CLIENT
Thorium Entertainment
Sound Design, Music, and Implementation
ROLE
UnderMine 2
UnderMine 2 is the sequel to the successful indie videogame, Undermine.
When the developers (Thorium Entertainment) invited us back to help make Undermine 2, we were eager to take the sound and music to the next level.
Undermine 2 was built from the ground up to be a bigger, more flexible, and more expansive game than the original. This meant that we had to identify what was iconic about UnderMine to ensure it felt connected to the original, while improving everything about the sonic experience.
Music
Following the original UnderMine we found it important to not only evolve the aesthetics but make the soundtrack respond to the player in more sophisticated ways.
The music changes smoothly based on what is happening. It’s adventurous and subdued while exploring, but as soon as enemies appear, it seamlessly shifts into high-energy battle music.
We created a music system for "The Well," an infinite mode that gets harder the deeper players go.
The music there is programmatically generated, so it sounds like one never-ending song that evolves as the player progresses through the levels.
Sound Design
We also upgraded the sound for UnderMine 2 to make it feel more realistic and epic. We built a custom system that adjusts the volume based on the room size and camera height.
This ensures that even with the game's unique view, every sound effect comes from exactly where it should be on or off the screen.
We rebuilt the sound system to be just as flexible as the game design. Since the game has 100’s of items and powers, we created flexible sound layers that stack.
This ensures that no matter how chaotic the action gets, everything still sounds clear and great together.
