The Game:
Crowfall is a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game developed by ArtCraft and launched in summer of 2021. This is an ambitious new take on the MMO genre - it has deep player vs. player combat and territory control, resource gathering, crafting, and each campaign features a newly procedural generated world that is persistent and changes based on the tides of war. ArtCraft is breaking a lot of rules of MMO's - this article describes it well.
The project began as a wildly successful Kickstarter and I have been very impressed with the company's transparency - there are endless blogs and videos offering a window into the development process, and the community is a respected source of feedback.
My Role:
I am the sole sound designer for Crowfall. Being an MMO, there are many facets that need audio support. Along with the hundreds of exciting combat powers, there are rewarding moments of harvesting precious resources and the act of exploring a new world, which I am supporting through a robust ambient sound system that responds to the players actions and changes through the seasons.
One particularly challenging aspect of sound in Crowfall is the audio mix. Because Crowfall has so many sandbox gameplay elements, along with so much content, the audio mix has to be flexible and adapt to different situations that may arise. A player needs to hear clearly the sounds that are important to their individual gameplay, whether they're harvesting wood in a quiet forest, in a tense 1 v 1 fight or in the middle of a huge 100-player siege battle. Thankfully, we are using the feature-rich audio middleware Wwise, so there are many tools available for tackling the audio mix.
Music for Crowfall is composed by Nelson Everheart, who is also the principle composer for Wizard101.
Sound Design Behind the Scenes:
Trailer (sound and music by Bobby Moen):