There are so many posts congratulating the team at Frontier for their amazing achievements. I also wanted to congratulate on the amazing soundtrack. I do sincerely believe that it's one of the best soundtracks ever made for a game. So: congratulations on an amazing game with one of the best soundtracks ever made! So glad it's ambient, acoustic and relaxing instead of the horrible RCT 3 soundtrack. Such a huge improvement. [up]
Congratulations on one of the best soundtracks ever made
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I like some of RCT3 - the main theme 'Summer Air' is iconic and brings back memories of the game, and 'Mermaid' and 'Heart of the Forest' are good and atmospheric.
The Planet Coaster soundtrack is cool and recorded well... very warm sounding. But many of the tracks are simply variations of a theme...which is fine, but the stand-out tracks are obvious. The main theme "The light in us all", "Theories of an eager Heart" and of course "You Me & Gravity". There's 16 tracks, and you've got three really solid tracks, and the rest sounds like they're just jamming in the studio between songs! Strumming their guitars and messing around. It's all good, I'm just bringing some balance when you hated on the RCT3 soundtrack [big grin]
RCT 3 Music was.... sometimes.... good. I liked the "Wild!" theme. But many tracks were really uninspired, like chillout music.... Nothing I could remember.
The PC main theme is in my opinion far the best game music of 2016. It stays in your head and bring you to flute it. [up]
The PC main theme is in my opinion far the best game music of 2016. It stays in your head and bring you to flute it. [up]
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Thanks guys! We have been so happy to get Jim Guthrie and JJ Ipsen on board for Planet Coaster. We always knew that we wanted to create a game where the park you build is the star. The audio would have to respect that. We couldn't have gotten away with playing a pre-recorded ambience of people mulling about or the sounds of pre-recorded coasters and flatrides as a background. What you hear is to be found in the game, because you put it there.
We also knew this meant the creation of two soundtracks. Firstly there is the music which comes from the park itself and we spend a lot of time to make sure that sounds believable, we call this "diegetic" (in world) music. We also knew that there are moments where the game cannot provide an always changing and dynamic in-world soundtrack and those are the moments where Jim's soundtrack comes in.
Through the data that the game provides us, we can track what you are doing, how busy the park is and what rides are currently active. All that data and much more, is constantly analysed and from it the music system can pick the "right" moment to bring in the soundtrack.
Our technical sound designer, Stephen, has worked months to create and fine tune that music system. It jumps, as if by magic, from rides and coasters to those moments where we bring in the (non-diegetic) soundtrack. We even made ambient versions of all the tracks to use where the original track would be too busy for your activities or the size of your park. When we run the risk of the park music and soundtrack clashing, Stephen very cleverly can filter out layers of the soundtrack, so that transitions aren't just crossfades, but execute far more gracefully.
Of course, we have our big western track, the sci-fi epic, the over the top anime poptune and even dub-step playing as music on the rides themselves. A whole team of composers provided loads of in-world music for you to around play with and we even have the composer who worked on Elite Dangerous contributed to those! Jeremiah Pena wrote more than half of the orchestral ride music, he's an amazingly talented composer and a real star!
But when the game isn't presenting a dynamic soundscape and we feel it might become uninteresting, we bring in Jim's tunes. His brief was that it should always feel like handcrafted music, reflecting not so much the literal ongoings in the park, but your own (handcrafted) experience of creating it. We felt that should be a positive experience, a warm and energetic feeling not unlike the sun's firey red rays on a warm summer evening.
We are so happy that Jim delivered and even more thrilled that you like his work.
It is true that in a sense we make these games for ourselves first (during production no one else but us plays them) but with the open development model the community has become such a great part of that and we surely want these games to be played and loved by you too. You guys and gals are absolutely awesome : )
I am currently in the strange limbo of being both very tired and incredibly excited about Planet Coaster and the fantastic creations you are sharing. You took the time to let us know this and that is a real treat!
We also knew this meant the creation of two soundtracks. Firstly there is the music which comes from the park itself and we spend a lot of time to make sure that sounds believable, we call this "diegetic" (in world) music. We also knew that there are moments where the game cannot provide an always changing and dynamic in-world soundtrack and those are the moments where Jim's soundtrack comes in.
Through the data that the game provides us, we can track what you are doing, how busy the park is and what rides are currently active. All that data and much more, is constantly analysed and from it the music system can pick the "right" moment to bring in the soundtrack.
Our technical sound designer, Stephen, has worked months to create and fine tune that music system. It jumps, as if by magic, from rides and coasters to those moments where we bring in the (non-diegetic) soundtrack. We even made ambient versions of all the tracks to use where the original track would be too busy for your activities or the size of your park. When we run the risk of the park music and soundtrack clashing, Stephen very cleverly can filter out layers of the soundtrack, so that transitions aren't just crossfades, but execute far more gracefully.
Of course, we have our big western track, the sci-fi epic, the over the top anime poptune and even dub-step playing as music on the rides themselves. A whole team of composers provided loads of in-world music for you to around play with and we even have the composer who worked on Elite Dangerous contributed to those! Jeremiah Pena wrote more than half of the orchestral ride music, he's an amazingly talented composer and a real star!
But when the game isn't presenting a dynamic soundscape and we feel it might become uninteresting, we bring in Jim's tunes. His brief was that it should always feel like handcrafted music, reflecting not so much the literal ongoings in the park, but your own (handcrafted) experience of creating it. We felt that should be a positive experience, a warm and energetic feeling not unlike the sun's firey red rays on a warm summer evening.
We are so happy that Jim delivered and even more thrilled that you like his work.
It is true that in a sense we make these games for ourselves first (during production no one else but us plays them) but with the open development model the community has become such a great part of that and we surely want these games to be played and loved by you too. You guys and gals are absolutely awesome : )
I am currently in the strange limbo of being both very tired and incredibly excited about Planet Coaster and the fantastic creations you are sharing. You took the time to let us know this and that is a real treat!
Hi there,
I can just second the OP!
And a HUGE THANK YOU to the Frontier devs and team that did such an amazing work! This soundtrack and the system behind it make playing so more enjoyable!
Thanks Matthew, for taking the time and explaining the system behind the soundtrack!
I'm really happy and can't thank you enough!
I can just second the OP!
And a HUGE THANK YOU to the Frontier devs and team that did such an amazing work! This soundtrack and the system behind it make playing so more enjoyable!
Thanks Matthew, for taking the time and explaining the system behind the soundtrack!
I'm really happy and can't thank you enough!
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Have to agree, the sound track is marvellous! Three tracks in particular I really love: 'Small Hands Make Big Things', 'You'll know When it Turns Invisible' and 'So We See The Truth & Beauty'. Whenever they come on in the game, I always stop what I'm doing and just have a sit back to observe my park while the music plays out! [up]
Fantastic! Our head of audio, Jim Croft spend a lot of time talking with Jim Guthrie to understand what the game needs. Was a lot of fun reading their exchanges and following their many experimentations, even Jim Croft playing guitar and singing himself to explain directions or ideas. Their back and forth have made it as good as it is. Jim and Jim are both amazing musicians and creators : )
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I just have to say this...
I <3 <3 <3 the soundtrack. It's amazingly relaxing and spirit-lifting, I could play it on loop all day and not get bored of it! (In fact I did... shhh). I especially love the old saloon-style piano sound in "With Friendship & Peace" - I just love that. [big grin]
I <3 <3 <3 the soundtrack. It's amazingly relaxing and spirit-lifting, I could play it on loop all day and not get bored of it! (In fact I did... shhh). I especially love the old saloon-style piano sound in "With Friendship & Peace" - I just love that. [big grin]
Thank you for the info! This game is incredible
The music of this game is remarkable for sure, in all aspects. Thanks Matthew for not only mentioning the obvious ambient soundtrack that got released last week, but also for giving some more insight in the actual ingame "score". I especially love the orchestral variations on the infamous "Light in Us All" theme that play as the park's area music. The ride music seems to be generated on the fly to some extend, matching the customized ride program and even the coaster's layout! Impressive stuff.
Now of course the officially released soundtrack only contains the gameplay soundtrack and none of the music that guests in the game world can hear. Are there any plans to release this music as well? I know we can just rip the tunes from the game files or record them (and they do start appearing on Youtube already). This is fine for the ride music, however the area music sounds....not so nice. It is very low quality and "blown up". I assume that was done on purpose to mimic the effect of worn-out outdoor speakers in a noisy environment and that works really well in the game, it actually adds to the overall realism. But it is not pleasent to listen to outside of the game and that is a shame because it is so good otherwise. I hope we can get our hands to the full quality, unmodified version of those tracks someday...one way or the other.
Now of course the officially released soundtrack only contains the gameplay soundtrack and none of the music that guests in the game world can hear. Are there any plans to release this music as well? I know we can just rip the tunes from the game files or record them (and they do start appearing on Youtube already). This is fine for the ride music, however the area music sounds....not so nice. It is very low quality and "blown up". I assume that was done on purpose to mimic the effect of worn-out outdoor speakers in a noisy environment and that works really well in the game, it actually adds to the overall realism. But it is not pleasent to listen to outside of the game and that is a shame because it is so good otherwise. I hope we can get our hands to the full quality, unmodified version of those tracks someday...one way or the other.
Hey Matthew, I mentioned it when we chatted at the launch event (and I hope I didn't make you late for your interview!) but the audio design in this game is truly spectacular. Your comment that you've done your job right when people don't notice the technical complexity is spot on, and it's posts like this one that bring home just how much *has* gone into the design of the audio. I'd noticed that the soundtrack tended to start playing when the game was paused, but hadn't twigged that it would play generally in 'quiet' moments.
If you ever do a talk on the audio of Planet Coaster, can I come? [big grin]
+1 to all this. I'm on an empty park just making rides and the music is so great! Can't wait to hear this park full of guests!
Thanks Matt for the comments [up] The audio on this game is very well done and seeing the reaction from the Twitch viewers as various tracks play is great, the emotes used speak volumes [big grin]
Audio is wonderful, both music and VFX. Really. Especially the way music intensifies or cools down depending on the coaster layout. Awesome. But... this ballad of Tentifu... Get it out of my head ! [wacky]
The soundtrack rocks! [big grin]
Haha it's the Teacups theme tune that I can't get out of my head. Love it.
Hopefully this brings you all the reward that was criminally not given for Elite Dangerous and its amazing sounds.