No Mutants Allowed

[Brother None]

There's a new addition to the Meet the Devs feature. The surprisingly verbose sound guy,
Mark "Wolfric Tugmutton" Lampert :

What's your job at Bethesda?
I handle all sound design and voice work for the studio (casting, recording, editing, etc.), as well as interacting a bit with anyone we hire to compose the music.

How long have you been playing Fallout, and how would you describe your feelings towards the franchise?
I played Fallout 1 and 2 in college over a long period of time, and I recently re-played a big chunk of the second to properly refresh my memory on the basic feel and function of things. Like most of you, it's still one of my all-time favorite games, and I'd have loved to see the franchise continue. I certainly didn't imagine at the time that I'd be part of that effort, so it's very exciting. There are lots of moments where I kind of pause to enjoy the surprise that I feel when I realize that I'm actually working on this game. I'd hate to feel jaded about it.

Do you find it more difficult to design games for certain types of games?
My experience so far is that a traditional fantasy game probably poses more challenges in terms of keeping the magic components of the game sounding fresh and not all like a synthesizer with all the keys pressed down (though if that works, great!). I tend to enjoy doing sound design for games which involve some degree of machinery or other mechanical, noisy items. There are a lot of things in our own world which serve a good raw material for those sorts of things -- recording assorted gizmos around your home or on the street, then taking them into a mutlitrack editor and having fun with all the possibilities of editing and manipulating those sounds in order to produce something unique. There's a lot of fun to be had.

One thing I really like about a fantasy game, though, is that a lot of the sounds are often very natural -- walking through the grass, sounds of the forest with wind in the trees, rain, crickets at night (assuming we're talking about an Earth-like world, I guess) and things like that. If there's a good example in our world that you can get access to, it might be something as simple as going an recording it.

Also, do you have a favourite sound/piece of music/anything from the previous Fallouts?
Some of the sounds that I like best from the first two Fallout games are simply those that you hear often which instantly remind me of the game again if I hear them now -- entering and exiting combat (the little mechanical sound of the thingy at the bottom right of the screen), the player scratching his head (for some reason that happened a lot). The music was great overall, but one of my favorite pieces was in Fallout 2 in the town of Redding. I thought that snippet of player piano that would fade in and out from time to time really set the mood, as well as made it feel ghostly.

The best sound in Fallout is when you critical hit on a pigrat's skull. I have no idea how Mr Deenen made that sound, but it actually sounds like he took a paper bag, put a raw steak in it and hit it with a sledge hammer.
Heh, I remember that. A lot of the critical hits were pretty visceral, and they somehow didn't get old. It always felt very satisfying, and you immediately knew that you'd really dealt your enemy a powerful blow. There was one time in Fallout 2 where I was having trouble with one of the slavers, and I strolled up behind him (we weren't in combat at the time) and gave him a double-barrel shotgun blast to the back of the head. I was at point blank range and scored the critical hit, wiping him out in one shot. His buddies came after me and killed me the first time through, but it was still very satisfying ... if not just for having the option at my disposal.

As far as Foley sound using meat, I've tried to avoid that so far in my career. It always seemed like really expensive way to make a sound. I do, however, want to record the sound of macaroni and cheese being stirred in a pot. Talk about ghastly. Maybe keep your ears peeled for that one.

Link: Meet the Devs
_________________

No Mutants Allowed, your Fallout resource - Fallout: New Vegas - Brother None counts down his favourite games
"There are two novels that can change a bookish 14-year-old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
The other, of course, involves orcs." --John Rogers

[Starwars]

I think sound is something very interesting in games (not just music and voiceacting), so it was a pleasant surprise to see this guy show up.

As far as Oblivion, I think it was really quite good soundwise from what I can remember. The nature sounds were very nice, and the sounds gave a lot of the combat some nice "weight".
I just hope we'll see a change when it comes to the voiceacting.

[El RadEscorpio]

I agree, sounds and music are a very important role in games.
_________________

[goobyman]

The sounds in Fallout are extremely important... I am not opposed to some added music... but only in areas where there is abundant life... citys & vaults... I am hopeful that a good portion of the sounds to this will fit appropriately.


Macaroni & Cheese... mmm.
_________________
It's not how long you live, but how you live and what you leave behind.

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Best Foley game ever: Republic Commando.
_________________
An opened mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded.

[Vault 69er]

[Nim82]

I really hope they go out and make their own sounds. Far too many games/films nowadays use generic stuff from sound banks (and all sound alike). To be fair, both MW and Obliv sounded fine effects wise, MW had some fantastic environmental audio in places as well. What bugged me however (in both) was the lack of locational music.

Locational music helps flesh out locales and generates atmosphere, if you can disable the music (or play your own) and not notice a hit atmospherically, then the original music has failed. I played my own music when doing Oblivion and never noticed a difference. FO on the other hand did locational exceptionally well, and is second only to SS2 in this area, imo. Both of these games felt very different (and hollow) with the music turned off.

Interesting read anyway, at least it appears he is a fan!

[globbi]

That's a very interesting interview and the guy seems pretty reliable musican. I think the music and sounds will be very good. It has to be a part of the world to make a good effect though. I agree with Nim82 about locational music. I am affraid in F3 there will be a few good, easy to sell tracks that will follow us through game and stupid dramatical changes in music when a battle start. Such soundtrack becomes borring and tiring in a short time, both MW and Ob had it.

[Terrasque]

Dude, I had high hopes for Bethsoft pulling FO3 off. I've even been defending them against glittering gems who want to critisize everything they do. But I just listened to the music they put on their teaser site...

Now, the music is good, in itself. It's well composed, it's cool sounding, and it's moody. But it's far from anything that should be in a fallout game. It sounds more like a dark version of oblivion music.

Fallout music shouldn't sound orchestral. It should be eerie and ambient. I'm so disappointed right now...

[ronin84]

[TheVaultKeeper]

Of course he's verbose, he's the "sound guy"... doh!

[Brother None]

[monsharen]

Sounds like he has things under control
_________________

[Starwars]

There was also a guy claiming that he had contacted Jeremy Soule on his mypage site, and asked Jeremy about it. Jeremy had responded and said that it was not his work, and that he had not been contracted to do the music for Fallout 3.

Unfortunately I don't remember what thread this was in, and there was no proof as to whether the guy was just talking out of his ass (he went on a kinda parade bitching about people complaining about Soule) or telling the truth.

While Soule has not done anything in Fallouts style, it should also be noted that he has done ambient tracks before. Oblivions dungeon music is a good example of this. Definetely not in the electronic style like Fallout, but definetely ambient. Regardless, I would much rather have someone else do the music. I'm very fond of Soules music, but he's kinda turning into the John Williams of gamemusic. Great composer, but overused to the point where one gets tired of it.

I also hope that Bethesda have been reading the complaints about the music, as they have been, well, numerous.

[Briosafreak]

I heard a guy saying the music isn't from Soule at Gamebanshee too, but he never explained where he heard that.
_________________
PlanetFallout