Joshua Davidson who is a lead sound designer at Gearbox Software did a presentation at GDC about their modular sound design on Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. He goes over how they approached Wonderlands differently than Borderlands 3.
If you are interested in how games are being made then this is an interesting presentation on how the fantasy aesthetics of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands was brought to life.
Presentation Timestamps
- 00:00 – Preparation
- 01:00 – Minor HouseKeeping
- 01:30 – Brief Overview
- 02:10 – About Joshua
- 03:20 – How the Audio Team started
- 07:05 – How the Audio Team Grew
- 09:15 – PART 1: Introduction to Modular Sound in Borderlands 3
- 12:10 – Borderlands 3 Modular Sound Demonstration
- 12:55 – Joshua mentions the BL3 Maliwan Sniper Sound video displayed below. There are 2 other Borderlands 3 Sound Design videos on Joshua’s Youtube channel.
- 13:33 – PART 2: The “Wonderlands” Aesthetic
- 16:40 – Raw audio clip demonstration
- 18:15 – Processed audio clip demonstration
- 20:00 – Designed audio demonstration
- 20:30 – PART 3 – Continuing Modularity in Wonderlands
- 22:20 – Audio demonstration of firing weapons with the Wonderlands theme.
- 23:55 – Magic Weapon demonstration
- 24:55 – Melee Weapons
- 26:15 – Melee Weapon audio test
- 27:35 – Melee Audio layers + Demonstration
- 29:15 – Melee impact sounds + Demonstration
- 30:50 – Magic Spell Breakdown
- 33:25 – Magic Spell Demonstration
- 34:30 – Final Thoughts
- 35:40 – Q&A Starts
Q&A Timestamps
- 36:10 – How much of the audio concept changed compared to how it worked out?
- 36:45 – How did you use the modular system and reduce its impact?
- 38:15 – Can you go into the modular philosophy?
- 40:10 – Can you go into more depth about the Melee swing test you did?
- 41:55 – How do prevent audio from clashing in a modular system?
- 44:50 – Do you start with natural gun sounds or synthetic ones?
- 46:45 – What were some of the recording challenges?
- 48:25 – How do you manage deadlines?
- 50:00 – Were there any prodigal elements in the modular system?
- 51:55 – How much manual work was done for the raw audio library?
- 54:00 – Were there any established rules on how audio files needed to be mastered?
- 55:33 – How is the audio mixed?
- 58:10 – How does the modular system impact sound design
- 59:40 – Did you use Unreal Engine’s built-in synths?
