Meet the Team Q&A - James Stant

WingardiumLevicoaster

Volunteer Moderator
WingardiumLevicoaster
James Stant said:
From all of us in the Planet Coaster audio team, thank you Juggz!

The list of voice talent will certainly be growing as we progress towards Beta and Release. Last time I checked, I think we were at about 50 actors; this covers the crowd members chatting away in Planco, the characterful mascots joyfully entertaining the guests, vendors saying 'see you later' to customers after serving them, people screaming in excitement as they enjoy the rides... and the construction foreman shouting to warn you when you try to place down a flat ride in an invalid location (that's me by the way, standing in the car park, shouting Planco for things like 'Not there!' - I got some confused looks from neighbouring company workers, I can tell you!)
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Funnily enough, I heard some builders outside of work the other day and they sounded just like this.
 

Nemmie

Nemmie
Thanks James. And I'm gonna try the quickly placing pirate bells malarkey as soon as I open the game.

E Dor Planet Ooma at Planco at allo luh zamaller work oe dorzi people say desler.... (I Love Planet Coaster and Planco and all the amazing work you lovely people are doing) [up]
 

inspectorgadget1

inspectorgadget1
Great to see these threads back, thanks James for your answers [up]

Bo Marit said:
Tell the community a fun fact about yourself.
I’ve been very fortunate to perform with the band Bowling For Soup on numerous occasions, performing in front of crowds of thousands of people at some amazing venues across the UK, including Download Festival at Donington Park. My lifestyle is far removed from one of typical rock-n-roll, but this is probably my biggest ‘claim-to-fame’ outside of my life in the games development industry.
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Look what I found [big grin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGHh1-HSVhM

And also [wacky]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_y_C6g3HdE

So excited for what you have in store for us over the next couple of months, hopefully it's not too long before we get a sneak peak at it all [cool]
 

gregorburns

G
James Stant said:
Ah yes, the screams of excitement and fear! One of my favourites too!

Although we are obviously always memory/performance conscious (and continue to optimise our work), generally we feel quite fortunate that we don't have to massively compromise on quality to make the audio fit and perform respectably. At this moment in time, we are operating as a PC-only digital download, so we're primarily concentrating on trying to meet our vision for the game, without having to squeeze it onto a disc. That 'freedom' is great within this creative environment, as you try to make something awesome first and then look at how you can optimise, rather than make something functional and then struggling to gradually improve it. As mentioned in the Audio Dev Diary, a game where you can have thousands of guests on screen is quite a challenge, but our team have developed awesome systems to handle such aspects, so I think the key is the combination of having the right creative mindset and the benefit of technological/industry advances.

I play a number of instruments; mainly 'cello and saxophone, although it all began learning piano from the age of 6 and getting my hands on whatever I could! I have performed on a few cool soundtracks over the past 8 years including Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (baritone saxophone), Kinect Sports (tenor saxophone) and Tales From Deep Space (electric guitar). With live bands though, I'm normally playing my electric 'cello. I also happen to play ukulele when it's someone's birthday at work, isn't that right, Bo? [haha]
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Thank you for answering! Very interesting to read! [big grin]
 

James Stant

Frontier
Frontier
coasterlover said:
Amazing read, Thank you.



to answer your question,

Think Alton Towers, the 5 Main Area's also have there own Themed Music, X sector (the smiler tune) Dark Forrest (Thi3teen) and so on and so forth all the way down to cebeebies land, if we got that level of integration, i'd cry, rivers (and turn it into a log flume, with it sown music )


for me its the hum of noise interspersed with screams and the "B&M Roar" That makes me feel "THIS Is a Theme Park"
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Absolutely! So atmospheric - gives you the chills, doesn't it?

Oooh the roar, nice choice! [up]
 

James Stant

Frontier
Frontier
PC4tom said:
Hi James,

first of all, thanks for taking the time here to do the Q&A.
It's a pleasure to read it!

All details about the sound are amazing already in that stage, and reading, there will be more just exites me!

A HUGE THANK YOU for Planco - it's incredible how you and the team develope a new language - that's much more than a game offers, and is a big part of the hype!

Thanks so much and keep on the great work - it's highly appreciated!

Cheers!
tom
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Thanks so much for your kind words, Tom! Wonderful to see your passion for Planet Coaster (and Planco!) - most certainly high appreciated!

Some great creations you've got there on your Steam Workshop. That Big Cannon certainly is a BIG one! Looks ace! [big grin] Keep the cool uploads coming!
 

James Stant

Frontier
Frontier
Nemmie said:
Thanks James. And I'm gonna try the quickly placing pirate bells malarkey as soon as I open the game.

E Dor Planet Ooma at Planco at allo luh zamaller work oe dorzi people say desler.... (I Love Planet Coaster and Planco and all the amazing work you lovely people are doing) [up]
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Cheers Nemmie! A full translation for you here: E dor Planet Coaster at Planco at allo luh zamaller busap oe dorzi seepi say desler
 

James Stant

Frontier
Frontier
inspectorgadget said:
Great to see these threads back, thanks James for your answers [up]



Look what I found [big grin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGHh1-HSVhM

And also [wacky]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_y_C6g3HdE

So excited for what you have in store for us over the next couple of months, hopefully it's not too long before we get a sneak peak at it all [cool]
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Oh my goodness, those go back a few years (especially the latter)!

It's going to be an exciting couple of months, for sure! Some awesome additions coming! [woah]
 

JMR

JMR
James Stant! The PLANCO Mastermind! Thank you for taking the time to post this, interesting read. :)

Also a massive thumbs up to the rest of the audio team. The audio in this game is incredible.

Bo Marit said:
What sound(s) do you most associate with visiting a theme park?
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Chain lifts, screams and roar of coaster plummeting.

Bo Marit said:
That the community are incredibly passionate about importing their own music! We hear you and, as we assured you in our Audio Q&A, we most definitely are looking into it. As players, it’s a feature we’d all love to see added to Planet Coaster, but it’s genuinely not as simple as many would assume it would be. And after all, if we’re going to do something, we want to make sure we do it right!
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That would be amazing! Speaking of custom audio, I'd LOVE to be able to chain the audio to ride events and station triggers. For instance, as guests step on the ride; "Welcome to the JMRocker sorry, please keep your hands, arms, wrists, elbows, ears, hair, legs, toes inside the train at all times." Is this something that has been talked about yet?
 

Vampiro

Volunteer Moderator
Vampiro
JMR said:
James Stant! The PLANCO Mastermind! Thank you for taking the time to post this, interesting read. :)

That would be amazing! Speaking of custom audio, I'd LOVE to be able to chain the audio to ride events and station triggers. For instance, as guests step on the ride; "Welcome to the JMRocker sorry, please keep your hands, arms, wrists, elbows, ears, hair, legs, toes inside the train at all times." Is this something that has been talked about yet?
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This... Or onboard music that will start as soon as a train is leaving the station platform would be very cool! [cool]

But thats a nice to have. Just to have custom music at my coasters or que lines wil make me jump of joy :D
 

James Stant

Frontier
Frontier
InvisibleBryan said:
When did you start coding and creating games?
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I started in 2008, so a whole eight years ago!

I'd tried the usual things like BASIC before that but didn't really make any progress during my youth. It's amazing what children/teenagers have access to these days, such as Kodu - I would have LOVED something like that growing up!
 
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SPRidley

SPRidley
One of the most amazing thibgs from the game is without a doubt the audio department. I have seen very few games were everything sounds so realisticly, even how far or echo the sound has.

I cant wait to hear what type of voice you add to the mascot I created, Foxy Coffee (i know she is not called that anymore, but you guys still havent give her a final name lol)
 

Jules Moore

Jules Moore
I know I'm way too late to post in this thread, but I just wanted to say how much I love the sound of placing a tiled roof. [big grin]
It's sooooooo satisfying.
I always turn the volume up before building something [haha] That wooden *plonk* and the sound of the stone walls is also very cool.

Extremely well done! Thank you for that! [happy]
 
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