Skip to main content

THE UNLIVING

The Unliving is a role-playing action game in the rogue-lite genre, where you control a powerful Necromancer, lead armies of the undead, burn cities with dozens of spells, subdue unique creatures, defeat bosses, and uncover the dark world's story and secrets.

The story takes place in a fictional medieval fantasy world where power is concentrated in the hands of the Inquisition, and our hero opposes them.

The main character, the Necromancer, can summon undead by resurrecting already dead or freshly killed enemies, as well as use spells and mutations to aid survival or enemy destruction.

The genre implies constant death and resurrection of the protagonist with slight skill progression to achieve further progress in the game.

CONTENT

KEY FEATURES, AFFECTING SOUND

By analyzing early test builds and communicating with developers, we identified the following key points affecting sound:

  1. The game features a large variety of enemies, each with unique characteristics, requiring individuality in their audio design.
  2. Each enemy corresponds to a unique undead type with special abilities if sacrificed. These abilities must stand out in the game's audio mix.
  3. Controlling large undead armies requires creating an audio sense of managing a massive crowd.
  4. Over 50+ units of undead and enemies can be on screen simultaneously, necessitating optimization to handle many voices without system overload.
  5. Spells and modifiers used in combat must be recognizable and enjoyable to use.
  6. Environmental destruction must be satisfying. Music must accommodate repeated playthroughs of the same location.

AUDIO MIDDLEWARE WWISE

Given the potential for many enemies and effects, Wwise was chosen for its dynamic HDR mixing capabilities. The sound hierarchy prioritizes importance:

  • Player damage;
  • Enemy unique abilities;
  • Enemy attacks;
  • Allies' abilities;
  • Enemy deaths;
  • Allies' deaths;
  • Footsteps;
  • Environment ambience;
  • Music.

CROWD SYSTEM

A crowd system uses switch containers to simulate large groups with fewer voices. Excitement parameters adjust undead responsiveness to player commands.

VOICE OVER

Actor voice prototypes were tested for the Necromancer. Enemy voices cover diverse frequency ranges from deep forge workers to high-pitched archers.

MUSIC

return to top

LET'SCOLLABORATE