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  • DevDiary 8 - Music

    Hello friends, and welcome to our 8th DevDiary for “Knights of Honor II: Sovereign”! This time we’re having our first deep dive into the music and audio of our game, a topic we’ve heard many of you are excited about.

    The composers of “Knights of Honor II: Sovereign” bid thee welcome! Yannick and Robin are from Audinity and, after having worked on many strategy video game titles in the past, are having a blast working on the sequel to one of their favorite childhood video games. In fact, the hours Robin spent in the medieval world of “Knights of Honor” exceed the 1000-hour mark and both still have the game installed in their Steam library to this day.

    So, with all this in mind, there has been a lot of discussion and eagerness on how to approach a game that is near and dear to both!

    First, after playing the development build, it was clear that a game of this scope and style would need some brainstorming on how to approach the soundtrack. Everyone sat down and brainstormed, working collaboratively from both the composer and developer side to form a concept and approach that everyone could get behind. This wasn’t just about finding the right tone, but also figuring out how to technically approach how we’d leverage music in the game. It may seem like an easy thing, but we assure you, there’s a lot of little details that make it quite complex.

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    As you probably know from the previous DevDiaries, KoH2:S features various cultures. One of our primary goals is to write unique music for a variety of these cultures in the game. After all, playing as a Western European faction should feel and sound different than playing as an Arabian faction. We also wanted to find a tone that would feel very much like “Knights of Honor”, too, and spent lots of time listening to the old soundtrack and discussing with some of the original KoH team members how the music was developed back then.

    This led us down the route of devising different playlists for the major, unique cultures. These playlists feature authentic short tracks – which we call “snippets” – for creating the appropriate cultural mood as well as big orchestral signature tracks as musical accents. We want the players to feel the impact of their decisions to medieval Europe through the music, but we do not just want a plain ambient underscore, we also want the music to give direct feedback to certain gameplay elements.

     Just like the cultural direction of a region can change (think about the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula), the music can change as well in order to create a more adaptive music system that reflects some of these changes.

     So, if for example the Iberian Peninsula is partly Muslim and partly Christian, you might be able to hear music from both the Christian/European and the Muslim/Arabian playlists when you are in that region for a longer time.

    The musical changes will be quite subtle first and depending on how significant the cultural changes, the level of musical adaptation increases. If a European/Christian region gets conquered by Pagans, you might first hear one Pagan music track here and there. If the region remains Pagan for a while, more Pagan tracks can be added. This means that over time, the amount of “Christian/European” music in the playlist can decrease, just like the actual Christian/European influence in that region. We think this could be a cool way to have the music and culture work together and reflect how your decisions are impacting the world.

    In addition, we’re also experimenting with short tracks that can trigger based on certain impactful gameplay events to add musical feedback and support the mood. For example, if the Pope calls for a crusade, there may be a specific musical flourish to help build the atmosphere.

    Also, we want the music to react to the political situation and stability in your realm. If your people are rioting heavily or if several other nations declare war on you, you might be able to notice a change of music towards more tension tracks that indicate “woops, something is happening!”

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    As most of you know, the game’s setting reflects the real world during the medieval era, where you create an alternative path forward based on your actions and decisions. You are the Sovereign, the medieval leader, and we want the music to support that mood as well. That’s why we want to feature many authentic traditional instruments in our score. In European/Christian tracks you can often hear the lute, viola da gamba, recorders and many more. We also plan to record an old zither that Yannick inherited from his grandmother! Arabian/Muslim regions will feature traditional instruments as well, like the Ney flute or Darbuka.  

    To give the music a true historical vibe that fits the setting, we also plan to incorporate the famous “L’Homme Armé” (“The Armed Man”) melody, which is an actual authentic medieval tune fitting perfectly to the game’s theme.

    All the music samples you’re hearing in these clips are both works-in-progress and digital versions made with our computers. We’re excited to use both orchestra and featured traditional instruments in our music, and we’re planning to record with live musicians for the game, including some authentic soloists, which should be a real treat. That said, we didn’t want to wait until our recording sessions to give our fans a taste of the music, so hope you enjoy this preview, and can keep in mind that the final tracks will sound much much better!

    We will talk more on this topic in our DevStream on Thursday, July 9th, @ 3:00 PM GMT / 11:00 AM EST. The Twitch stream will be hosted on the THQ Nordic channel: http://twitch.tv/thqnordic. Not only will we be grabbing responses from this post, we’ll also be showing off more music, with some new footage, during the stream, so you won’t want to miss it!

    Of course, we want to produce the best soundtrack possible, both as music composers and as die-hard fans of “Knights of Honor.” We hope you’ve enjoyed this first sample of what we’ve been cooking up and would love to hear your opinions on how things are starting. Do you like the idea of music reflecting the culture of an area, or do you prefer having more direct control of the tracks that play? What are your thoughts on the first tracks? Do you have a specific track or melody from the first Knights of Honor that is really memorable to you, and why?

    We can’t wait to hear your feedback and write even more great music for you to enjoy. Until then, we bid thee farewell. Go forth and conquer!


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    THQN Brad



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    Hello there Dear Devs,

    I have two simple questions about the music and sound in KoH 2, and here goes:

    Will you consider adding a Soundtrack DLC to the assets of the game, which will allow us to download and listen to the awesome music of the game? Perhaps in a Supporters' Edition of KoH 2?

    I would love to listen to the music of KoH 2 while I am at work. Listening to game music always motivates me to play more and more and to give my best in each game. It is a must have for me, as it also is a proven way to combat burnout.

    My second question is not about the music, but rather to the sound and voice acting:

    Will there be voice acting in the main menu and in-game, similar to the previous game, where the Narrator says lines like "The medieval world of Kinghts of Honor awaits you" or "You are leaving so soon?", when I press exit game.

    These lines were very special to me, as the voice actor was really good and indeed made me feel like a virtual Sovereign. For instance lines like "The king is dead, long live the king", or perhaps "Behold, the splendour of our army!" were really good for the immersion in the game. And of course, my favorite one, when I press exit game - "I shall await your return". I kinda really loved that guy! :) 

    Those are my questions. I would really love to hear about the Soundtrack DLS, as I would love to support the musicians and to feel free to listen to their work.

    My favorite track from Knights of Honor was "Echo in Eternity".

    Thank you and keep up the good work! And stay healthy!

     

    Kind Regards!

    Edited by Yavor
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    Darn beaten again......  I am liking what I am hearing from this post, that the music changes with game action and setting. One thing not really mentioned is how the transitions are made? I have always wanted a game to explore the idea of making the sound track feel as if it was one long piece to give the illusion that the song never changes. Are the tranitions simply fade in and fade out transitions? Or do you musically connect the transitions to make the music feel more fluid and connected giving the illusion that no transition has taken place?

    Also how many hours of songs are we looking at the present moment? For sure the more the better, as long gaming hours really make any soundtrack boring after enough time. 

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    Great work 👌 I also like ending music in Trailer and i hope you guys will use it somewhere 😁

    By the way... Did i saw Prague with Bohemian symbol?  Many thanks from Czech Republic🥰 

     

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    I realy like where this is going and what You guys are making here. The samples are great and I can't wait to hear full orchestral versions.
    I'm totally with Yavor and his post about voice acting and Supporters' Edition for Koh 2 with Soundtrack, concept arts and so on.
    When we enter the tactical screen, will music change according to the type of battle or will use the same overworld music score? 

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    Great stuff, the first game had a fantastic, memorable soundtrack so it's good to see the team is looking at it when developing the music for the sequel. One thing KoH1 didn't get so right was the lack of musical variety for different cultures (there was some, but very limited) so I'm glad this is being improved in KoH2.

     

    I have some questions regarding some of the implementation details for the adaptive sound. The post seems to use religion and culture interchangably, so I'm a bit confused about how the different musical styles are going to be split. For example, are Italy, Spain and England going to have the different styles to the soundtrack, or will the soundtrack mainly focus on religious differences such as the given examples of Muslim, Pagan and Christian? Also wondering how the game determines what style of music to play - is it based on where you're looking at on the map, or where you're doing something actively or what? Finally - does this change in music also apply to the RTS-style battles? If so, how does this work? As an example, if I am an Arabic army fighting a European army and the battle is happening in the middle of some Pagan territory, which style of music would the game pick?

     

    As a final note, the post talks about players picking their playlist. In my opinion, both options could be available to players in the Settings, as I can see different people having different preferences in that regard. What could be cool though -  since the game is also doing Multiplayer - would be to let players pick a theme or a dominant instrument etc. that other players in that MP session hear when they're in their territory.

     

    Thanks for all your hard work, guys! Looking forward to hearing/seeing more of the game and finally getting my hands on it when it's ready!

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    For me this is the most important part of KoH, maybe even more important than the gameplay itself. So I'm very relieved you are gonna use the music from KOH as a base. I'm really hoping for the same voice acting as well, though!

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    I really like the idea of the the specific music for each region/religion/culture etc. While I agree with a lot of the question raised above like how the music changes will be conducted, how precise the music choice is and so on, I have a huge wish regarding the music cues. Please please please don't just add one per event. I know many many strategy games that make that mistake and if you always hear the same dun dun dun when a rebellion breaks out or haaaaa when a crusade starts it just leads to people playing with music off. And that would be a shame, especially since you put so much effort in. Thanks 🙂

     

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    6 minutes ago, Hurpyderp said:

    I really like the idea of the the specific music for each region/religion/culture etc. 

    That would be an awful lot of music.  Somewhere reality has to set in.

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    22 minutes ago, Lighthope said:

    That would be an awful lot of music.  Somewhere reality has to set in.

    Well realistically it doesn't have to be. If you have for instance one 3 minute track for crusades, you could snip it into small pieces that are played alternatingly. Or just change the dominant instrument/instrument group. 

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