Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1524863
118 M PS E . O R G Creating a compelling audio experience in cinematic games involves several key pillars. What foundational elements do you consider essential for achieving this? BP: Essential to any narrative is believable characters, and essential to any game is an immersive audio experience with accentuated dynamic and emotional range for horror. We take a lot of care to provide a seamless experience between sequences and gameplay for example, designing systems that smooth the edges of the game, work equally well for all game sections, softening and blending to add consistency to the experience. A fresh and memorable musical score to support the story is critical. Key narrative strands, locations, and characters firmly direct musical choices and we give a lot of attention to the wider narrative arc expanding and building on these themes as the game progresses to satisfy the players' progression. We are inspired as much by film as game, and for us, 'cinematic' means the game should be as fun to watch as it is to play, so we strive for an uncompromising filmic aesthetic in this interactive genre taking opportunities for frame-accurate nuanced emotional support through sound for narrative, character, and action. We need systems that work game-wide while creating memorable standalone cinematic moments to stick in the mind of the players. From Until Dawn (2016) to The Devil in Me (2022), the evolution of cinematic horror in games has been remarkable. Can you describe how your approach has shifted and developed over time, particularly considering the advancements in technology and your procedural approach to cinematic sound for horror? BP: There's been remarkable evolution in tech, and although our target aesthetic of an engaging cinematic soundscape has remained firm throughout, under the hood there has been innovation in all that we do. We adopt emerging tech and processes all the time, adding our own unique R&D. Worldizing has seen massive advances. On Until Dawn, we were constrained to two reverb zones, emitter and listener, and now we have a raft of tools that give such a natural and realistic propagation of sound, spatial volumes, reverbs, reflections, and portaling. Character Foley started life as pre-calculated events in sequences, until the procedural triggering systems grew to such quality that we switched our footsteps and cloth systems entirely to procedural, overhauling them completely for The Devil in Me to accommodate for a greater range of character movement, developing way beyond the Until Dawn benchmark. The music in Until Dawn was all bespoke, totalling 8.5 hours of unique edited music cues. With an increase of combat and AI (artificial intelligence) enemies, we run both bespoke and interactive music systems simultaneously, switching back and forth as the gameplay demands while maintaining the emotional flow. We can link sound behaviors to in-game objects so closely now that