some methods tried to make the experience go towards a movie by focusing on the most predominant sound requirement (i.e. Over the years we’ve changed our ways and style of mixing (using our advanced fully automated mixer), and tried out new techniques of sound reproduction. As much as us developers want to believe they listen to games at higher volumes in 5.1, it simply isn’t the norm. 2nd, the consumer still listens to racing games mostly on TV’s at low volume. First off, the consumer thinks they know what a great race-car sounds like after listening to youtube clips. Through all this we noticed a few interesting points. Everybody is part of the whole team.ĭS: What techniques or methods you use on the game to enhance the player experience and provide realism/emotion with sound?ĬD: Over the years we’ve tried several methods. In other words, there’s no real separation between “sound team” and “dev team”. The audio artists and audio programmers are among the development team, and interact daily with the rest of the team. When this gets released it’ll be another few years hopefully before the competition will catch up.ĭS: How is the relationship of the sound team with the rest of the developers of NFS? How is the importance given to the sound of the games?ĬD: The development team and NFS management realizes that Audio is a critical part of a racing game, and supports it. We’re now working on something that will bring it to another level by making the car come alive, which I’m very exciting about. Air distortion, split engines and environment integration were introduced in 2007. New playback techniques got introduced during 2004 on NFS Underground 2. The new consoles have allowed expansion of the realism of the sound, and provide a more engaging and believable soundscape. The previous games always have sounded great for the platform limits. A lot has changed since then, but the platforms are so different, it’s hard to compare what the main improvements are. Having worked for many years on slower RPG style games, the racing genre changes up the pace nicely by introducing constant action.ĭS: How has the evolution of the franchise been? What are the main improvements on the game since the first version?ĬD: Need for Speed has been around for over 16 years(!!), and the very first version was 1994’s “need for speed” on the 3DO, with audio by Allistair Hirst. This includes the plethora of cars we have to record (and sometimes get to drive :) which is always a really fun but exhausting time during the dev-cycle of a title. The other aspect I enjoy is the constant drive to find new and better ways to give the user a true car racing experience. The execs at EA understand what great audio brings to a title and support the development of it. We’re blessed to have that team in place. Without a team driving each other to excel, you don’t get industry leading results. On the Need for Speed franchise I’ve always enjoyed the people I work with the most. Heck, we were happy enough it made some tolerable sound. Previously I’d worked on some C64 and SNES racing titles, but in those days sound was a low priority in a racing game. But hey, that fear didn’t last long, and I obtained my drivers license quickly and have always driven with a lead-foot.īefore “Need for Speed”, I’d never worked on a “big” racing game. I’d seen one burn down during younger years, and was afraid I’d get burned alive in a crash. Before I started that, I got my speed-kick out of BMX biking, competing and doing jumps too high for my own health (the hole in my tongue is witness of that :) Oddly enough I’d always told my family I wasn’t ever going to drive a car. ![]() ![]() In the netherlands you can’t start your education for a drivers license until you’re 18. Let’s read:ĭesigning Sound: First of all, tell us something about your passion for cars, and what you enjoy most about working on Need For Speed Games?Ĭharles Deenen: As a kid I played a lot with toy cars, build lego race-tracks and liked anything associated with speed. I had a nice talk with him commenting about some aspects of the audio of the award winning franchise. For years, Charles Deenen has been the audio director of the Need for Speed Franchise. ![]()
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