Guild Chat - Episode 95

The following is an unofficial, player-written transcript of the episode. The accuracy of this transcription has not been verified by ArenaNet.
The 95th episode of Guild Chat aired on November 22, 2019.
Summary[edit]

Lore
Boneskinner was originally called Wendigo
Norn culture, Jhavi - again more important in the future
Braham - he's growing out of his emo phase, but it is not complete yet
Rytlock & Crecia - Asking who is Ryland as a person
What happened offscreen in EP1 - will come into play later
When Jormag speaks through the fraenir, Debra (Jormag) and Fred's (Fraenir) voices are mixed
This season, hidden agendas everywhere: Jormag, Bangar, maybe even Ryland, others that we don't know yet
Jormag's way: "getting what Jormag wants is to persuade you that you should want it too", not by force
Meta event: some of the battles are loops created by the Fraenir, if you repeat them, some characters will be like "Wait, did we do this already...?"
Jormag whispering to keep you "doing your things, staying in this little corner"
When doing some of the events outside your story, the npcs (Marjory, Braham,...) will be replaced by a different group (new tech!) who also experience time loop
Braham fights something that resembles his dad, Jory fights Belinda > messed her pretty big
Marjory + Kas - more this season, they both more matured, changed: they wanna synthesize these changes with the gameplay, not just show it
The unknown whispers confirmed to be Jormag's
"Almorra's" call by Jormag: didn't want the sound make too obvious, added some hints (static, disruptions), "zombie Almorra using the comm, Jormag controlling the hands
Essence manipulation: connected to the spirits, kinda haunting, disturbing
Asura who tells you about it: feels like he went to dark lengths to manipulate the essence, killing creatures and putting their essence into the pillars, you absorb it
When you see the Boneskinner stalking you, and then it disappeares, it disappears only for you. Other players may still see it
Jormag is still struggling a bit with the power to control bodies, that's why the fraenir is moving the way it does
Q&A from players
Frost: they don't want to hinder gameplay but still want the player to feel claustrophobic, anxious, not to completely see where the enemies are coming from,
- there is special audio associated with the freezing effect
Will strike mission keep getting more difficult?
- Boneskinner is the hardest, it doesn't have wipe mechanics but things will progressively gets harder if you dont coordinate/do mechanics
Will the map keep expanding? Yes, in ep2. Same as Dry Top.
- If you complete the map now, you get the complete reward. If you wait for the map to expand, you'll have to do the new things as well
Essence manipulation mastery increase - yes, in ep2. After that, they don't know yet
why can't you mount in Darkrime Dvelves? Reducing clutter so that players do not stand over Almorra.
How Svanir got their raptors? Did they purchas PoF?
- They didn't purchase it. Jormag's possibly lured, persuaded some mounts so they would want to be ridden by Sons of Svanir. Some of them had mounts before they defected. It looks cool.
Do Jormag minions conserve free will? Tom: "Great question" "what you mean by free will?"
- Influence of Jormag: sometimes you don't notice Jormag is influencing your thinking, sometimes you can hear Jormag's voice in your head saying things (reasons why this vary in next ep)
- tricky part: you may feel it is your free will, "Absoulety arguable that Jormag is actually acting always in good faith in terms what Jormag wants in the world."
- Elder Dragons tend not to care for the mortals (generally speaking), except Aurene, and also not entirely true for Jormag as well
- Key question: Who is Jormag and what is Jormag doing.
Will we see more of the Boneskinner later? Yes.
General stuff
Showed Aurene and Joko Funko Pops, coming in January 2020
Episode was shorter - hopefully shorter times between eps, more frequent releases
Fraenir - voiced by Fred Tatasciore
This season: suspence, discovering secrets, full significance of things to appear later
Episode 1 - Setting questions, tone
Some of the golden path storytelling (main story) is in the open world
During open world story, your Braham shows to other players as a raven
More player specific dialogue in the next ep
Behind the scenes
Chapter 1 - Audio embed got scared by the jumpscare
Boneskinner sound design: Toothbrush's vibration and box lid = "Perfect"
- video 1 https://www.twitch.tv/videos/511875752?t=0h36m20s, video 2 https://www.twitch.tv/videos/511875752?t=0h37m53s
Favorite things to work on:
- Tom: being a part of the process of creating how the characters are manipulated by Jormag, watching writers coming up how Jormag's influence manifests itself; being in VO sessions with Debra (Jormag), Fred (Fraenir), Courtney (Almorra)
- Clayton: ch1 - setting the tone, flow, creepiness progression; the hunger collection + Samantha; Asgeir's Legacy; watching the team work on the map
- Joseph: "lame answer but everything"
- Jessica: mocap for the trailer
- Chelsey: working on the boneskinner's sounds
What you struggled with when creating the episode?
- Clayton: Adding horror elements
- Tom: not having all tools for storyteling as in linear games
- Joseph: boneskinner chitter was map wide at 1st
Making of the trailer: Horizon Zero Dawn, Vikings (main inspiration for Jessica)
1:26:36 - final cinematic (Rubi punning: "It's chilling)
intent: "walking away with maybe Jormag is right?"
Chris: music conveying that Jormag is right: "everything's okay, everything's cool"
Chelsey's cat provided some voice for the cutscene [video](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/511875752?t=1h41m15s)
Chris's friend's dog provided some teeth clicking [video](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/511875752?t=1h41m45s)
Easter Egg: there's a hidden message in the Jormag/Fraenir speech: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/e0fu4s/fraenir_of_jormags_hidden_message_that_was/
When Jormag says "I want to help her", Fraenir's voice says "I want her"
Transcription[edit]

Funko Pops (5:47)[edit]

Rubi Bayer: Hi Tyria, happy Friday and welcome to the newest episode of Guild Chat. I'm your host Rubi and I'm here with the first round of developer guests to talk about our new episode Whisper in the Dark. First, I want to show off - this is solely for the one person in chat who wanted to know what I was holding in my hand - and none of the rest of you ever tries, no. I did want to show off something we've been talking about for a while. We have the prototypes, two of the first prototypes, of our Funko Pops that are coming in January. So, Baby Aurene, surprisingly heavy! Like, I don't know, she's got like all of her little crystal spikes on the back of her head.
Tom Abernathy: Yeah.
Rubi: But our events manager gave us these today to show off, so... There's your first look at Funko Pop Baby Aurene and- Can I give this to you?
Tom: Sure!
Rubi: You have to give it back. I just mean, please hold this for a second and-
Tom: Oh, alright. Okay. They are admirably not like cookie cutter Funko like, you know what I mean?
Rubi: Right? Yes, this is very much Aurene.
Tom: You know, there's a lot of individuality here. I really like it.
Rubi: And then we have Joko. I know. I love this one.
Tom: [impersonating Joko] I'm thinner in person.
Rubi: Thank you! We should have like gotten Nolan North up in here.
Tom: I know.
Rubi: I'm actually gonna take this out of the box because I just want a better look at him.
Tom: Aw yes!
Clayton Kisko: Live unboxing.
Rubi: Oh! Oh, no! Now I feel pressured to like do it really-
Clayton: No! Just kidding! Just pretend I didn't say that!
Rubi: No! It's too late, I'm scared.
Clayton: Okay.
Rubi: And I know Funko Pops are for everybody. I have several on my desk. Like Stéphane is a big fan, but for those of you who love them, these are extremely cool.
Tom: That's so good. It's so good!
Rubi: I know there are some people who are fans who are like hardcore about not taking them out of the box?
Clayton: Oh yeah.
Rubi: All of mine are out of the box. I'm like, I bought them to look at them. I want to see like... Okay.
Tom: And touch them and play with- Oh, it's so good!
Rubi: I know! I love him! Alright, so-
Note: The text below hasn't yet been converted from raw subtitle text into pretty print like above. https://youtu.be/BAHZPRFPOZ4?t=453
it so that's great so John every yeah
the details great yeah they I was really
happy and you're right these are not
they don't look like these
standard-issue
we don't have her at lock yet so but for
those of you who do like Funko pops and
have been waiting to see what they look
like
there you go and you get in-game pet
and yeah so you get the engagement hat
when you buy them they're coming in
January you can preview now I know you
can pre-order at Gamestop I'm not sure
off the top of my head where else check
your area gate stores that sell Funko
pops and see if you can pre-order them
but this is what they look like so
fantastic you can hang on to her for the
whole rest okay so why don't we go ahead
and get started all they eat the three
of you introduce yourselves talk about
what you do here to Rina net and what
you worked on for whispers in the dark
I'm Tom Abernathy I am the studio
narrative director I just played studio
narrative director for whispers in the
dark though the great bulk of the
narrative work on the episode was done
by Samantha wall schlager who was the
lead writer on it and also by Julianne
Arden who was the narrative lead and
story editor narrative lead for gw2 and
story editor on the episode end and and
we you know we do things as a group so
everybody everybody had some hands in it
but it was principally the work of those
two and and so I will represent them as
best I can all right
yeah you guys were awesome yeah hi I'm
Clayton Kisco I'm the team lead for
episode 1 and senior game designer here
at ArenaNet I worked on the essence
manipulation mastery system I worked on
a handful the reward structure stuff I
had the Windigo chain there was a lot of
stuff had my hit the bone Skinner yes II
sorry we were both Skinner and then what
else gosh
there was a tons of other stuff that I
like had my hands in but yeah those were
the main things so joseph Clark
I'm senior sound designer I was kind of
at the point of contact for audio on the
episode so kind of led the direction
while the rest of the team came in and
helped us finish this content and worked
on the bone Skinner worked on
Ravin magic work that comes every got a
lot of audio love in this episode yes
definitely well why don't we kind of go
through this in order how did you guys
get started working on this episode what
were some of the first outlines of what
do we want to do with episode 1 kicking
off this the iceberg saga once we get
through the prologue yeah so we went
through a couple take back yeah I'm
trying I'm trying to remember and I know
we always knew was gonna have a darker
tone we always knew we were gonna like I
think the hard feelings I've got settled
pretty early yeah yeah I know Samantha
was super excited oh yeah that's her jam
right and like we were we were having so
much fun in those early meetings
pitching ideas and brainstorming how can
we scare the player how can we introduce
mechanics and themes that will hold up
in a giant shared open world and and
just kind of getting that across I
remember us watching the thing for
inspiration and just kind of going over
other movies that we really liked and
yeah so yeah I was a lot of
brainstorming meetings with that there's
definitely like some other stuff that we
ended up like walking away from I
remember one point we're toying with the
idea of yotan kind of like oh what if
there were some stuff over here that we
kind of play with and we wanted to make
sure that this was like a succinct kind
of like let's focus on the Norn focus on
the spirits the wild let's tell the
story of a moron job' and so then you
know it starts really big right and then
you just keep whittling it down until
you feel like everything is consistent
and everything is kind of like
automatically connected yeah wait a
minute is this how the weekly horror
movie thing got started like okay so
Joseph Joseph invites like most of this
studio
I work yeah to come after work once a
week and watch horror movies and I
actually thought it was only horror
movies and that's why I never come
because I can't watch that and I was
like wait a minute was this like did the
strattice inspiration some of the worst
horror movies from the 80s
best comedies in my opinion okay yeah
something like that okay give a favorite
favor what like horror movie from the
80s that's also a great comedy
ghostbusters huh that's a horror it's a
horror ish oh yeah I think that's the
moment yes yeah yes our fights I'm
blanking hyperspace yeah let me tackle
the Rotten Tomatoes oh yes okay so how
about you way back story breaker yeah so
so I mean again I think our goal for the
season and I think this is it's pretty
apparent at this point now that we've
put out a prologue and our first first
real episode is to delve into char and
Norn culture the char stuff particularly
with through luck in Krisha and Bhangarh
and Ryland and the plan that Bhangarh
has to basically create a char - list or
me and try to you know make jour mag his
pet elder dragon and and with the Norn
getting more of a sense of their culture
through javy for one who's a character
who's definitely gonna be important as
we go forward but also with bran because
you know we we started last season sort
of tracking the process of Bram getting
out of his sort of email immature
wallowing phase and beginning to come to
terms with his mom's death and with what
his obligation was to you know to his
guild mates and Dragons watch and the
fact that that was the family that he'd
always sort of felt like he'd never had
and he just didn't realize it and and
that was awesome and and now as we move
forward there are still other ways in
which Bram still has to grow if he's
gonna sort of fully self actualize I
think some of that is when he's tried to
be a leader in the past he's he's not
always succeeded very well at it and
sometimes even run away from it yeah
and and also he's never been able to
turn into his the spirit animal that he
follows and that's in episode one a and
in whisper and the dark it's a little
bit of a sticking point for him it's a
bit of a shame thing right and so he's
got some growth to do there he's got a
lot of stuff to comes to terms for sure
this at this point that's right the
other thing that I'll say about it is is
you know the season I think is darker in
general and then a lot of stuff we've
done in the past and when I say that not
that we haven't done stuff that's high
stakes but it's it's darker in terms of
the moral complexity of it and and sort
of getting away to some degree from kind
of fantasy tropes of what that looks
like and more getting into at least
horror movie tropes what it looks like
are really I mean hopefully hopefully
something that that that feels dark
because it's real right and and and
Bram's journey is certainly part of that
what Bhangarh is trying to do is part of
that the question for RIT lock and
Krisha of who Ryland is and and where
his sympathies really as allegiances
really lie and and what that could mean
are part of that and and you know what
happens to remind me do we not spoil
here or do we assume people have watched
the event play the episode rather we're
spoiling here okay we talk about this
every episode but if you are watching
we're talking about everything in the
episode we are going to assume that
you've played through you know what
happens we're gonna spoil you go nuts
okay so as people have played the
episode no javi and Almora
are among those who are abducted when
the sons is funnier attack Joris keep
they are not killed immediately although
a lot of other visual folks are and
that's a frightening thing because some
of the male Norn in the keep who are
part of the vigil get turned to sons is
funnier so that's the betrayal of people
you trusted is a big theme yeah
and trial by people you trusted and and
ultimately we discover in the episode
that while Javy is still alive and has
escaped
amaura has been killed and what I will
say is that that is there's there's
there's been some some talk about that
I know players have been have been sort
of contemplating the way in which that's
presented and and what I'll say about it
is that they're going to get a much
fuller idea of what went down off-screen
in episode 1 a little bit down the line
and we're we're planting seed we're
planting seeds patheticness what places
for things that will that will pay off
and become much richer as they're more
fully sort of revealed and so but but
you know we're dealing with heavy themes
this season and we want to we want to we
want to get real and I think that's what
we're doing and and so for us that was
that was the thing to start and that
helped inform the tone the horror movie
sort of approach and the as people have
talked about sort of that you know the
still woods with snow softly falling and
you hear something up there walking and
maybe your voice and you know like oh my
god you know a little bit Robert Frost
from Hell so you mentioned you know
we're going to talk about this a little
bit more down the road to employers and
we'll find out more that brings to mind
something that some of you all have been
talking about to this episode was a
little bit shorter and that's something
that we've talked about internally some
yeah yes your and Z people may remember
if they watched the streaming event or
were in the theater in September Z
talked about how we're gonna be you know
rethinking sort of what episode releases
might look like in ways that are
designed to make them more about to add
value right so so folks may have noticed
that we put out the prologue in the
middle of September and episode one came
out in the middle of November and that
is an indication of sort of what we
hoped to sort of hit we're going to
we're going to
you those that kind of contact more
often it's gonna be maybe a little
smaller times to sort of help us do that
there's also going to be a lot of cool
content that drops between the narrative
part of the episode drops right there's
gonna be new events there's gonna be new
activities in the world and and you can
speak much more specifically to that but
what we hope is or what our goal is is
that every time players you know login
there's something new for them to do and
and and they're getting more fun and
value on a more regular basis and not
having to wait so long for you know a
big drop basically yeah
yeah and it's just a piggyback off what
you're describing when you said events
like we have those strike missions that
are coming out I believe the the
Fournier is this coming up week and then
the bone skin of the following week you
know I've been kind of hush-hush but we
have little tiny like little tiny prop
changes with little tiny dialogue
additions like as the week roll at all
yeah right and so like you know keep an
eye out for that like will be having
little bits of pieces we have festivals
as always between those types of
releases there to strike Commission
bosses that haven't even dropped yet
that's right yeah that's right okay so
just like don't tell anybody
yeah yeah look out for that yeah so
we're trying some new things and and and
we think people are gonna really like
them we're cuz cuz that's our goal is to
give folks more more new stuff more
often so the goal is games are to be fun
yeah I say so it's just a little bit
more frequent releases and a little bit
more to do okay on a rolling basis yeah
yeah for sure yeah and then you know the
other thing just to go back to sort of
the the conceptualization of the the
season for a second because I didn't
mention jour mag and obviously that's a
big deal and and my MA one of the
creepiest things I have ever seen is the
synthetic at the end of the episode our
jour mag uses the dead foreigners body
to speak through it yeah yeah yeah and I
mean just the creepiest that the
animation the cinematic team did
unbelievable work and I know Chelsea and
Jess are gonna be here yeah yes man
I mean gosh it's creepy and and terrific
and features an amazing two amazing
performances actually by Deborah Wilson
who is the actor who does jour mag and
by Fred tatasciore
did the voice of the fray near and the
two of them are actually really good
friends and so you know he he really
matched her cadence and stuff but with
his jaw having like like the mixture of
their two voices there is just chilling
to me terrifying
oh my god yeah that was so scary
yeah but but you know Jorma I mean
there's so much in this season that's so
juicy about people's agendas there's
their hidden agendas and and who you can
trust in who you can't and you know jour
mag as we've said we are to Virgil mag
is the dragon of Iceland persuasion and
and jour mags way of of getting what
Jorah mag wants is to persuade you that
you should want it too mm-hmm and you
know not to not to do it by brute force
and and and I think that comes through
particularly in that cinematic that
speech it's really apparent for the
first time how jour mag thinks and
operates and how much you choose to
trust them is up to you but you know
jour mag has an agenda Bhangarh has an
agenda that we are we we know some of
now it was revealed at the end of the
prologue episode Ryland may have an
agenda we don't know you know there are
other characters that are new who we
don't you know we don't know that well
yet and you know we're this this season
I think is built on suspense and you
know discovering secrets in an ongoing
way and so that that's why I say we're
hopefully what we're doing is we're
planting things that that as the full
significance of them becomes clear it's
gonna be like oh my god that's what that
was about or you know like like that and
yeah oh that's what she wanted the whole
time yeah that's what we're in before
the first episode of like the saga is
definitely setting up a lot of like
teeing up a lot of questions but also
setting the tone pretty well and like
jour meg being creepy is is definitely a
parent and like even in the open
world and we were doing like you're
doing some audio design and and we're
getting some dialogue written for the
random whispers that happened while
you're just playing I've seen a couple
streams now if players that like this
was not meant to be it just lined up
perfectly well it'll meet a new MPC and
then that thing will trigger because
it's just on the time but maybe like I
have seen the end kill them and you're
like sure make me kill today you have no
idea right like it's gonna change it's
gonna be random and it's really great to
see people kind of free and and as
things go on you're gonna just see more
things like that and in the world one of
the things people may have noticed is
that we're we're moving some of what in
the past probably would have been
thought of as golden path storytelling
into the open world and and part of that
is because we are doing more things in
the open world that you can do over and
over again and our approach I mean we
could just be like narrative lighting
just you know give dialogue for ya hit
the thing yeah you beat the thing but
what we'd rather do is is contextualize
those things with a story in a way that
makes sense so one thing that happens in
this episode is that there are some
battles that you can fight the events in
the meta that are actually sort of time
loops that the fray near has created and
so even though as you do them multiple
times you will hear the characters
involved in them like to suddenly go
wait a second did we do this already
yeah what is this what's going on are we
like I have deja vu right yeah I love
that sort of aspect of of there's
there's more in the open world to find
and I think that I hope that it really
incentivizes people to spend a lot of
time running around just looking for all
in different pieces because so much of
that stuff is is fun and awesome
gameplay and also is adding some context
of the story and adding you know a
little bit bit of pebble to the the wall
right a hundred percent and like I was
cramming to some players that like we've
improved on our posture tech that
allowed us to do that so like previously
you could have Bram in the open world
but he had to be static because his
animation of the thing that's the
context in which our talk to him have to
be for every player at any step but now
we can have a Bram that runs around and
animates specific to you to other
players they see a raven but this Bram
is fighting healing you like in doing
all the stuffing so now we can also have
events
in which players will see those
different kind of dialogues where the
first time they play with them they're
looking for more the second time is like
I feel like I'm doing this over again
and that's your Mac whispering like just
keep like trying to keep you doing your
thing and staying over in this little
corner right and then when you're not on
that story stuff it's a completely
different group of people who were also
experiencing this weird time loop yeah
that that tech has opened up a lot of
doors for us and the the the work that
the designers contents I understand
their designers both did on on that
stuff is again very much in keeping with
the tone that we want for the whole
thing right like if you've played that
stuff you seem like Bram has to fight
what he thinks is his dad yeah Marjorie
has to fight what she thinks is the
spirit of Belinda pulled out of her
sword and by the end of it she is a rat
yeah you've taken somebody who usually
is a model of like calm and cool
stability right but you just just you
know rendered almost a blubbering you
know little mass on the on the floor to
the point where when the rest of them go
off to finish the episode she's like I
think we're gonna hang out here for a
while yeah that it hit players like you
were speaking to like the darker tone by
the mature darker tone that we're going
for yep and like that is one thing that
people call that too is like Marjorie
just kind of like pacing and trying to
get in contact with calves like yeah oh
god like this really affected her yeah
and to specifically speak to those two
characters per second because I know
people are interested in care about them
and we talked a little bit about about
margin cos in the previous eel chat
after episode one obviously to me after
the prologue but you know we we're gonna
be you know delving more into marjory
and kasmeer some in this season some and
things to come because we realized at
some point that as we were trying to
figure out where we wanted to take them
where we wanted to go with them that the
reason we were having trouble figuring
out what that should be was because we
didn't really understand them as
individual characters first as human
beings in their own right rather than
just as a couple I know people celebrate
them as a couple for very good reasons
and so that's why you see some different
notes being hit in both of them in the
prologue and I'm not I don't I don't
think we have Kazmir in episode one but
certainly Marjorie and
you know they are they are I think
mature is a really good word for it like
like we're trying to especially with the
two of them deal with a relationship an
adult relationship you know where
they've been through some traumas and
one of them especially is sort of
undergoing some changes in her sense of
who she is as a result and and but we
want we don't just want to talk about
that we want to actually synthesize it
into the gameplay and that's what I
think what I really loved about that
event right yeah I mean when when
content design and narratives are able
to really wrap together and be doing the
same thing accomplishing the same thing
at the same time in their various ways
that's it sings yeah yeah yeah yeah sure
that's awesome
something that you mentioned you were
talking about the end winch or mag had
possessed the corpse of the Freid air
and that audio layering of Fred - sure
and that was one of the thing about the
drawback whispers that I really noticed
that was so creepy like that very that
very like smooth and friendly and almost
seductive and then that terrified like
that raw deep terrifying underlay and
that I've noticed that consistently on
the audio front that weaving in and out
where it just kind of breaks their every
once in a while and I feel like that
speaks to the entire audio tone of this
episode how did you how did you even
begin and how did you get that theme
throughout the episode because it's so
creepy yeah on a somatic level Chris
Burgess will definitely speak more to
this talked about yeah just trying to we
try to convey the idea that door Meg and
as you're seeing it trying to take
control of this body it's not just like
a turn on the engine take some effort
take some effort kind of like hearing
that you're getting a little bit of the
corpse so we have just a lot of
processing and something interesting I
think Chris had done his old mic got a
rolls kind of adding into there and it's
others excellent players and it's not
just the corpse position the entire
episode or open-world everything
is just this consistent theme of this
cold terrifying jour magus jour Maggie's
coming and into right probably shows the
bone skin and the voices added that in
the die screwed saga trailer that we
showed at the Moore theater as well
right like you you hear that yes
undertone come to the floor is so scary
yeah yeah yeah it's a lot of like of
acoustics you know there's definitely
like frequencies and types of sounds
that you want to convey that would just
whole emotions out of people so as
you're going through the world and as we
started working on it I mean y'all did
amazing job just making everything
spooky right away it's our job to come
in to solidify what make the immersion
of that like just freak people out you
know because basically yeah it's like
paranoia it's kind of like what's
happening right similar to like the
thing or in major bystanders it's like
everyone's your enemy that's right you
don't know who your enemy is and yeah
just trying to add the whispers and
perfect places choosing one to pull out
ambience like make it really fall and
creepy or just having it like then
there's like a skit a creeping us to
like silence or like very quiet so when
you go into the haunted forest
everything kind of drops out you don't
get as much of the wind and like the
normal ambience it just kind of it's
real um that's unsettling we also pulled
the music out we have a specific ambient
track throughout the rest of the map and
as you go into its the forest we have a
very low intensity type of spooky one
shots coming in and out and just really
wanted to settle in Chapter one
there is in the cabin when you go in you
die think you did that and people of I
was watching some players stream and
they were commenting on the fact that
like whoa you could just hear like the
wind and like the snow like howl and
like that added to the power and silence
yeah yeah yeah ironically that's what
the chapters called silence so that's
great and then we had that one jump
scare speaking of horror tropes that
like had this the Spiner like pop out
right and you added this like like kind
of spooky like like
Yeah right when you first go into when
you open the doors you see all the
bodies you're like whoa we did I mean
it's a little trophy but it works and
it's amazing we added a lot of pizzicato
strings just are very unsettling our
embed our cue image Kent like this plane
is gonna genuinely scared and frightened
that was amazing oh I was laughing yeah
through we want to just hit you with a
really high tension like high strings
stinger and that's just a high tension
like high frequencies just make you feel
tense yeah so as soon as that person
comes down let me beat you with that
stayin here just got me one time so do
you wanna talk about some of the other
audio things that you put in there cuz I
know you brought at least one video I
did yes um I should go on for a long
time by pulled out some of the bone
Skinner sound design that I did um just
direction from design we want to really
like kind of creepy open world kind of
clickety clicking chatter chitter sound
that you just kind of hear if it dis
dance or when the bumps Canaries coming
after you I was like I really like the
predator movie where you hear that like
and it like you know he's around
somewhere you have no idea what's gonna
kill you kind of knew that was my like
born inspiration yeah so so yeah I have
a quick video of the sounds I'm before
for that quick nope kind of funny we
spoke to miss in the past like audio and
sound design and Foley like a lot of
experimentation a lot of happy accidents
like it not always not always planned
like some type of an idea but speaking
to that Jorm a controlling a voice you
find out later in the episode that the
first call from Almora
was actually jour mag all right yeah I
forgot to mention that one actually
that's Courtney Taylor and Deborah
Wilson that's very and just the we want
to not make it super obvious obviously I
feel like well that was really weird
right but we wanted to like again and
our mindset I suppose it was nor make
had figured it out for more at that
point but we wanted a little bit so we
kind of started out with a little bit of
jour mags lines and then kind of played
into a more I can't let it more into a
more so you kind of get a hint of
something's wrong and then on top of
that we wanted to add some static some
kind of disruption and we we wanted to
get a little bit of like a more trying
to do more trying to use this calm so we
want some kind of like plastic here you
know physical sound that like if you
don't think about it in the moment I
guess it was all that then if you go
back maybe like oh okay so Sambi all
more I was trying to use a comm door mag
control editor a journalist controlling
two hands I was looking for some plastic
maybe clicking button sounds and it's
going through my collection of plastic
and rubber and stuff and I look at him I
stick my library and uh found a tooth I
had an electric toothbrush and it was
actually James Ackley our audio director
had brought this like this it sounds
pretty cool like I picked it up and a
I'm charging a lot of times the battery
was really low so just had this like
like weird a little vibration like
energy I'm like like looked around real
quick and I grabbed a cardboard box lid
and I just kind of like moved it on it
I'm like and I'm like perfect
I knew I was already starting to work on
the Windigo Orbis IV bone Skinner yeah
and uh yeah I just like this this could
work so I have a hind the scenes of holy
session alright thank you Pastor James
yeah thank you cardboard box lid how do
you have you folk and uh there's like
this sounds meme it's gonna bring this
to work and it's a broken nerve oh yeah
done with toothbrush so yeah I found
that sound I tested it on an object and
I was wanting to get a bunch of
different materials just yeah so you
just slowed it down Oh for the actual
design of one um I have a video of that
as well oh hey with the additional
layers that was part of one of the
layers or two of the layers was that
toothbrush I also used a high school
gears and some one clicking their tooth
ow step that we need Alex to like bust
in here and be like go to the tape okay
so let's look at that one then

[Boneskinner sounds rendering video] at 38 min

yeah get really really well
yeah the toothbrush on the cardboard is
giving him nice like like the whole body
rattle yeah kind of sound the bike gears
and the tooth clicking was just type of
higher content that just kind of was
unsettling and with the tooth clicking I
threw that through a delay a ping-pong
delay was kinda like this bouncing back
and forth and kind of filling out that
area yeah so on top of just like a
predator type bug it's just very creepy
and ghostly unsettling so this thing in
the distance that's coming for you yeah
yeah that was extremely cool is so do
you want to talk a little bit about some
of the open-world stuff that's at that
like the essence masteries yeah yeah so
let's see we spoke a little bit about
essence manipulation masteries the
previous yeah kind of guild chat preview
we did yeah and so Legree during that is
supposed to kind of connect to the
spirit of the wild in a way that like is
also kind of haunting right like it's
disturbing like Samantha and I had a
really fun time like thinking through
its origins and how you are using this
thing and the person who's telling you
about this thing is this like a Suren
who feels like they have gone to very
like dark lengths to like manipulate
right like new whole I had to like I had
to kill some creatures to like put it in
this pylon and you're like I'm soaring
this and using the enemy like we wanted
to like every decision that like was a
part of this to like add to that theme
of just like really just a little bit
stirring a little bit to compliment um
what a very Asura delivery that was that
was like almost inquest
yeah yeah great rise i borderline a play
you a sad
[Laughter]
so so yeah we have those we have those
those masteries in the open world and as
I said in like the blog post and whatnot
of like just wanting to to add a little
bit more progression for the players to
play through connect them to the rewards
in such a way that connects to the
strike missions right so like having all
three of those mechanics and systems
talk to each other so they feel very
well integrated and then we also have
the Raven mastery as well which is great
each statue has a different kind of pose
and that denotes like what its
responsibilities are like what it gives
you and stuff like that we've used
we have puzzles that you can interact
with that the meta the mechanics on the
meta take you know using the barriers
what's going to help you fight there so
yeah yeah it's pretty much like mastery
is in a nutshell there I don't know how
deep you want me to go so not very
because I have a pile of flavor
questions that I've already give you but
first I want to do one more kind of
overarching thing what was your favorite
thing to work on for this particular
episode and then we're going to dive
into like all of these player questions
um oops where did one of those player
questions I think that for me being a
part of the process of developing the
way in which characters are being
manipulated by jor mag the way that they
what they do in response to that right
rid locking increase yet getting a
little Vickery and there's gonna be more
of that coming in yeah just like like
watching Samantha and the other writers
in the room you know come up with with
how jour mags influence manifests itself
and how it affects what people are
thinking and what they're doing and what
they trust and what they don't and all
of that stuff in a general sense that
was my favorite part I think probably in
a specific sense being in the video
sessions first with Deborah because we
got her first got the jour manga lines
first and then both
with Fred and with Courtney having them
match her delivery yeah there are voices
though you know was you know I talked
about the one with the freighter which
is awesome but I think the one with all
Maura is is equally awesome because you
can tell and people did even in the
trailer that something is weird
yeah hair right I mean it's a lot more
is voice but it doesn't sound like her
talking exactly yeah and that's a very
ineffable sort of subtle and nuanced
thing that that audio took those tracks
and and did magic with and and so so I
never tire of listening pedesta yeah
with the elmora on there there was an
immediate this is not quite right
something's something is just a cuz we
know her we didn't know the frame here
but we know her we know she sounds like
we just saw her in the prologue yeah
right and then yeah yeah the unknown of
that is what makes that so creepy yeah
yeah I'm gonna cheat a little bit
apologize but because I have a couple
chapter one oh okay that's like what
just in my answer of like what was my
favorite thank you work on but chapter
one was really great to work on because
like I think like that story insists was
just really great to conceptually think
about of like how do we set this tone
what is the flow what is the player's
flow throughout the map and and like the
progression of being creeped out and
more creeped out and more creeped out
was really fun to do the Conan
collection was really fun to work on
because Samantha and I just like nerd it
out of like how could we make this a
creepiest thing ever and always telling
I was telling someone a player that like
we were in a meeting one time and I know
frosty we got to the point where like we
were at the meet collection part of it
and frost he's like should the commander
be get like I don't think this is right
we all like spun our heads like no we
[Laughter]
that was really fun yeah and then you
know the the subtle things like as Gears
legacy like coming up with some of like
the narrative stuff or kind of pushing
that and seeing other designers and
narrative writers like at that was
really great and then yeah just like
watching the map like I didn't work on
this but watching like the whole team
working unison
and like Megan on the maps I'd make a
beautiful-looking map and like Kevin one
of her designers like construct a really
great like puzzle we're like legit there
is no right answer and every player has
that team like oh crap like like I don't
know which one the Jews like he did such
a great job with love and it is
fantastic and Ben's a rock star like he
he just like would be pumping out
content left and right like high quality
content so like the whole team seeing
them all work together it was really
awesome
I was someday we should like we should
do a like Gil Chet roving camera and
spend a little time I think watching
designers do that stuff watching moss a
little in our writers room we've talked
about that yeah ask me later about some
of the technical limitations you're
short but we've it's on its it's on the
tape okay Gil Chet has a table two kind
of lame answer but fun fact before I got
into like really delved into audio I
almost wanted to get into you practical
effects for horror movies big horror
movie buff I can see that and yeah don't
say so the fact that really got me no
audio is psycho acoustic something like
unconscious fear that goes into movies
and scary things that just yeah immerses
you in it you don't even understand it's
a great like logical thing so it's kind
of going into this episode and
everything was pretty much like all the
design all the narrative like it's cool
to see all the different things that
scare people and like what they put into
the game like these are my creepy ideas
and just want to say everything like
just there was so much of it like this
between the ambience between the events
the characters just all those creepy
things I could like really like you know
apply to that was very fun
yeah just coming up the ideas I don't
really just solidify those moments was
very rewarding loved it okay well why
don't we look at what some of the
players would know we actually already
talked about that first one yes though
the frost
great it makes the action difficult to
see was this considered with the
mechanic and intentional yeah this was
definitely considered if you can believe
it it was a lot more soupy yeah and we
you know that we tend to start that
right and then start pulling back
there's definitely an intention to keep
some of that as it like without
hindering gameplay but we wanted some
feeling of claustrophobic this and like
anxiety to come through when playing not
be able to completely see where the
enemies are coming from feeling like
it's closing in like the screen border
that grows over time like we wanted to
add those elements in there to to evoke
that emotion like a note that as well we
also applied a duck to the ambience and
like all the sound when you kind of are
getting that buff on you so they not
only are you like visually not seeing
everything you're like audibly not
closing in like I thought you've been a
real duck I did yeah bringing down the
volumes and stuff like that okay gotcha
all right are you up for the first one
did you roll me okay
we'll strike missions keep getting more
difficult with future releases so
speaking specifically to Episode one
we've mentioned that we're leaving the
bone Skinner for last for a couple
reasons and one of them I think is
because it's it's the hardest right and
it doesn't specifically have like you do
this or you wipe a mechanic's like the
codon head but it has a consistent like
tick of like things are increasingly
gonna get worse for you if you don't
start doing and paying attention to some
more coordination this might get a
little just one shots you there's
nothing like that so when I want to be
careful when I say like more difficult
it's difficult in a different sense that
maybe some people would be expecting it
is going to require the feeling of more
communication with it I don't want to
give too many spoilers away but yeah it
long story short it will get more
difficult yeah for episode 1
okay future question but the map yeah
yeah okay uh do you want to read go
ahead okay
will the map keep expanding with future
releases episode 2 will be expanding on
this so yes easy answer yes
how will expanding bro marches correct
with map completion for those who have
already mapped the current area great
great question we are following the same
conventions that we released with dry
top and silver wastes so the players who
have gotten map complete now we'll have
map complete there will be more things
to do like you will still be able to
unlock vistas and P wise but if you
already have map complete great for you
you have map complete for those that
don't get map complete they'll they'll
have more things needed to do yes well
they were curious about that first one
yeah so will there be increasing need
for essence mastery as the high street
saga continues for episode two we're
absolutely billing on that that is
something we're committed to host
episode 2 like that stuff is being
designed out and like its oh I know we
use like nothing is off the table like a
lot but like what I'm saying is is that
this is not my decision but this is the
decisions of the teams to look at
everything I know that like we are
keeping that in mind and wanting to
bring that forward like we were not
absolutely tied to it but we don't want
to bend it for any reason
so that is I hope that's why can't you
Mountain doctor I'm Dells a great
question I actually answered this on the
forums as well we wanted to so that
moment was in the open world and what we
wanted to do was make it so that we
wanted to reduce the amount of clutter
and noise as much as possible so that
you know a ton of Raptor mounts just
standing around a Morra like kind of
took away from the moment and so we
wanted to make sure you can at least
like see Elmore as much as possible and
kind of reduce the amount of clutter on
screen that makes sense yeah yeah okay
I left that whole question in there on
purpose okay
it's funny how did the spotter get me
they purchased by the fire well this is
go to narrative so how did spotter going
why did this funnier have mounts did
they purchase path of fire tom
we have choked Tom getting over there
the last remnants of my cold I think
it's safe to say they did not purchase
path a fire there's honor they stole
it's entirely possible that your Meg
managed to lure some mounts to the area
yeah by persuading them you know
psychically that they wanted to come and
be ridden by stuns of Swan here that's
the theory I would go away that is also
something I talked about later no really
really yeah those those Swan ear don't
always have to be like spawn er that
we're born and raised there edges could
be visual Norn who have like slowly
defected over time who have had mounts
yeah that's right and brought their
mounts mounts with them yes and it looks
really cool okay
oh sorry I thought we're doing I wanted
you to do the next one go for it okay do
draw mag minions conserve free will I
think that's a really great question and
I think it actually comes down to what
you mean by free will because as I said
I didn't ask it no yes to find that
phrase because as I said jour mags
tactic generally is to persuade seduces
a good word as well they used before by
getting you to want the thing that jour
mag wants and sometimes that happens
without you necessarily being aware that
jour mag is influencing your thinking
and sometimes it's more tangible and you
can hear actually hear jour mags voice
in your head saying things to you right
and there are some some reasons for why
that varies that that will be coming in
the next episode but
and so I think the tricky part of the
answer is you may feel like it's your
freewill and you may not realize that in
fact you have been influenced to have
felt that way to have to have felt you
know the thing that your your feeling or
come to the conclusion that you've come
about it so I think it's that's part of
the the very tricky duplicity of of jour
mag although I maybe I shouldn't use the
word duplicity because I think it's
absolutely arguable that jour mag is
actually acting always in good faith in
terms of what jour mag wants in the
world
I think jour mags idea of what would be
best for the world may be very different
from a lot of other beings because Elder
Dragons as we know as a as a group tend
not to be all that aware of mortals I
mean I think they probably notice is
sort of like ants if they notice this at
all right generally speaking but that's
not true Horine because you grew up with
mortals and it's clearly not entirely
true of jour mag as well and so you know
I but that's that's a very good key
question that cuts to the issue of who's
jour Megan and one's jour mag doing yeah
yeah okay I like that one hmm this
section was really quick okay well we
see more of the bone skin earlier in the
saga outside the track emergent yes good
answer what was the most difficult thing
you struggled with and whispering the
dark
I will say seriously trying to make a
horror like having horror elements in a
MMO world is really tough to do um that
those are best suited for single-player
games and even then single-player games
like if you're trying to do like horror
freaking out like they're best suited
when you don't really even have like
guns or weapons like some of the best
stuff is like when you just have a
flashlight or you can't attack right and
so you can attack in our game and there
could be 50 commanders running around
attacking so like how do you isolate
that experience and really make
something like the bone Skinner really
really creepy and stalking you right so
there's a lot of like levers and stuff
that we had to pull to to accomplish
that and I thought I thought we did a
really great job with that so I think
that's really true and and from the
narrative side I don't know what
Samantha would necessarily say but but I
think similarly
when you are doing when you're telling
stories in games versus in more linear
traditional narrative media movies
television books whatever one of the
things that you come to realize quickly
is that a lot of the time you're not
going to have some tools in your writer
toolbox that you're used to having
things like sequence or pacing or you
know being able to determine when the
player is going to find a certain thing
out right yeah and so that impacts the
extent to which you can do things like
build suspense or create dramatic irony
which you can't do because that's based
on the audience knowing something that
the characters in the story don't write
and if you're playing a commander we
can't have that right um and and so I
think those challenges which are
challenges that that game narrative
folks face in general become especially
heightened as you're saying in a
situation where you're trying to produce
or create an environment in which that's
the overall effect and I think that from
from our side what I watch what Samantha
and Julia and the writers did really
really effectively to manage to still
make that happen is to put enough this
is what I meant when I said so removing
some of what might in the past have been
golden path material into the open world
so that you are that they are they're
discrete little things that happen that
you will just come upon when you come
upon them or sometimes they're like
dramatic whispers that will just occur
when they occur right but there is an
overall compounding effect whatever
order you experiencing women of a
growing dread and a growing sense of
ominous nasai think that's part of how
we deal with that challenge you know and
it is both in the second part of the
prologue and in this episode especially
I personally just been I told the the
team my team and also the designers have
been just amazed at how effective how
effectively the world feels like it's
telling the story in a way that I don't
know that we've ever done so effectively
at four you know I just think that's
amazing this is a good question for
everybody - so yeah everybody gets a
little hmm
well finding that tooth
I've seen the Foley closet that's
legitimate we try keep somebody tech
involved in this with like having these
different everyone kind of doing their
own story in the open world it was
interesting for us just trying to make
sure there's a lot of sound that are
happening between like raven visions and
spooks it's not like blasting everyone
in the math those sounds and just really
making it was like some technical things
we had done to make that solo for the
person and everything nice and tight and
spooky well especially when you said
earlier that silence is a big part of it
correct and not just here's a wall of
noise enjoy there was a moment when I
had implemented the Skinner
that was like okay horrifying yeah and
like that that's the other challenge
right like you mentioned map wide like
you wanted its you want us and pacing I
laughed when you said that cuz like in
order for things to be creepy it has to
not always be around mm-hmm and you have
to be careful not to implement a system
or a mechanic that allows that to
potentially always be around so you have
to have like a lot of hands on the
controls and make sure this thing is
paced well so it stays ominous and
creepy and unknown yep placement of
things in the world yeah right events
sounds all of that matters a lot in that
situation because because you do you
need those lulls
yeah and then for it to come back yeah
yeah yeah for sure I really did enjoy
like earlier but you see other players
kind of walking and doing their own
story and like as I guess a developer or
someone knowing that that's what's
happening right there like I was
actually doing the story that's not
someone I walk by like yeah all the
things are happening there right now fun
thanks they're all having their own
moment right there yeah that's so cool
yeah yeah and I
we talked about this before when we
brought in the ability for everybody to
have that npc in the open world
like I said Bram is a raven for other
people and seeing that in knowing what's
happening is that's such a fun thing
that we've been able to implement and
all of the little things like that it's
it's really enjoyable getting to bring
that tech in and give players that
experience in the open world yeah I
think we talked about this but I'd
really loved when you see the bone
Skinner kind of hunting or stalking you
if you approach it it disappears I think
that is also only possible with our
imposter tech because for you it
disappears for everybody else watching
it still stuff right yeah that was that
man there was a was it dead space blues
dead space to which is or that space one
which is another great like horror
example there's a moment that one of our
designers cam was explaining that like
their friends saw like a a party scene
like it was like it looked like a
birthday party but to them it was just
like gore and everyone's dead
then communicating about them seeing
different things was scary in itself
because it was just like this disconnect
yeah and so that kind of gets hit on
with when you when you can see the bone
Skinner but somebody else's try to get
close and it disappears really like when
the world is telling you that it's being
specific to you right that's one reason
people like you know lines that are race
specific and and in this episode are
shooting in the in in the upcoming
episode this is gonna be even more true
right like people feel like oh the game
is really seeing me as an individual
playing the game right and I think that
our world is moving forward we have a
number of things planned that are going
to make it more and more feel like yeah
the game sees you specifically you and
is talking to you and that's kind of
terrifying yes it'd be pretty cool
awesome all right well I see our next
round of developer guests so why don't
we let the three if you get back to work
and we will talk to Jess Chelsea and
Chris in just a couple minutes stick
around we'll be right back my champion
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PART 2

hi guys welcome back and we are in the
second half of guild chat let's talk
about these cinematics in the game now
I'll let you guys introduce yourselves
talk about who you are what you do here
at ArenaNet and what you worked on for
episode 1 just first welcome to guild
chat for the first time well thank you
for having me I'm nervous but I am here
you're gonna Mason we're all here for
her so my name is Jessica I go by Jess
and so I am a cinematic layman artist
and I worked on the episode 1 trailer
awesome thank you for being here thank
you for having Jessie hi I'm Chelsea
I'm the cinematics director and for this
episode I steps back into an artist role
and was the cinematic artist for the
cinematic for episode 1 how much fun was
that so much fun to get to do art again
instead of being in meetings in more
meetings and more meetings you heard the
lady she needs meetings no hi Chris hey
I'm Chris I am an audio person and I do
sounds for the cinematics and I mix some
help work with our music composers and
get them writing music and I also work
in the game and pretty much whatever
they throw at me we you know the audio
team were the art of keeping plates
spinning a lot of things the art of
keeping plates spinning is like one of
the best descriptions of that I have
ever heard you guys are working on so
many things at once yeah alright so why
don't we talk about the episode one
trailer to start with do we want to
start by taking a peek at the finished
product and then we'll kind of talk
about building it yeah ok let's do that
you


[Whisper in the dark Trailer] at 1:09:30

you guys it's so creepy so good work
thank you congratulations how did you
get started where what was your starting
point just like okay we need to terrify
everybody yes and it's cold yes
literally we need to terrify everybody
and I want this to be scary was like the
first thing that came into my mind I had
a little jump start off of like where to
start with the trailer Jason kind of
like started off with some temp audio
that he had in and then I kind of like
rolled with that for a little bit as I
rolled onto the project in the early
stages and then the first thing I really
thought I was like what kind of temp
music do I want what kind of games do I
play that would have something that
would match this trailer and so I looked
at not just games but also shows some
huge fan of Vikings and I just really
not only didn't want to scare people but
I also just really really really wanted
to have the kind of what would the Norn
music sound like that was another thing
that came to my mind and I didn't really
really really wanted to like portray in
the audio and like put the Norn culture
out there since that's what the story is
about like yeah charlie and yeah so I
looked at like Vikings
I think horizon zero dawn those are my
two main ones okay and I knew that I
also really wanted percussion in there
and needed to be there for the feature
section we needed to get this feature
section rolling because in the beginning
it the feature section was just there
you didn't really notice that the
featured reception was going along lines
in the early version of the trailers and
so I got a lot of feedback on that and
then something needed to help drive the
features together so that's kind of
where I started basically started with
temp music and rolled from there
okay that works yeah so where did you
come in on the audio on the trailer did
you start playing with it right out of
the gate
well the cinematics team with Jason by
field and
does a really good job of making my job
easy because they usually know what they
want and in this case it's funny because
jess is talking about tent music
selection and I remember early on I was
really trying to get y'all to go with
like we're asking what's this trailer
about what's this episode about we're
talking about Bram's journey and going
to find his uh was like guildmates
yes dead killed me this dead guildmates
and i was like what if we did like a
indie film roadtrip blues thing and
there was a hot minute where i was
pushing that like I was kind of cool
right and it was like it's kind of cool
in the end big epic drums for the win
nothing gets the hype going like that so
that was something I think I went away
on like a Friday and Jess you came back
with some temp music and we were like
this is great this is working and then I
I I work with the cinematics team to
just massage some of the language around
speaking to composers and then we sent
that to stay on the part who did a great
job on this and I think like first or
second version he sent it back to us and
it was great so I'm I'm involved along
the way basically just as a resource if
they need help but for the trailers
these folks are pretty pretty great at
what they do know I want so it's not not
a lot of work for me and the music
really drives these so yeah yeah I want
to talk to some of the chem work that
you did okay looking at the strike
mission bosses and just how epic they
feel yeah talk a little bit about where
your inspiration comes from oh my
goodness gracious I thought was actually
my favorite part of the whole entire
trailer to work on especially like the
first time I went into strike missions
in there
my inspiration actually comes from
raiding so I raid in Guild Wars 2 and
the bosses in there I wish I could bring
a camera in and another inspiration was
like keeping the camera moving around so
you don't actually just see the actual
like boss and it's just there in front
of you you want to see the full thing
because their animations were insane
especially the code on one which is like
red and it was just amazing so I needed
to keep the camera moving around
instead of just making sure the camera
just goes forward because then you
wouldn't one shot yeah yeah you wouldn't
see the flip over the back that they do
and then the epic poses at the end in
and having the IceBridge shaman think
the FRA near like wipe wipe out into
black and then transition into the more
spooky like part was I was like a last
minute change actually having the camera
white to black it was I think that
that's the last minute change so what
prompted that um how many just wipe
before having you just wipe out to like
the forest it didn't really feel too
impactful and I remember watching a lot
of trailers and seeing it just like epic
moment epic moment epidemic black and
then it goes to like calm or at least
like some troubled moment so I try that
it worked I just put it into one of
their Wednesday critiques and no one
really said anything about us I'm okay
it works great yep no objections I know
Jax is yep exactly
I'm glad you brought that up Chelsea
because you're in-game experience and
okay this is a thing this is a thing
that's cool that I can kind of run with
and work into the trailer because I know
this is what's going to read well yes
comes crest and actually you've you
reminded me that that was something that
someone called out when we were looking
at this internally in some meetings and
how good that looked and that was
something that got a lot of praise
internally so nice yeah what was
something else that you really liked
working on in there I really liked going
in and actually putting putting like
bran and our commander Anja into a scene
and actually like making it kind of from
scratch like basically having custom
shots in the trailer like when Bram
walks into the keep to see a set of
guild mates that was that we had to do
mocap for that and also on just standing
at the gate like him at the very end
that was also we had mocap for so those
were actually like
just in the game they were shot in the
game engine but like just putting that
together and figuring out how to use the
tools that we currently have for this
project was like astonishing I loved it
I loved the challenge that it had there
are a lot of challenges and like we
worked through it all and there was like
just a lot of communication that I
learned and so many people helped me and
it worked out just great and it was also
I think my first mocap session that I
actually really liked I wasn't acting in
I had a part I was like co-directing and
it was it was really fun it was really
really fun to her look that's awesome so
you worked on the York John the cutscene
in said game not the trailer correct
well okay work I did help believe it oh
yeah yeah yeah I did like nothing from
you know helped with the bone Skinner
shots yeah okay because I was already in
the horror mindset so were you oh yeah I
mean I just rolled off of finishing the
ingame cinematic and I look at my team
going I still need to do artwork please
don't send me back into meeting prison
and then you hear like the outlook ding
and it's like constant meeting so yeah
uh it was a I got to keep doing art so
thank you for letting me you were so
excited to work on the phone scanners oh
yeah really yeah yep okay so what was
the process of getting the bone Skinner
shots like what what were you after uh
the unknown I mean if we you see like
this yeah I mean you know we work a lot
with marketing and so we we do help you
know coordinate that what goes in the
trailer is is plussing whatever other
campaign or media outlets that they're
utilizing so the phones can already been
shown in extra life but still if we
could get the sense of like okay it was
shown but do you know how it's going to
interact with you right and we saw
another shot of it in the strict mission
but it was very much just in it it's at
yeah and so this would be like the first
time kind of seeing it in its
environment in the forest and you know
just giving hints of it as its walking
away that was the first shot the second
shot was developed later because like
okay well we kind of need to pay off the
bone scanner so then we are I developed
the other shot of it like kind of
turning to look at you and then jested
the whole overlay of draw back speaking
to make it seem like maybe is the bone
Skinner speaking for you right now is
that dramatic speaking through bone
Skinner and so it's just that extra
element of the unknown that makes it
creepy yeah again terrifying in a good
way oh yes that's turn the whole turning
to look at you and like is this thing
actually speaking to me you know what
I'm just gonna go I would go to a
meeting because I would rather go yeah
yeah so do we have I do we have in
progress shots from the trailer No okay
this is like I know we have I know we
have the lead up shots we need to make
sure we get some mocap stuff from you
next time yes but I would like if you
can to talk a little bit about the
process where you start for the trailers
like yeah and how that run up goes just
like walk us through a little bit
chronologically you don't have to like
spend the rest of your life doing it but
kind of how that works so basically I
start out there's a lot that I started
out with but basically I started out
with figuring out the tone and the mood
of the overall trailer and then after
that I kind of just started talking to
Chelsea and Jason and Chris about where
I wanted to go with it and then first I
started getting together the tent music
I'm getting the vo from Chris and
putting that together to get the timing
out and then after that I started I just
put like the first and second like takes
of the temp audio into premiere and then
I just went in game and started like
just capturing everything we had a
strike mission on call where we were
playing through the fur
versions of the strike missions like all
three of them and then I went in with
that and I just put my put my character
in there made them invisible and then
just like when it's free camp mode and
just shot everything smoothly the camera
everywhere I'm just trying to feel how
to use the free camera and then also how
to just capture because I was also
learning how to capture video game oh my
gosh yes super impressed right now I had
such a hard time controlling that camera
huh like the first couple of times I'm
very much not good at it so yes and then
after that and it's a sympathetic thing
because he knows your pain you were
learning cameo at the same time yeah god
yeah I know
stop I just threw her in the deep end it
had you really did I did I am you're a
superhero so congrats thank you it was
yeah it was I was thrown into the deep
end however I did ask - you did - the
deep end I gave yep yep oh okay I just
kept swimming until I wear doggy paddle
I'm impressed
seriously that's a lot to take on at
once it was like this was also my first
project as well like being part of the
ArenaNet team so it was it was a leap of
faith and it ended very well
yes it did congratulations because that
is okay swimming while you're juggling
and on fire and make it look good
that's my management style god speed
exactly how it was every time so I was
like hey for feedback and then they
liked you their feedback I'm like okay
good good afterwards coolest yep add it
to the list I feel like someone was here
and they said something but I couldn't
hear the roaring in my ears but overall
it's like it can capture getting
feedback on the tent music and timing
then doing a spotting Shaffer Chris so
he can start so he started with working
with a composer and he could like pass
along my
thoughts on how everything was supposed
to feel giving timing flushed out adding
and taking out captures that didn't
really flow well and then making sure
that the features got the time that they
deserved so the players knew like hey
this is what we're offering this episode
be hyped for it I am or I guess I was
since the episodes out but and the main
thing that I had in my mind throughout
the whole entire process also while
getting the feedback was to make sure
that I was making a trailer that not
only would hype me as a current and I'm
like longtime players for the Guild Wars
2 but also what would hype my friends
what would hype a company what would
hype like my guild yeah my guild man
so that was those one thing that really
just like kept me straight and focused
and like make sure to take all the
feedback and then also make sure to
think okay is this feedback doable in
the time that I have to hit all my
milestones and then who do I need to
talk to in order to like get this
trailer to where it needs to be because
there was also a lot of communication
with the other side the marketing team
as well so I had way more meetings than
I thought I would so it was like meeting
Monday or I was in meetings oh yeah
that's you think three to four hours of
it at half of my day yeah sounds like
Monday yep meeting Monday but it was it
was totally worth it so yeah it was just
after that just capturing like fine Paul
fine tuning everything working with
Chris a lot he helped me a lot figure
out the tone in the final like how many
part like there's a part a B and C for
like the mood throughout the whole
entire trailer and what I wanted to
accomplish oh well congratulations on
your first journey out there and today
we will and it turned out really well
thank you yeah so fun to make so I'm so
glad that's fantastic so well good job
tossing her in the deep end yes for it
worked out extremely well well let's
talk about the unbelievably creepy
in-game cinematic can we watch the final
version of that
okay then we want to do the behind the
scene I guess let's do the final start
with the final version so we have
context okay and then we'll go behind
the scenes 

[Fraenir cinematic] at 1:26:44


I honestly hate saying this because it's
such a garbage pun and I don't mean it
but it's chilling because I know I hate
it stop I don't want this any more than
you do nobody likes this nobody likes
that it really is so unbelievably
terrifying Fred town shores voice like
breaking through and the creepy
unnatural movement of the frames jaw
just combines to bring this creepy
terror and you guys did such a good job
I hate it this was a I don't want to say
challenging cinematic but it was
definitely one that wrangling in all the
help that we get on a cinematic into
this vision like I had to keep repeating
what the vision was because it's not
full-on horror
at the end of it you want to walk away
going maybe jour mag is right maybe this
dead thing that was talking to me
oh it's getting to me right and so
that's not your traditional horror and
so when we set out to this piece you
know the pitch was like it is definitely
a whore like the whole episode is horror
but this moment it's not about a zombie
coming after you
it is about your psyche getting
challenged or your values getting
challenged in this moment now there's a
lot of horrific elements I mean a dead
man's talking to you
yes but Irene wants this thing right
Irene wants what you want and I want to
help her yeah so getting a cinematic -
really
get into that psyche horror
psychological horror there's a few
things that I think we did for that so
on one front we had the animation team
help us because we need some extra
animations to part so thanks to Chuck
and caught and run all of them help and
of course da he you know she was the
cinematic animator on this and so you
know Chuck between Chuck and caught they
had some ideas cuz Chuck is all about
horror he is just like like the whole
Corey oh yeah okay and so he had an idea
of how he wanted this shaman to move and
we had a lot of back-and-forth
discussions like well how is jour mag
controlling this dead body you know is
it going to be floating like like a
puppet on a string and it's like no it
still Connie's grounded okay but it's
not a zombie it's not full-on zombie
where you know it's like coming after
you yeah your brains it's and so the
idea that Chuck eventually distill down
from all of that was okay jour meg is
still struggling with this power a
little bit and it's kind of like a
spider that spiders don't have muscles
or anything it's just they pump blood
into their legs and that's how their
legs move okay and so is that concept of
like dramatics just pumping magic here
and there to make the shaman move and so
that's like you know the arms go limp
but then sometimes it comes up and it
straightened up or if the feet walk
forward more of the body gets more loose
and then at the very ends when you know
the whole thing kind of straightens up
and talks straight at the commander or
the NPCs implied commander that your bag
has final control of the body but it
can't last very long and so then just
drops at the end because it like put all
this power into this shaman oh and Greg
Greg helped animate this as well if the
jaw he's you know the whole facial thing
and so that was the body mechanics
behind it and then the face was you know
again that same concept like it's
struggling to move the jaw because the
magic is like coming in here they're in
the camera so I'm going to talk a little
about camera and we've got a video that
shows kind of like some of the stages of
going into this cinematic what I decided
to do well I was inspired by a couple
films out there am I allowed to share
what the inspirations yes okay
so there's a film called the lobster I
don't it's it's it's a fantastically
awkward fill and then there's another
one from the same director I'm horrible
names but it's called a killing of a
sacred deer I mean that one will leave
you feeling weirded out and it is true
psychological horror and one of the
techniques used in those films it's just
a slow zoom in the whole time which has
the sense of danger just slowly coming
at you and you can't do anything about
it okay where is like a physical
movement in space with a dolly you know
a lot of Spielberg movies will do that
like just the physical movement makes
you feel like you're in that space and
you've got the freedom to move around so
the cinematic starts with the camera
freedom like that the camera is
physically moving in space until the
shaman wakes up and your mags and
control the scene every time we're
shooting the shaman it's that slow zoom
in like a glacier just slowly coming at
you here you can't can't do anything
about it and then when we cut back to
the NPCs it's the shamans always in the
shot because he's in control and it's
frozen in place like ice and so that was
kind of the camera language I built into
the scene oh wow and you know during the
process of the cinematic it so many
times there's feedback of like wool it
doesn't really feel like horror well
okay let me add this horror thing oh let
me do this horror thing let me do this
horror thing and I kept having to pull
it back like no it's not it's not
physical necessarily what it is right
it's not physical or it's psychological
horror and so you have to kind of warm
it up a little bit and on that note I
want to talk about music I started with
an eerie kind of tent music piece and it
that was one of those elements where it
just wasn't working for the scene
because it's going too far in a horror
direction Chris comes along and is like
well maybe well context I'm gonna give
is that it the creepy music was working
at one point at the very beginning of
the cinematic when it was like all grey
box and like the shaman was just like a
naked gray dude yeah and it was and he
he looked very human
so having the music convey that
something was wrong was working for the
scene but as soon as the skin came in
and the the normal-looking human looked
like this really messed up zombie now
all of a sudden the music and the
visuals were kind of like plussing to a
degree that was it was like gloves just
wasn't working anymore the visuals were
already telling us something's wrong so
the music telling us something wrong was
kind of redundant and one of my favorite
exercises and this is from George
Clinton who's a film composer who I
studied with a little bit and college he
was saying that if he's ever stuck on
the music for a scene he can't figure
out what's working he just likes to put
something ridiculous to picture that
absolutely won't work but it sometimes
sparks an idea and like for me that's
always like like Latin Mambo but in this
case I was listening to some other stuff
and it was music that kind of had this
what would the right word be like
sweetness or a warmth yeah it basically
it basically I think was from the lens
that jour mag is right like jour mag is
good and the music should be kind of
like this embrace which is kind of why
it started to feel I went and played it
for Chelsea and I was like is this
working you're like yeah this is working
because again we're seeing the horror
all the NPC's are like what's happening
but the music was going like hey
everything's okay everything's cool and
what was really interesting about that
too for me was we have a producer Wendy
to Spain who was kind of like our I feel
like our temperature on this where when
the visuals got horrific and the music
was horrific she said hey for what it's
worth it's from it's horrific but I'm
not getting that really uncomfortable
feeling like why is this a zombie making
sense and that was kind of our our gauge
at a week-to-week when we'd get music
back as saying like Wendy does it feel
uncomfortable again and finally we got
the music to a place where where she
said yes this is working and before we
had before we had decided to do the
sweet music it was really interesting
because Chelsea was getting a ton of
notes on like camera
animation all these things and I went to
Chelsea and Wendy and said I got it like
the music can solve this problem it's
not about what's happening visually it's
about in the case of the scene what the
music is at that time was not doing for
the scene does that answer the question
it does and it was a very over hill and
valley to get there but yeah just
there's two elements to any film or game
cinematic that manipulates the audience
emotions in the scene and that's the
camera and music because both in real
life don't always exist I mean sure
we've got cameras in front of us yes but
generally like in a room let's say
you're just like yeah talking to a
person okay how you're acting or how
you're animating right it's just who you
are who your character is like what's in
the background that's just there what
effects are would be in that room but a
camera is it right and so that's the one
element that helps manipulate the
audience emotions around what they
should be focusing on what they should
be feeling and the music so I think you
know the scene itself I mean like it
it's creepy with the whole like you know
dead spider kind of thing yeah that's
the right way for what I meant yeah the
cameras locking you in place essentially
and slowly moving you towards this idea
and the music's telling you everything
is fine it's a great idea yeah I think
one of the other things that was really
difficult about this is that cinematics
are I think one of the most iterated
iterated upon and contained and reviewed
products that we make at the studio so
every week a couple times a week we're
putting this in front of people and
saying is it working basically and we're
getting feedback and for the audio we
had made a couple decisions that we were
kind of waiting towards the end on just
because of how busy we were where the
music was gonna do this sweetness thing
which was taking a lot of iteration to
get it right and we're in the last
episode we had this really
detail-oriented sound effect past this
one we said well let's go really soft
and warm an abstract and have as few
sound effects as possible to help it
read because it is this really weird
space let's not be overly detailed and
it's almost like we want to hypnotize
the listener
and if having too much sound is gonna
break that spell we don't want to do it
and so I think that's always scary for
me when you're putting lesson and just
having faith on the picture and the
story and all of the things together to
sell it because my first instinct is
always to go like well let's put a sound
on everything and that's not always
right so when we made that decision that
was like that was scary for me every
week to go in there and be like is this
gonna work
excuse me so yeah alright well do you
want to look at the work-in-progress
stuff and kind of talk about how that
progressed sure watching we do the pet
one first okay I run sound
we're on sound okay okay should I
explain it first so you know everybody
loves uh everybody loves cuddly pets so
yes yeah and so two things so this was
just a funny accident where Chelsea gave
us a recording to one of her cats on a
visit to the vet that was losing their
mind a little bit that cat was so angry
and I anytime she goes in the car that's
what she sounds clothed but mine are
like that yeah yeah and so we took that
and put it in a synthesizer and it just
sounds like well you'll hear it but for
me it's kind of like cat prison in space
like it's really messed up and I and we
were laughing so hard when we heard it
so so we we put that into the scene and
you'll see where we put it and then the
other one was when they did the great
facial animation of the zombie clacking
their teeth I was like I gotta hear that
teeth clack and then I'd sit there with
a microphone and kind of like and I'm
like I'm not doing this to my teeth and
a good friend of mine Juan Uribe who's a
sound designer over at Bungie we hang
out and they and him and his wife have
this adorable dog Jasper who does not
bark but when he wants attention
whenever I go over there and he wants me
to sit down on the couch so I'll pet him
he just clacks and I called him I said
man I got the scene I'm not gonna do
this to my teeth can you please save me
and like send me a few snippets of
Jasper clacking his teeth and he was
like oh of course
so you'll see you'll see unfortunately
just pictures of the animals I don't
have videos of them and then where we
used it in the scene but it was very fun
to leverage fuzzy friends that we love
so much and their anger their anger add
Ghanaians or healthcare
[Music]
I think you would make it less creepy
it's ten times more adorable but somehow
equally creepy yeah yeah that was where
I had fun on this one so is your cat
okay oh yeah okay that's a standard vet
visits but angry about health care oh
yeah in the car yeah yes and the car I
had to drive with them for 14 hours so
when I moved from the previous state I
was to here start any backup at ArenaNet
14-hour Drive that constantly every
second we did that we should share
stories sometime because that was my
experience 23 hundred mile drive yeah we
got Kitty valium from the vet it did
nothing I should have taken it yeah yeah
it did it helped not at all it was just
two days of complaining and anger and at
one point they knocked over the water
box in their carrier just honest me I so
I had a stay the night at a hotel like
you know this journey she found her way
in the boxspring of the bed her student
- we thought we lost her yeah she's gone
where is she and then I can look to
everybody Frank hold open the mattress
and I'm starting to hear this like
little Pauling in the Box be like how
did you get in there I I don't yeah yeah
she chewed a hole in the underside of
the box spring it was the whole thing
okay yes do not travel well yeah it was
not great it was it was awful yeah worth
it cuz we're here now
yes so yeh but yeah and you know your
cat's in the game
yes she's happier than when she was in
the car that's true that was that was
fantastic we were talking to Joseph in
the last segment about just the
incredibly random places that you find
the perfect sound mm-hmm and Jesper
clacking his teeth well it's just like
for me it's like there's like a
sympathetic pain I feel when I hear that
sound associated with the visual of a
human doing that and so I was like when
I played it for a few people and they
were like oh god I was like perfect
Joseph started like flicking his
fingernail mestizos it get out yeah yeah
that worked out extremely well oh yeah
all right so what else do you want to go
over behind the scenes thing yeah let's
do the behind-the-scenes thing all right
so I have a video of I know we've talked
about this before and Gil chat by put
together video just kind of like all the
stages of the cinematic and it's yeah we
can okay let's take a look yeah
[Applause]
with the respect you deserve
speak face-to-face voice the air is
thick with change I feel it even as I
dream beneath the ice Joe Mack you fear
me as you feared crowd the tour that was
naturally but harder fires ice protects
[Music]
all this pain only wants to end it and I
can help I want to help
terrible things lurk just beyond the
horizon but you can bring eternal peace
to our world in time
and when you do I will be waiting
so good you got okay so that's the
process
yeah it's that show yeah it takes like
two minutes no no no sorry that's just a
cruel joke we were watching a movie
O'Day and they had this advertisement
for like a new laptop that can do all
this like 3d stuff and they made it look
like I said I'm sorry it's a joke that
like hurts so yes that's a whole four
month long process right there
and yeah the storyboards yeah because
you need to make sure are we on the
right path yeah before you really dive
into doing a lot of work for it saw the
mocap acting raw mocap did you get into
the layout stage and then there's just
like a lot of iteration on there and
especially we switch to the engine that
can be rough sometimes
we've got some really good tools we've
got a wonderful tech art team that makes
our lives easier it's still a game
engine so when you go from like
MotionBuilder or maya into the Guild
Wars 2 engine there's always going to be
some cleanup and then double checking
that back with the animation team and of
course the animators are iterating this
whole time yeah and then give cameras
and audio comes in and the final
lighting and it just all kind of comes
together but the the biggest I think
challenge for a cinematic artist is you
know you are being that film director
for that piece and it's keeping the
vision the whole time through those four
months for for those yeah through those
four months with different talent coming
on board to help out with the scene here
there and each one will have you know
inputs that is good input yeah it's just
making sure it's all line to a single
vision yeah that much time that many
different brains that much iteration
yeah and things are changing with
in-game develop within the development
of the game itself as well so there's a
there's a lot to make a line so good
work because I know it is very very
difficult and paring it down to a one or
two minute video right is is a lot to do
yeah
so well it was it turned out really
really well and that creepy factor
balancing with that nice music and
everything is fine this is a good idea
you watch us to have that you do yes
this would be good for you
yeah Irene wants it yeah I just want to
help Irene yeah yeah this is it lent
itself all of the cinematics lend itself
to that tone of the episode really
really well so you have a little Easter
Egg yeah a little bit when we were
putting in its Fred right sorry I'm
terrible with names the voice actor for
sure yeah
when we were deciding what words to put
in there kind of has a creepy message to
it if you can pull out of there or like
pull out like the words he is saying on
top of your mags speech to you so Ford I
just I guess I'll just because I love
you can no no I want to know your on so
I think so there's a line of like I want
but if you don't want to know
you turn now okay there's a delight that
I don't know if it's possible to pull it
out you have to really listen to it but
dramatic saying I want to help her so
something like you know Irene wants this
to and I want to help her and Fred says
something just I want her I want to help
her just I want her fine
well I'm blanking I'm like as soon as oh
my god I could have this thing I'm
blinking in love lines but there's
something also where like I can end it
like end all the war in pain and Irene
wants to end it too and again it's just
drop out to Fred saying end it just end
it
okay that's terrifying yeah but a really
cool detail yeah yeah so if you can hear
when Fred's coming in it's it's um it's
kind of a counter message to what drawer
Mac's telling you okay that's fantastic
and I love that little detail yeah so on
that note we should probably end it -
yes wow I can't remem the lines anymore
I worked on it for four months so yeah
it's
just burned into your brain now forever
yeah so well thank you all for your time
I appreciate it thank you so much for
joining us this time thank you can we
bring you back again yes
so and thank you all for spending time
with us and we will see you on the next
skilled chat have a great weekend
[Music]
you
[Music]
you
[Music]
you
Guild Chat - Episode 95

Summary[edit]

Transcription[edit]

Funko Pops (5:47)[edit]

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