Author : Daniel Reder
A large portion of Troglodyte In the Underbelly takes place in the cave system known as the Underbelly. While most explored and open to the public cave systems are quiet in nature, a realistic cave system from a sound design perspective did not create an atmosphere that we were looking for. While listening to water flowing and your own footsteps in real life would be an experience of its own in a cave deep underground, from a game standpoint the player needs more in order to be immersed in what the underbelly represents.
However, there needs to be a balance in sound design. While a barrage of noise works wonders for a game like Touhou, the mixture of silence and eerie sounds creates anticipation and fear of the unknown. The solution to this was to create a sound cue. These cues, depending on the type would play either consistently, randomly, or upon a condition being met. Sounds such as water make sense to have play consistently, as water creates noise as long as there is movement. Some sound effects work best upon a condition such as the player entering an area or the player mining in a dark room. Sound effects such as distant rumbling fit this perfectly. Combine that with a minimum listening distance, and the player can never see the threat but is made aware of its existence. Finally the (mostly) random type was created for sound effects that are meant to be part of the environment but at an inconsistent interval. The example of this I like would be water dripping near the player. The sound plays at a random interval that can be influenced by parameters as necessary. This is important as water dripping at a consistent 1 second interval would begin to sound mechanical and unnatural and could break immersion on its own.
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