CKII - Development Diary May 17th - We don't talk about the dead

[Metal King]

Hi!

It is my turn to write a DD for CK2 and it is about something that perhaps we don’t mention that often: Audio.

Or more specific for this entry; Death Screams & SFX.

For the new expansion I got an important task, it was to create new sound effects for executing characters and also create assets for other ways different characters can die in the game such as falling off a balcony or being mauled by a bear.

So basically for this task I did a bunch of research to see how cruel people were back in the days and how “creative” they could be when executing people.

I needed to create a lot of “gore” sound effects so to achieve this I went out and did some grocery shopping.

The leek and celery were to recreate some “sweet” and intense bone cracking sound effects while the pepper and salad were to create a “slow crushing” sound effect.

The big problem for this task was a major one; Screams. And a lot of them.

So I took the opportunity to do some internal auditions and invited co-workers to the torture chamber aka sound studio.

Another challenge was to get people to sound like they are… dying? I got to do a lot of “dummy” recordings where you could hear me die in different ways, and some of these recordings made their way into the expansion as well, so my co-workers could get to “dub” me or have some kind of a reference.

I’ll not tell you who is dying, that is up to you to guess. \m/

Here we have a female version of being impaled:

Here is a version from the Spanish method of garroting:

There could be a few hunting accidents:

Or sometimes people went kind of extreme with burning people:

Few causes when people were thrown down into a nasty pit:

Or just want people to suffer really hard before dying:

A bonus video of our dear CEO trying out for a role:

 

[Moah]

Very professional screams. Or maybe too professional. On the level of "we abducted people from the street and tortured them to make sfx" level of professional.

As one of the abductees, i can confirm.

 

[Darkrenown]

We do have an option to disable the death sounds, in case anyone dislikes them.

 

[Metal King]

Did you eat them afterward?

I took couple of bites during my recording session!

 

[Servancour]

Please tell me you're going to add the Wilhelm Scream as an Easter Egg somewhere. Maybe someone who dies in combat against the Aztecs?

Don't say that loud enough for Metal King to hear it. He hates the Wilhelm Scream with devout fervour.

 

[rageair]

Please tell me you're going to add the Wilhelm Scream as an Easter Egg somewhere. Maybe someone who dies in combat against the Aztecs?

I've been trying to convince Metal King to add the Wilhelm scream every time a character named 'Wilhelm' dies, but for some reason he's staunchly against it.

 

[Moah]

Off topic: I really want a fix about the sound effect of one of the tab (don't remember what tab exactly). You recorded in a museum (or a church, i don't know) and a french woman say: "On dirait la Vierge". For someone who don't speak french i'm sure it's not a problem, but if you understand what she say and hear "That looks like the Virgin" a thousand times in a game, you can become crazy

I've actually gone crazy trying to understand what she was saying. My best understanding was "j'ai trop prié la vierge..." so thank you for clearing that up for me.

 

[The Witch-King]

Very professional screams. Or maybe too professional. On the level of "we abducted people from the street and tortured them to make sfx" level of professional.

Ssshhh!

 

[Darkrenown]

So far we only know the DLC is going to be death and disease system. I was kinda hoping they would hint at any other major focus for this expansion, but perhaps a bit still too early.

DDs are going to be every week again, so you'll have more info soon.

 

[Wizzington]

Very professional screams. Or maybe too professional. On the level of "we abducted people from the street and tortured them to make sfx" level of professional.

Don't be silly, that's not Metal King's department. He's not even remotely involved in HR.

 

[Metal King]

Okay, that's one interesting devblog... the sounds are very nicely done... but PLEASE nôpe, don't put that in the game.

This is just WAAAaaayy too much.

I'll just a respectfully disagree, not for the devblog, but for the implementation.

There will be a option to turn them off if they are a bit too much.

 

[Metal King]

I've always wanted to visit Paradox Studios, but now I've changed my mind...

Breaking_wheel_male was my favorite. I'm glad I'm not that poor fellow. Excellent work!

It is a shame, I'm always looking for new voice talents.