The Sounds Behind "Ember"

Most people have some kind of familiarity with foley artists—producers who create all kinds of sounds for movies and media by using everyday materials. It becomes more complicated, however, when you don't have a room of random objects and a state-of-the-art recording room to work with. Our sound artist shared his process of creating the sound effects for our game: "My process of creating audio is pretty straightforward. For my sound effect philosophy, it's all about indicating action in the game. First, I figure out what the action should feel like from the design and art teams. Then, I do research on what other artists and forms of media have done to create similar sounds.

Next comes the recording process. This step consists of gathering materials, finding a place quiet enough to record, and messing around until I stumble onto something that is within range of what I'm looking for. Lastly comes the editing, where I take the recorded files and upload them into a DAW, usually Logic Pro X, and add various reverb/layering effects until I am satisfied with it."

The sounds needed for our game have certainly given rise to interesting questions. What sound does a squirrel even make? How can we get close enough to record one? Where can we record the sounds of a fire? Can we get the sound of cracking ice or footsteps in the snow to come out crisp? Because we only have so many tries...