You've been logged out of GDC Vault since the maximum users allowed for this account has been reached. To access Members Only content on GDC Vault, please log out of GDC Vault from the computer which last accessed this account.

Click here to find out about GDC Vault Membership options for more users.

close

The Number One Educational Resource for the Game Industry

Session Name: Confronting Our "Audio Nemesis" in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor: Maximizing Emotional Resonance in an Open World Environment
Speaker(s): Brian Pamintuan, Nathan Grigg, Michael Berg
Company Name(s): Monolith Productions/WB Games, Monolith Productions/WB Games, Monolith Productions/WB Games
Track / Format: Audio

Did you know free users get access to 30% of content from the last 2 years?


Get your team full access to the most up to date GDC content

Overview: After 20 years of developing tightly-woven, first-person linear narrative games such as No One Lives Forever, F.E.A.R. and Condemned, Monolith Productions set out to create the first open world sandbox game set in Middle-earth. On these previous titles, we developed specific principles and techniques for eliciting emotional connections with the player, especially those designed to elicit fear and dread, and we wanted to apply those principles to Shadow of Mordor. But the transition from developing first-person narratives to open world sandbox development presented a host of unexpected challenges. This talk will discuss the technical hurdles we encountered in transitioning from the first-person genre to an open world sandbox environment, as well as some of the audio successes we achieved by using our previous game experience to strengthen emotional impact.

GDC 2015

Brian Pamintuan

Monolith Productions/WB Games

Nathan Grigg

Monolith Productions/WB Games

Michael Berg

Monolith Productions/WB Games

free content

Audio

Audio