If the SPYSCAPE museum offered you a critical mission to design the soundscape for an interactive secret agent training program, would you accept? For Unlock Audio, the answer was an easy “Yes!” after the success of our previous audio collab on the BATMAN x SPYSCAPE app.
Now, we’re ready to declassify and debrief how we went undercover as super secret sonic agents to create custom audio for the SPYGAMES experience where players of all ages can test their physical and mental skills on the road to discovering their own unique spy abilities.
Mission Recon: Acoustics
For sound designers, it’s important to understand the conditions in which people will experience your audio. As any good secret agent would do, our team first gathered important intel about the SPYGAMES training environment before beginning our mission.
While much of our work revolves around video games which have added complexity given the infinite variety of home audio variables, SPYSCAPE’s onsite interactive exhibit provided us with the rare opportunity to create and optimize for peak audio performance with an objective environment in mind.
Each of SPYGAMES’ training games operates in its own dedicated room or “game zone.” Each space was built and fitted with audio equipment before we rekindled our audio collaboration, so all we had to do was visit the exhibit and gather clear acoustic profiles of each zone with a flat-response microphone. (That said, we’re always game for scoping out equipment and implementation software when those considerations aren’t already resolved!)
Since we engineer our audio in studios offsite, the EQ information gathered from the point of implementation was invaluable for simulating how our sounds and music would perform in their real-world setting. While fresh audio may sound great on our own audiophile equipment, there are so many factors that can dull the impact once it’s competing with reverb, echoes from excited players, or bleed from sounds of activity outside the room.
Reconnaissance as simple as this was mission critical for delivering peak audio performance and optimal player experience as folks put their super agent skills to the SPYGAMES test.
Operation: Original Sound Design
Based on the EQ findings from our sonic scouting, we knew we had to develop our audio with several key parameters in mind. We learned that low end sounds would muddle and bleed, which pointed us toward a brighter palette of sounds. Since SPYGAMES is geared toward team-based play, we also needed to make sure that our audio would cut through the excited chatter and ambient noise (much like Unlock’s arcade-minded approach to prior sound design for pinball machines) all without competing with the spymaster’s narrated game instructions.
Click the pic above to see a team of players traverse through the climbing drills
Given the gameshow-style interactivity of each game zone, we decided to build on sounds that don’t require folks to be hardcore gamers to understand. Think of the pointed audio cues of shows like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Even a new competitor who had never seen the show would know when the next question is about to be asked or when their answer is locked in.
Our approach for SPYGAMES incorporated positive reinforcement with easily perceptible whooshes and chimes. Cues during gameplay, like the emulated buzz of retro bulbs in the Spotlight challenge or the audible “red wave” on the platform-hopping Trap Attack game prime players to make their move before their cover is blown. Elements like the tangible clatter of scoreboards all lend a fun, gamified feel throughout the experience. A subtle, digitized filter acros all our sound effects helped to sells the consistent feel of a computerized training program throughout its many rooms.
Since room ambience would be carried by music, our interactive sound design could be far more concise, providing players with clear telegraphs, action sounds, and sonic feedback. While video games can often get bogged down on the minutiae of audio loops, the tight gameplay of SPYGAMES allowed us to prioritize evoking high-octane emotions and dopamine rushes above all.
And while our mixing process sounded overbright in the isolation of the studio, we knew that the results would ring out clearly in the heart-pounding context of the rambunctious game zones.
Operation: Signature Scores
When you hear the phrase spy music, what jumps to mind? We bet it’s something with swagger like themes from Mission Impossible or GoldenEye 007. While the SPYSCAPE museum embraces both real-world espionage and legendary spies from popular fiction, the team wanted to make sure SPYGAMES stood on its own with a distinct musical sound.
SPYGAMES’ players aren’t James Bonds or Ethan Hunts (at least not yet). The experience is framed as a training program after all. By partaking in the SPYGAMES challenges, visitors are invited to learn what spy category they would best fit into based on their performance in the games. Individual performance is tracked via interactive wristbands and kiosks. Since fun and energy were of utmost importance, we decided to explore a more electronic style of music reflective of the high-tech gaming and museum experience onsite.
From stealth tests to competitive codebreaking, each SPYGAMES game zone offers players a unique challenge to overcome. When preparing to write the music for each room, we were given key information about the challenge and the action pace (e.g., Peak Performance would be a climbing challenge that needed a feeling of suspense).
To ratchet up excitement and intensity, we approached even the speediest challenges with a slower beginning pace, a quickening middle pace, and a heart-racing ending pace. We started by creating each room’s central track as a baseline for concept approval and then expanded each with variations for the beginning, transitional, and ending intensities.
While each room has its own characteristics, from laser dodging to platform-hopping, we still wanted to weave certain shared elements for cohesion across the many SPYGAMES experiences. Sharp-eared players might notice consistent sounds of drums and bass when moving from one game zone to the next.
Audio Mission: Accomplished
SPYGAMES is open in NYC now on a beta-testing basis, but anyone can make a reservation! We can’t wait for even more teams of aspiring secret agents to put their physical and mental spy skills to the test in these immersive challenges designed with CIA and Special Ops input. If you find your way to the training site, let us know if our original audio helped make the experience feel real! Debrief: complete.
