Signature sounds in terms of music and character recognition.

In the sixth and final developer diary (embedded below) for the upcoming real-time tactics game Desperados III, members of the development team spoke about the expectations that come with the western genre as well as the types of musical instruments the developers utilised for the game’s soundtrack.

“It’s a lot of – I call it soul-searching in a way – for each project, especially considering the instruments and the stylistic direction that we want to take,” said audio director Filippo Beck Peccoz.

“For Desperados [III], specifically, it took more than a month [of research] to really lock down what we wanted to have in terms of sound and instrumentation… ”

Noting that the western genre has certain clichés that come with what could be seen as negative connotations, Peccoz acknowledged that “people want certain sounds in a western” while admitting they were “craving for certain hat tips to the old age and the Golden Age of music in westerns.”

In-game characters are associated with certain instruments, for example, when the player meets Isabelle Moreau for the first time, the sound of the hurdy-gurdy is a prominent feature. Kate O’Hara, on the other hand, has a more energetic and upbeat sound to her which is represented by the fiddle.

The characters aren’t just associated with music or instruments. As sound designer and foley artist Philipp Sellier pointed out, they also have signature items that distinguishes them from each other, thus making them sound recognisable – for John Cooper it’s the spurs and for Kate O’Hara it’s her necklace.

“I chose them by my taste, to be honest,” Sellier chuckled.

Desperados III is developed by Mimimi Games and will be released on 16th June for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows.

An interactive trailer has been embedded below to give players an idea on what to expect regarding gameplay and the kind of decision-making that will be presented in the game.