New Dev Diary Focuses on Sound Mechanics for ‘A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead’ [Video]

It’s kind of a no brainer that with a game like A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, you focus on sound. That’s what the latest developer diary is about from Stormind Games and Saber Interactive, as we get a glimpse into the title’s use of sound and sound design.

Hosted by Stormind Games’ sound designer Diego Sambataro, the video covers how player movement, no matter how slow, creates sounds that could potentially attract the aliens that have invaded our world.  “In a world where any sound that you make could be your last, the design around how sound creates gameplay is critical to what makes A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead fun.”

Every surface that the player walks on will generate some kind of sound, which depending on the material, will have a different loudness. As Sambataro explains, if the player was walking on sand, the sound of their footsteps would be diffused and quiet, whereas walking on dirt would produce a slightly louder sound. Even player actions, such as opening a door or drawer, require you to be careful to open them slowly, as to avoid creating sound.

Luckily, you’ll come across various objects throughout your journey that you can use to generate sounds in order to distract the creatures to keep them off your trail. “The sound detection system that we’ve built takes into account he loudness of any noise that the player makes, as well as the duration of the noise. If you build up a combination of loud or lengthy noises that exceed a defined threshold, the creatures will have heard enough to find your location, even from far away.”

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead will launch on October 17 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam.