Lost Planet

As a follow-up to my interview last week with Capcom Sound Director Tomoya Kishi, this week I’m pleased to bring to you an interview with Peter Zinda from Soundelux. When you boot Lost Planet, you’ll notice the prominent Soundelux logo before the title screen. Capcom has been working with Soundelux for many years now, and Soundelux has provided sound effects and music for many of your favorite Capcom games.

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[Brian] What is your name and what is your role at Soundelux?

[Peter Zinda] My name is Peter Zinda. Im a sound designer and sound supervisor at Soundelux Design Music Group. At Soundelux DMG, we provide audio for games, films, commercials, theme parks, and museums.

[Brian] Have you worked on any other Capcom games in the past besides Lost Planet?

[Peter] Quite a few! The first Capcom game I worked on was Devil May Cry. Since then, I have worked on all the DMC games, Monster Hunter 1 and 2, and some of the recent Resident Evil games. Lost Planet is definitely a high point! Capcom has some of the most creative game designers and artists in the industry, and it is amazing to see what they can do with the technical capabilities of the Xbox 360. I also got drawn into the epic story of the game.

[Brian] What part did Soundelux play in the production of Lost Planet?

[Peter] Capcom hired us for dialog recording, music composition, and sound design. Ill talk about the sound design, since thats what I was involved in.

The in-game sounds we worked on were mainly weapons, aliens (Akrid,) and the vital suits, or VS. Every weapon, creature, and vital suit has its own personality, and we supported that with audio by giving them each their own signature sound. We wanted players to be able to identify weapons even if they couldnt see them, for example if the shot is coming from behind them. All of the sounds need to convey a feeling. When players start up a VS, they should get excited to pilot it in the game. After a long battle against one of the giant Akrid, the player should get a sense of satisfaction from its death scream, or a sense of terror if the battle isnt over after all.

Editing on the cinematics was a cooperative effort between Capcom and Soundelux, with Scott Gershin acting as rerecording mixer and supervising sound editor for the US team. When dealing with a linear format like cinematics, we have the opportunity to make the sound more subjective, as opposed to in-game audio, which needs to be more literal, since the sounds are being triggered by the computer. In other words, we tailor the sound to the drama of the story more than a physics system of cause and effect. We can add more dynamic sounds to vehicles, or we can add sounds that support a change in mood.

[Brian] Who from Capcom did you work with? What was that like?

[Peter] Our main link with Capcom was Tomoya Kishi. It was wonderful to work with such a talented and dedicated Audio Director! We started each phase with a creative meeting, where Tomoya gave us direction on what Capcom was looking for, and we offered our own ideas. After we finished designing the sounds and Tomoya approved them, he implemented them into the game engine. This is a very important step. We always felt that our sounds were in good hands! We really admire his commitment to making the game sound the best it can be. You can hear that when you play Lost Planet.

Since we were in Los Angeles, and Capcom is in Japan, we emailed back and forth about creative decisions every week, sometimes daily. Capcom translator Kaori Funakoshi helped us communicate with each other, and we thank her for that!

[Brian] Do you have any funny or interesting anecdotes from the production?

[Peter] As sound designers, we spend most of our time in the studio, manipulating sounds and combining them in ways that will have an emotional impact on the listener. I wish I had a funny anecdote, but what really gets sound designers excited, something like finding a perfect animal scream, an unusual element to add to an explosion, or a processing chain that yields an aggressive new sound, might end up boring your readers! We did manage to get out into the real world a few times. We visited a train yard and some machine shops, recording mechanical elements for the vital suits, which was a lot of fun!

[Brian] What is your favorite piece of music or sound, etc. that Soundelux produced for the game?

[Peter] Jamie Christopherson composed the music, so Im sure he could tell you what his favorite pieces are. I love what Ive heard so far! As far as sound design goes, there are many individual sounds created by the crew of designers here and at Capcom that I think turned out great. What Im most proud of is how everything sounds together, in gameplay and in the final mixes of the cinematics. When I hear a battle raging between heavy, powerful vital suits and terrifying, otherworldly Akrid, a battle that sounds evocative and believable—thats what puts a smile on my face. Our job is to tell a story through sound. We hope players feel like they are part of the story.

[Brian] Are you much of a gamer? Do you plan on playing Lost Planet online?

[Peter] I am, and Im playing Lost Planet online already, thanks to the downloadable online demo! I cant wait for the game to come out. Im also really looking forward to the single player campaign. Im hoping to get a Soundelux Capcom match going once we have a chance to develop our skills!

[Brian] Any closing thoughts you want to share about Lost Planet?

[Brian] Im almost sorry we are finished with the project! As a sound designer, theres nothing more fun than creating sounds for weapons, aliens, and future technology. Lost Planet had all of that at once! After working on this game since early 2004, I am definitely going through withdrawal now!

Id also like to acknowledge the whole team from Soundelux Design Music Group. This was definitely a group effort. Everyone contributed something that was uniquely their own, and their work makes playing the game a richer experience. I feel lucky to work with such creative people, here in the US and in Japan.

Hope you enjoyed that! Well, the launch event is tomorrow, and our signing events are on Friday. I hope you can make it to the actual events, but I’ll be taking plenty of pictures so you’ll get to see what it was like. I’ll also get a chance to sit down with Lost Planet Producer Jun Takeuchi on Friday and Executive Producer Keiji Inafune at the event for some one-on-one interviews (I’ll be translating for their various interviews with the press both days anyway). You’ll be seeing those interviews here on the blog in the next few weeks.


—Brian

Official Lost Planet Giveaway!