Audio Unlocked: A Look into Warframe's Sounds| The Gamerheads Podcast

Sound is such a huge part of any game. It adds the emotional context as well as the immersive atmosphere. From gunplay to voice acting, the sounds add that extra sparkle into every game. For Warframe, they clearly do not hold back, making sure every little sound is accounted for. Digital Extremes (DE) even went as far as creating a whole boy band in game and making music for them. I have never seen a game company have as much dedication to sound as DE. 

Throughout the panel, they continued to show their dedication by giving us a behind the scene look at several different creations. By using a program called Reaper, an audio production application, they showed how they create synthetic helicopter sounds, coda weapon gunplay, and Koumei’s unique ability sounds. What I especially loved about Koumei’s sounds is that they recorded a music box and then created their own song from the notes. While in the game, I like that this gives Koumei extra whimsy to her frame. 

My favorite take on DE’s vision is that they created a game for their music. As a Warframe fan, it’s interesting to know that a lot of thought is put into changing the musical style of each update, including making sure the music is listenable outside the game. I definitely listen to songs like Party of your Lifetime and Waverider in my car, so they accomplished their goal. We learned about the vision for 1999 from Matthew Chalmers, a composer and musician for Warframe. He created over 20 original tracks for the 1999 expansion, which we got to hear him perform the night before at the TennoConcert. I was in complete awe over the whole band’s stage presence as it was their first time performing this setlist in front of a live audience at an arena. DE is lucky to have him throughout the many years of Warframe. 

One big takeaway I had from this panel is that the sound designers are extremely creative. In my regular day job, we are constantly trying to create assets that can be reused over and over again with small modifications. DE does the same, but their creativeness really shines through by taking things like footsteps or spray sounds and modifying them for another warframe. They even use Alpha Takahashi’s voice, 1999’s voice actress for Aoi Morohoshi, for a voice line for Koumei. She didn’t even know this, which was cute to see her reaction in real time. After this panel, I am looking forward to listening to all the little sound elements in Warframe to see if I can identify how they created the perfect immersive experience.