total war saga thrones of britannia factions

TOTAL WAR SAGA THRONES OF BRITANNIA FACTIONS PROFESSIONAL

A cello motif and some violin tremolos rise to add a feeling of danger. It starts off with a bass drone and a slow drum beat to portray the preparations for battle and the “quiet before the storm”. The third part of the track starting at 1:36 minutes plays on the world map when the game is in a state of war. In the second half you can hear a choir rising to a climax that gives a strong sense of impending battle. With some staccato strings I added more rhythmic energy to the music while the low brass motifs made it more powerful and aggressive. The drums consist mainly of taikos, which are Japanese percussion instruments, but since they have a lot of body and a very “wooden” quality to their sound, it felt appropriate for the setting of the game and purpose of these tracks.

To create an ominous marching feel I started with a basic rhythm on low drums and fleshed out the core idea from there. I had the chance to write a couple of marching tracks that you can hear right in the beginning of the my track. We ended up doing a lot of iterations until we were sure that the music felt right for Thrones Of Britannia. We found out that many modern harmonic progressions would not fit, and also there needed to be a focus on solo instruments, supported by the epic sound of the orchestra. “Creating a sound that is appropriate, both for the setting and scope of the game, proved to be quite a challenge.

Then it delves into a dark tension mood featuring some low flutes and a sad cello concluding with an evolving action theme with dissonant choirs and penetrating ethnic string instruments.” Starts by setting a sacred mood using choir and flutes and leads into some minor action cue using the same instrumentation. I used a medieval monks’ choir to set the dark mood and some rusty strings here and there.

Starts off with some battle mood just to switch into tension. I also used some gritty-sounding string instruments which were carefully chosen samples to stay on medieval ground and not sound too polished and modern. I mostly created threatening moods, so my challenge was to sound medieval but still dark and foreboding and not like your normal tavern tune. I used a low whistle which can be played very expressively and threw in some effects like overblowing and rolling the tone like a “rrrr” to create this rawness we were after. With Henning being more of a violin-guy, I am more into flutes, using them to play live quite often in this project to give the music some raw and medieval flavour. In the end we only left some brass for the epic battle and skirmish tracks but killed most of the brass for the more detailed and closer feeling situations like pre-battle, threat and at-war campaign tracks. As we wanted to create a very gritty and rustic atmosphere we dropped the bright trumpets from the start and also cut the shimmering trombones’ sound so often heard in today’s scores. “We all soon found that a lot of modern orchestral devices would not work for this setting. Working with Creative Assembly to understand their vision and direction, shaping the tone of the Medieval world within the game and under the ever gently guiding hands of Tilman Sillescu, Dynamedion’s Creative Director, the composers Alex Röder, Nicolai Patricio and Henning Nugel went to work last autumn knowing little of what varied − at times − crazy stuff they would end up with by January this year.

TOTAL WAR SAGA THRONES OF BRITANNIA FACTIONS PROFESSIONAL

They were professional to work with, able to understand our focus, and respond to our feedback” – Richard Beddow (Audio Director) To that end, we assembled an international team of music producers, musicians, crew and processes to deliver the soundtrack and were very happy with the results and with Dynamdions collaboration as part of that team and in helping us craft a great score. “Creating the score for Total War Saga: Thrones Of Britannia required delivering on a concept that captured the drama and atmosphere of the Dark Ages, fusing ancient English, Highland, Celtic and Nordic elements to create the Medieval setting.

Orchestral but coloured with period instruments’ melodies and ideas depicting a medieval Britain shaped by the Dark Ages and Vikings. What should music be like for a strategy game set in the British Isles of the 9th century? Audio director Richard Beddow and audio designer Jack Melham knew they wanted to have a score that should be epic and large enough to embody a full-scale war.

Total war saga thrones of britannia factions