STILL WAKES THE DEEP
The Chinese Room
Unreal Engine 5 + Wwise​​
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Joining the audio team at The Chinese Room during early production of SWTD, I spent the majority of my time at the studio working on this title.
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I was heavily involved in creative sound design for ambiences, creatures, orchestration, and character Foley. I also contributed to many audio systems, taking ownership of player Foley implementation, contributing to creature audio setups, and designing an audio-driven creature simulation for a particular section of the game.
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We were overwhelmed by the reception from critics and players, with many stating the audio to be a particular highlight of the game. We were also nominated for three audio design awards at the TIGA Awards, Golden Joysticks, and Music+Sound Awards.​​​​​​​​
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I've included the game's accolades trailer and gameplay trailer to the left.
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Below you can find some gameplay clips below, from areas of the game I had a lot of involvement with.
" award-worthy sound " - Bloody Disgusting
" exceptional audio design delivers real chills "
- Kotaku
" the sound design is absolutely top notch "
- IGN Germany
This video shows a system that I designed to introduce the player to the idea of the creatures in our game. This creature is purely audio, there are no visuals, and the interactive elements of it were designed to tell the story of how your former crewmate Gibbo, was transformed into this creature.
Through audio, we wanted to sell the fact that Gibbo is ashamed of what he has become, hence why he never lets you see him and why he doesn't want you to progress through the area. We carefully selected dialogue lines that support this narrative and designed his movement and vocalisations to sound skittish and distraught.
" a wonderful piece of sound design "
- The Xbox Hub
" the atmosphere and sound design make this game "
- FingerGuns.net
" the sound design is spectacular "
- Push Square
I also worked heavily on our environments, through which we wanted to create an evolving atmosphere that sells the danger of the collapsing rig, the intensity of the storm outside, and the abstract nature of what is taking over the structure and the crew.
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For this scene in particular we wanted to highlight the storm with detailed rain surface sounds, intense winds, and rolling thunder.
