63 replies to this topic

[Kyle Polulak]

Darren: Hey everyone, this is Darren, also known as Bombadil from No Guts, No Galaxy, and I'd like to welcome you to the Mechwarrior Online Dev Vlog #8 . This is our chance to get the know the devs and hear directly from them on the past, present, and future of Mechwarrior Online. In this episode we'll meet a sound designer, get a preview of the upcoming Clan collection Wave 2, and get a behind the scenes look of the design of the King Crab assault Battlemech.

Let's jump right in and meet sound designer Sean Colton and learn about the process of creating the sound effects and music for MWO.

Sean: My job as the sound designer for Mechwarrior Online is to basically create all the audio that comes through your speakers. That's from sound effects that you hear, the dialog, and the music that is within the game.

I initially started as strictly in music. I was doing music contract work and I was approached by a few clients to work on sounds. So it became a pretty good combination of doing music and sound. And I love sound, and so it was a natural progression that I've really enjoyed ever since. We have sound design, which includes the weapons, the physics which is impacts and explosions, the mech sounds, the blips and blops you hear in the cockpit. And then you have the dialog, which is Bitching Betty and then the music as well.

A lot of the sounds are created with samples, from sample libraries. There are a lot of great libraries out there that have tons of sounds to choose from. So I'll take those and mix them, layer them, and then some sounds I'll create myself using synthesizers to get specific sounds that I want. You'll hear those in the engine sounds and the weapon sounds, and actualy some of the cockpit sounds, the blips and blops are created straight from synthesizers.

You know, most of the core sound design is done fairly quickly. So I can create the sound generally within a day. But what takes a little bit of time is putting it in F-mod and then mixing it within there, putting it into the game, and making sure that it runs properly with what I'm trying to design for. It can take a few more days after that to finally nail the right sound. Obviously you want as much time as is possible, but if things have to be done at a certain time you get them done at that time.

Q: Any advice for aspiring sound designers?

Sean: Be persistant. I think that is huge. You know, it's a journey to do this, and it's not something that you're going to do overnight. And I think that you need to be persistant in looking for work and being persistant in what you do, because you're going to make a lot of bad sounds. But you need to be persistant to work through that and get through those valleys I guess you could say, because you'll always have those peaks where you'll make great sounds when you work on great games. So persistance, and commitment to your craft. You always need to learn and get better at what you're doing. That's what I think is really important.

Q: What do you enjoy creating most, sound effects or music?

Sean: Oh, that's a tough question! I like.. it's funny because I actually really like both equally. My favorite sounds to create have been the weapon sounds. I've always been a big fan of weapons. So like the ballistics sounds, I love creating the ballistics sounds, laser sounds, because when it comes to energy weapons I find there's a much more creative element to it. And the music... I mean Mechwarrior is a great game to create music to, because you can make big loud music!

Darren: Next we'll take a look at Wave 2 of the Clan collection, which includes the Mist Lynx, or Koshi light Battlemech. The Ice Ferret, or Fenris medium Battlemech. The Hellbringer, or Loki heavy Battlemech. The Gargoyle, or Man O' War assault Battlemech. And the bonus Mad Dog or Vulture heavy Battlemech for those who own the Masakari collection and purchase the Man O' War collection.

Wave 2 includes the aforementioned bonus Mad Dog, being delivered on September 23rd, various rewards including a camo pattern, a cockpit item, a mech bay and premium time, and faction based content to show your Clan allegiance like faction specific colors, skins, warhorns, and cockpit items. For all the details, head on over to mwomercs.com.

And finally, sit back and enjoy a behind the scenes look at the design process of Alex Inglesias, Concept Artist for Mechwarrior Online, with a first look at one of the rewards from the Piranha Games One Year Customer Appreciation program: The 100 ton King Crab assault Battlemech!

And that concludes the MWO Dev Vlog #8. Be sure to stay tuned for future vlogs, including more information on the development of Mechwarrior Online, community spotlights, and the exciting future of the MWO competitive scene. And on behalf of Piranha Games and No Guts, No Galaxy, thank you for watching! And until next time, MechWarriors!

[Carrion Hound]

Sweetness!

[Void Angel]

neat.

[Reno Blade]

is it intentional to have this one AND the one in the announcement section?

[CtrlAltWheee]

Love the time lapse art

[codynyc]

the king crab LOOKS AMAZING!!! ALEX HOME RUN AGAIN!!! but guys ... WE need a new MAP!!!! so tired of playing the same ones over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again...

[ShadowDarter]

codynyc, on 20 September 2014 - 03:05 PM, said:

the king crab LOOKS AMAZING!!! ALEX HOME RUN AGAIN!!! but guys ... WE need a new MAP!!!! so tired of playing the same ones over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again...

More maps are on the way, Factory is due in a few weeks, with more in the pipeline.

[Andi Nagasia]

and Awesomes,..
but still Wish there was a CW Preview,
but still Amazing work,
Thanks,

Edit- spelling,

Edited by Andi Nagasia, 20 September 2014 - 03:31 PM.

[Destructicus]

Alex sure is talented as all hell
Seeing the process from scratch left me in awe
My lady is a graphic design artist and she was just blown away as well.

[Deathlike]

That was mech pron of the highest order.

[Lancer Deistler]

Hmmm i wonder if the claws of the King Crab could get the same mechanic as the missle bay doors of some mechs (e.g. on a Catapult). Would be cool to open and close them manually.

[Squidy]

...and the crowd goes wild, hats off to Alex and the rest of the team.

My face when watching the Crab come to life.

http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/dude.gif

[Spurowny]

Watching Alex work in that time-lapse style was brilliant.

Hats off to that Idea.

[Sereglach]

As always, thank you for the great information located in the Dev Vlogs. The fact that these recent dev vlogs took a little more of a shift into more serious behind the scenes work, rather than just talking about development, was insightful and appreciated. I hope we get to see more of that in the future. Since we've now gotten to see a little bit of map development and concept artistry, what else will PGI be showing us? Some topics of development I'd personally like to see a little more behind the scenes on are Mech modeling, animation, hardpoint design and the modular items attachment (the physical weapons themselves and how they attach to the mech), and UI/CW development.

It's interesting to see the concepts that Alex creates. I think this rendition of the King Crab is a nice blend between various artistries out there, and a huge leap and bound over the original artwork. Thank you to Alex for all of the great mech art that he's created for this game. I really look forward to having my King Crab . . . it's one of the few assault mechs I really like.

Edited by Sereglach, 20 September 2014 - 04:42 PM.

[David McEvedy]

Some beautiful concept art. Amazing how Alex will consistently take a Mech I have never liked and re-brand it into something I can not wait to see in game.
Kudos good sir!!

[A Man In A Can]

Lancer Deistler, on 20 September 2014 - 03:32 PM, said:

Hmmm i wonder if the claws of the King Crab could get the same mechanic as the missle bay doors of some mechs (e.g. on a Catapult). Would be cool to open and close them manually.

That's immediately where I went with that as well. Will be interesting to see if the modelers retain that property.

[Nothing Whatsoever]

Nice, I too like watching the King Crab get drawn, only thing I didn't like was the green color!

[Odanan]

It's like watching da Vinci painting Mona Lisa.

The boy is a genius.

PS: that painting has something to do with the exclusive special painting we are going to get with the reward KC?

Edited by Odanan, 20 September 2014 - 05:26 PM.

[Will9761]

Thanks for showing us the two mechs, I'm glad I bought the Phoenix Package.

[Hollow Earth]

Alex sure knows his crabs!