Iaia in RuneScape. Environment sound

I had the pleasure to design and integrate sounds for a new area in RuneScape, planet Iaia, developed as part of the Elder God Wars: Extinction quest. It is my favourite project at Jagex so far because of the environment by Anouk Debruyne with its beautiful colours.

What is Iaia?

‘Iaia was the homeworld of Ilujanka [lizardmen]. Consisting mostly of marshlands, the planet had three moons and a star. The first moon is the silver moon, Silun. The second is the red moon, Akash. Third is he purple moon, Ilu which the ilujanka are named after. The star is not visible as the world is surrounded by a cloud of dust. Each moon has a different meaning to the ilujanka and each one lights up the world in its colour.’ (RuneScape Wiki)

Iaia in RuneScape. Environment sound design and integration

Brief / feel

Marshlands, otherworldly animal calls, magical, mysterious, a hint of the unsettling (spoiler: a boss fight takes place here, and the planet will be destroyed at the end of the quest).

First version

Firstly, I went through library sounds related to ‘marshlands’ and selected bird calls, frogs, insects, monkeys. The first draft sounded too realistic and I was advised by my audio team to experiment with creative processing to give the animals more of an otherworldliness. I was also advised to consider the spatialisation of the animal calls.

To address this feedback, I went through my sounds and did another selection, choosing the more unusual of them. I then made them lower in pitch, and processed them in Serum synth/sampler. Finally, I made a separate batch of sounds with added reverb and low pass filter, to create a sense of distance (in RuneScape, reverb or other FX have to be baked in into the assets).

First sketch

Initial selection of library sounds

Suggested creative direction by the Audio Team

Ambience in ‘Death’s Door’ (Acid Nerve, 2021) with distant bird calls

Assets

Monkey SFX (with reverb)

Frog SFX (reverb)

Monkey SFX (dry)

Crane SFX (reverb)

Bespoke recordings

I made bespoke recordings, originally intended for a different project but fitted much better with this one. I experimented with recording different textures (photos below); using them as layers for a ‘Growing tree’ SFX. To ensure I depicted the massiveness of the trees in Iaia, I created a stretchy sound, using sounds like scraping foam or leather.

Challenges - how much time, how many variations?

I had the more time (2 weeks) than for the other two ambience projects I’d done. This gave me more time to experiment. If I had more time, I would have considered outdoor recordings; though we know how time-expensive these can be (recording + editing + cataloguing). I sought to balance neither making too many variations, nor too few, and in retrospect erred too much to the former. Less experience with the integration processes/tools limited my ability to iterate (I simply made the assets and plugged them in, with very small adjustments).

Ambience + Music

As I worked on the SFX, my colleague was writing the music. I got an early version of the music to check against the SFX. The music has a relaxed feel, which left a lot of room for environment sounds (thanks Grace!). I only had to change one tonal SFX to stop it from creating an unpleasant dissonance with the music - whilst also making it distinguishable enough so that it wouldn’t ‘disappear’ behind the music.

Iaia in RuneScape. Sound design + Music

Inspiration: Totems in ‘Journey’ (Thegamecompany, 2012)

Totems SFX + Music

Integration (proprietary game engine)

Still learning the in-house tools meant needing to allow extra time for the integration. The lack of functionality for multiple people to work on the environment at once meant I had to coordinate my work closely with others. Most of the SFX are one shot sounds (wind gusts, grass, wind chimes, animal calls, water) with a few loops (campfire, portal). I was able to specify range and volume for each and make ‘multi-sounds’ which contain max 16 sounds, including silences.

Reflections

Ideally, I could have had more kinds of sounds, including subtler ones like gentle winds, and arranged them more sparsely. To my ear, some of the grass and insects sound a little harsh. Overall, however, I like the feel - especially the bird calls, frogs, water, and magical chimes.

I found it more challenging to channel my creativity into this project versus the shorter clips I experiment with in workshops. The need to produce a large number of assets in a short period of time means inevitable initial time investment in prioritisation, and the need to deliver. Over time, I’m getting into a routine that helps to balance my work output with achieving the sounds I’d ideally like to, were I have more time. It’s a work in progress.

Big thanks to my Audio Team for supporting me on the project, giving lots of suggestions and helping me improve my work!

Full credits on the poster below