Developer Blog: New Audio

Hello, I'm Leonard and I'm the audio director for Eco. I started working with Strange Loop Games in 2011 on Vessel and am happy to be back with the team again.

For version 0.9 we've been hard at work the past half year to improve and expand the audio content while also upgrading the existing audio system. The initial audio system for Eco was built using Unity and this has been entirely replaced by the Audiokinetic Wwise audio system. This new audio system allows us to move a lot faster when adding new content and includes many features not available in the regular Unity audio system.

Here's a list of our Eco Update 9.0 Blogs:

[*]New Government system: Constitution
[*]New Government system: Elections and Elected Titles
[*]New Government system: Demographics and Wages
[*]New Government system: Laws Part 1: Using the system
[*]New Government system: Laws Part 2: Taxes, Ownership, Property, and Wealth
[*]New Government system: Laws Part 3: Tour of different actions, and Executive Actions
[*]New Government system: Districts
[*]New Crafting: Work Parties
[*]New Crafting: Labor System
[*]New Crafting: Modules and Efficiency Redesign
[*]New Crafting: New Tech Tree
[*]New Building System: Hammer and new Building Styles
[*]New Mining System: Mineral Dispersion and Drill Usage
[*]New Mining System: New Processing Path and Pollution Info
[*]New Animal System: Attacking Animals
[*]New Ecopedia System
[*]New UI
[*]New Audio (This blog)
[*]New Hosted Worlds System

As far as new sounds, we've added lots of sounds for animals, vehicles, crafting tables and tool to help make the experience much more immersive. I've recruited Phill Aelony (PhillAelony.com) as a composer to double the amount of music in the game and we’re working to have all the new songs react interactively with the game in the future.

Most of the sounds you hear in Eco 0.9 have been recorded and created by me for the game. I've spent days going to construction sites to record excavators, travelling to the top of a mountain to record icy wind sounds and built synthesis patches with mathematics to simulate the sound of wind turbines. The main goal of the audio is to support your experience in the game and help it come alive.

The following videos give a look into how some of the audio is made in Eco:

Loading Screen Ambience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hMkIzIib04

Fishing Rod

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ronWQKfh-Q4

Tools

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAYrFJOiZKk

Excavator

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn5McEzjF-A

Steam Truck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgtkPihGDy8

Wind Turbine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK8ndfPWSeU

Research Table Crafting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VZtmqsRa0o

Interactive Music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbm0ASvNVbA

For more information on the audio in Eco, have a look at the upcoming Eco Tree and my Twitter profile @VideoGameAudio with the tag "#EcoGame". I'm also available on the Eco Discord so you can contact me there too.

I'll be doing a live stream this Friday, at noon (12:00) PDT / 9pm (21:00 CEST) and will go into lots more details about the audio, looking forward to seeing you online.

- Leonard Paul, Audio Director, Strange Loop Games