How the sound team created authentic environmental reverb.

In the first developer diary released for the upcoming entry in the new horror series The Dark Pictures Anthology, the game developers talk about the concepts and work that went into creating one of the in-game locales, a ghost ship.

In The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan, a group of young Americans venture off on a diving trip in search of a World War II wreck.

“In order to make the ghost ship sound as real as possible, the team gained access to a similar era military vessel – big steel ship,” said Barney Pratt, Audio Director at Supermassive Games.

“We recorded all sorts of sounds on there, from all the latches on the doors, to help the foley the character contacting the environment when they’re on the ghost ship. All of the atmospheres in the different rooms, the engine room, all of the different mechanisms there.

“We even recorded impulses of each of those rooms so that each room has the identical environmental reverb that you would have had on a ship of that type.”

Other topics covered in the developer diary include the aesthetics of the ship, camera angles that were used, and how cinematic lighting was utilised in order to fill environments and create a suspenseful atmosphere.

The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan is scheduled for a 2019 release on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.