Replicating whale calls

By Aya
24 June 2023

When talking about the style and aesthetic of our game, something we discussed was whether we should prioritize realism at the cost of cohesiveness.

If we prioritize realism and use the raw recordings as they are, they might be true to reality. But, the different environments and methods of recording will result in audio with lots of unrelated background noises or inconsistent quality. And, with limitations of the Meta Quest 2 headset, producing a hyper-realistic visual is not feasible. Having inconsistent levels of realism between visuals and audio might amplify the gap between reality and virtual for the player in a sort of uncanny valley sort of way.

So, we chose to forgo perfect realism, and created sound effects that were inspired by reality to allow for a more colourful palette of expression, and enabled us to have a consistent tone and quality of sound in various parts of the game.

Marine life stars as main characters in Found in the Fjords, and their sound effects, along with all the other sound effects, were generated using the Ogun synthesis engine.

True audio recording of humpbacks in Norway from our 2022 arctic expedition.

Sythnesized version of the humpback calls made with Ogun.