Brainpipe Interview: Creators of Trippy Indie Game Talk Interactive Sound
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Brainpipe is a psychedellic journey down the neural pathways, a long, strange trip into the minds of an unusual band of independent game designers. And while some games demand muscular graphics cards or brilliant flat panels, this is one that requires playing with headphones. The immersive sense of the descent down this brain’s pathway is entirely dependent on its sound. While even big development houses often license sound engines, the band of hard-core designers at Digital Eel also rolled their own interactive audio code to make the sounds fully seamless.
Designers and developers Iikka Keränen (the primary coder) and Rich Carlson spoke to me about their work. (They make reference to artist Bill “Phosphorous” Sears, as well.) In the process, they have a lot to say about the design process, about ambient sound design and composition, that goes well beyond just the gaming world. This isn’t just about gaming: it’s truly about digital music.
Digital Eel has won three excellence in audio awards over the past six years from the Independent Games Festival, including, most recently, a nomination for the psychedellic hit “Brainpipe” at the Game Developer Conference this spring. Incredibly, though, says Digital Eel’s Brainpipe, in that time no one has interviewed them about the sound in their games. Independent of the interview, Rich concede to me the challenge of getting people to focus on sound:
People are focused on graphics –and gameplay– and, you know, sound always gets the short shrift, even at game companies. Sound and music are always the smallest slice of the development budget pie.
But not so at Digital Eel. Sound and music are integral and integrated with design from the first moment we have something happening on the screen. We feel it must be, and not just sfx but music, especially music which so often sounds like something….like dressing, something painted on, like makeup or apartment paint to help cover up the picture holes on the walls.
Brainpipe Game Page (with Mac/Windows download links – demos available so if you hate this, you’ll find out!)
Brainpipe on Steam (Windows only)
At a glance:
Engine: Custom
Favorite inspiration: demoscene, The Dig, Star Control II, Stockhausen, Varese, Morton Subotnick, Ussachevsky
Special acheivements: hiding loop points, creating a seamless acoustic descent, tapping into your subconscious
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