Tabula Rasa Audio Interview and Screenshots

RPG Vault starts a week of Tabula Rasa coverage with an interview with Audio Director Tracy Bush, Mission Designer and Audio Associate Producer Rebekah Tran, and Lead Sound Designer Andy Brock. Also includes 8 hi-res screenshots.

Jonric: Since we know there are gamers who turn the music off, either immediately or after playing a few hours, why they should leave it on in Tabula Rasa?

Tracy Bush: Yes, this does happen, and it’s something I think we as composers fight very hard against. Some those players automatically mute the soundtrack because they want to listen to THEIR music while they play, and I can see the validity in that argument. I don’t agree at all, though, because we work hard to write what we feel the game needs, and just blindly clicking that ‘mute’ button kind of invalidates our artistic contribution to the game.

However, I’ve clicked that button myself on games where the soundtrack was just… you know… too much, not right, too repetitive or completely inappropriate, the last two being mainly implementation problems. This issue still exists today in some games… the soundtrack can actually be really well written and produced, but if it’s implemented improperly, it’s off-putting and completely defeats the purpose.

You should leave the music on because Curse, Chris and Clint are totally awesome. Seriously. Also, if you turn it off, it makes puppies cry.

Rebekah Tran: Something that we’re looking to add in the near future is the ability to change area music tracks based on events that occur in missions or in maps. For example, if you’re in a captured control point, you may hear a calmer “safe zone” track that is subtle and lets you know you’re in a base under your control (and thus, a place you can relax). However, once the first Bane started to spawn, we would switch to a more driving battle track. Given this would be the first signal you should grab your gun, it would give players an edge to have the music on.