Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice [PC-PS4-X1]

[Darkhan]

[Darkhan]

[Darkhan]

Interview de 13 min par Playstation Access

[Darkhan]

Development Diary 9: The Music

Tameem Antoniades

Music is such a powerful tool for driving emotion, often more so than art, dialogue or plot. So it makes sense that it should be part of the creative process from the start. Like every other aspect of the game we wanted to find a style that felt interesting and different in Hellblade.

The style of music says a lot about your game. A big orchestral score is probably the default choice for a lot of games and movies. It suggests a particular kind of product: the big Hollywood blockbuster experience. That is not what Hellblade is about.

Another obvious choice is to focus on the setting which in our game is a clash of Celtic and Viking cultures. We felt that a traditional Celtic sound would put a cultural barrier between you and Senua and would make it harder for the player to embody her journey. As for the Viking side, who knows what music would have sounded like in 700AD in Norway?

Rather than focusing on setting the music should tell a story or give an emotional resonance. Hellblade is about Senua’s dark journey into a strange hellish land to fight a clan of Vikings. Any number of style choices could tell that story. Think of the impact of non-conventional styles of music for independent movies like Drive or Reservoir Dogs.

In the end, it does come down to personal preference and practical reality. Ideally, the game should have a musical identity all of its own. After all, we do aim for a similar ideal for visuals and gameplay. So how do we find someone that can deliver that?

I personally have had little involvement in the music side of our games as this has generally been the remit of our Audio Director. On Hellblade, we don’t have an Audio Director on the team so I had to get hands-on with the music development.

I haven’t studied music, I don’t know the correct terminology and so I am very aware of my limits. But I do know the story I’d like the music to tell, and can articulate feeling through analogy. We all can. In your mind, the searing pain of a cut has a sound, as does the drone of depression, and the roar of rage, etc. And in these terms I can help steer.

But for this to work, the musician has to be on the same page and you need a level of innate understanding that allows you both to push and explore beyond the basic needs. I had this with Andy LaPluega.

If we were doing a traditional commercial AAA game, I would put my preferences aside but a lot of Hellblade is driven by our personal influences. I knew for sure that Andy could do the Viking battle music but unsure about other styles. But I thought it might make sense to put some faith in his musical ability and see what he can do. After all, that is a demand we put on ourselves, to work outside of our comfort zones so why not do the same with Andy?

By now you may have noticed a pattern in our approach be it art, characters or gameplay. We start with a germ of an idea, explore freely beyond the obvious choices, focus on key motifs and then develop a cohesive whole. This approach seems to work for all creative endeavours, and it seems to work for music. It is an approach that depends on having creative faith in people who have a burning desire and ability to explore and push beyond convention.

I put faith in Andy’s ability and he gave it back with some deliciously dark and inspired songs. There’ll be more development and exploration in music to come but based on the work so far, I’m glad we have him on board.

[Darkhan]

[julianf]

Bon c'est bien beau tout ça, mais faudrait quand même qu'ils commencent à montrer le jeu... c'est le plus important

[BennJ]

Le jeu est en développement, et je ne pense pas que montrer un produit en tout début de développement soit le truc le plus passionnant qui soit... Regarde les vidéos tout en haut de la page tu vois bien ou ils en sont niveau développement, ils en sont encore aux proto. On est très loin d'une version alpha ou beta, et encore moins d'un truc jouable à mon avis.

[Darkhan]

Shahid Kamal Ahmad @shahidkamal
Suivre
Hellblade demo today was viscerally moving. Some brilliant work being done by the @NinjaTheory team.
15:53 - 15 Avr 2015

[Darkhan]

Development Diary 10: Capturing Performance


As a studio we strive to create believable characters that you as a player care about. Fundamental to our approach is using performance capture to bring our characters to life.Today we are sharing a new development diary video focused on Hellblade’s performance capture approach.

[Darkhan]

[julianf]

Miam miam, j'espére aussi que l'on aura une belle présentation pendant la conf de Sony à l'E3

[BennJ]

A la fin de la vidéo il est indiqué qu'on aura du "gameplay et plus" le 10 juin Et pour rappel il y aussi une conférence dédié au PC à l'E3, et ce titre n'est pas une exclu PS4

[julianf]

Oui comme j'ai dit j'espère, je pense qu'en terme de visibilité une conf Sony ou MS est beaucoup plus porteur qu'une conf PC.
Et à ce que je sache dans les conf Sony ou MS, il n'y a pas que des exclues... loin de là.
Donc rien n'empêche une présentation lors de la conf Sony, vu qu'ils soutiennent le projet

[Darkhan]

NinjaTheory @NinjaTheory

We'll be showing #Hellblade gameplay and more on June 10th
11:36 PM - 19 Mai 2015

[oldboyzz]

y a les editeurs qui ont compris que la bataille se situe sur l'acquisition de l'espace mediatique le plus tot possible, et que le succes d'un jeu va se jouer sur l'effet boule de neige des 1er fan et de la diffusion dans les reseaux sociaux

et pi y a les jeux dont on n'entendra jamais parler (ceux qui ont droit a 1 ligne dans Canard PC pour dire qu'en fait c'est meuh )


beau projet,
on en reparle lors de la beta en 2018?