The Soundscapes of ARC Raiders

Hello again Raiders!

At Embark, we know that sound is paramount to game design. It creates immersion. It forces cohesion. It is one of the best tools we have for transporting you to a different world. That’s why, from the very beginning of our journey with ARC Raiders, we intended to create an environment that you could understand even with your eyes closed, simply by listening.

But what does it mean to understand an environment through listening? Well, it starts with familiarity. Sounds you hear in your everyday life. The hiss of a speeding train, the clicking of helicopter blades, the metronomic thumping of an engine.

To capture these sounds accurately, the majority of what you hear in our game comes from live recordings. The beauty of live recordings is their ability to provide nuance of sound from a variety of angles and distances. For example, when the Audio Team at Embark records the firing of a gun, we attach a microphone to that gun, and then a microphone hundreds of meters away from that gun, and one in between those two. The same goes for explosions and projectiles. When things sound plausible and grounded, you start to believe all the unbelievable things that are happening around you.

However, the real magic starts when we combine our live recordings with procedural game logic. Like every department at Embark, our Audio Team is a lean operation. We’ve developed processes that allow us to craft a soundscape via dynamic game systems so we can remain small but mighty. How does that work in practice? Well, if there’s a tree, you’ll hear the chirping of birds. If you’re standing by a car and it’s raining, you’ll hear droplets bouncing off of metal. At higher altitudes, the wind changes. If you’re by a pond, you may hear the ribbeting of a toad. We have hundreds of these rules and parameters that decide every sound you hear.

Sound adds depth to gameplay. As you might have already experienced, each ARC machine has its own unique sound pattern. These sounds change depending on its state, whether the ARC is searching for something, is in combat, or just rolling around and minding its own business. We want players to be able to make strategic gameplay decisions before they ever see an ARC creep around the corner.

If you can’t tell already, we’re kind of detail obsessed. Every single item in the game has its own foley-recorded sound effect when you grab it from your inventory, and its own voice line when pinged. We track how far apart your legs are when you’re walking…yes, seriously. We call it the knee distance delta. Your backpack changes sound based on how full it is.

Our audio team’s philosophy is simple. No sound should ever take you out of the experience. Everything is recorded on the same microphones. No sound effect is sacred. If it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t stay. What remains is a soundscape built with intention. When we launch on October 30, we hope you’ll step in and feel like you belong in the world of ARC Raiders.

–The ARC Raiders Dev Team