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Development Update #14: Music & Soundtrack!

Greetings, my name is Leonard Hummer and I am the composer for Sanctum 2.

When  I began to work on the soundtrack for Sanctum 2, I felt that it was a natural step in my creative process. Back when I started composing electronic pieces on my computer 15 years ago, I always found myself creating soundscapes and themes rather than traditional songs. I've always found it important to at least try to paint a scenery inside the listeners head, and most of the things I composed was basically soundtracks to motion pictures and games that didn’t exist. So when people asked me what kind of music I made, instead of talking about different genres I described the mood and environment I tried to capture. To me that's what makes music so interesting and powerful, the whole concept of an album or soundtrack and its ability to trigger a wide range of emotions inside the listener.

The music in Sanctum 2 is no exception. You will not experience catchy hit songs with sing along melodies but rather soundscapes made specifically to enhance all the other elements that makes the world of Sanctum what it is. From the beginning I felt that the keyword was balance. To find the perfect blend between sound and visual experience was the most important part in the working process. Needless to say, creating a game as big as Sanctum 2 is not a one man project. There are several talents involved in the development and I spent a lot of time trying to make the music fit into the atmosphere without distracting the player. There were technical aspects to take into consideration as well. I did not want to have sounds with too much of a high or low frequency since that would interfere with the sound effects in an undesirable way, and the mixing was made so even the harder sounds felt at least a little bit soft in the listeners ears. Trust me, the shattering explosions when you trigger your cannon fighting for survival, or the noise that some of your enemies lets out when they're getting near is enough for your auditory perception.
 

In each area there are two types of music. At first you will hear the main theme for the respective area while you're planning your strategy, building towers and just enjoying the scenery. Secondly, once you engage in battle, the music will change into something more up tempo and intense while still containing some elements of the previous track. Since I have been working a lot with crafting smooth transitions between my compositions in the past, that was my intention for this soundtrack as well. After all, you're still in the same environment once the fight begins, it's just that you might not be able to enjoy the beautiful nature as much when there are pissed of aliens everywhere trying to reduce you to a wet spot on the ground. So to help build up your courage and dexterity, the music bridges over to a more rhythm oriented and fast paced arrangement, all while maintaining more or less what defines the specific area you're in. There is of course exceptions to this pattern, when you reach an encounter out of the ordinary, I assure you that it's something you will notice in the music in one way or the other.

The result is something I feel really proud of, something that I believe captures the mood and atmosphere of the world in Sanctum 2. I hope you feel the same. May your future endeavours be successful and filled with joy and prosperity, because we're in for a great ride!

Best of luck.

/Leonard Hummer

Below is a preview of the track Rocky Fields (Build Phase)
https://soundcloud.com/leonardhummer/rocky-fields-build-phase

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Development Update #12: Weapon Spotlight!

Welcome to our #12 developer diary! If you’re going to make a game with First Person Shooter elements, it’s important that the shooting part works smooth. That’s why we’re excited to share some of our thoughts behind the weapons in Sanctum 2!

One of the main design ideas behind the weapons in Sanctum 2 is that they should be more skill-based and versatile. Picking your weapons setup in Sanctum 1 was a very important strategic decision, since every weapon had very specific strengths and weaknesses, and some weapons were simply useless against certain types of enemies. We definitely want this strategic depth in Sanctum 2 as well, but we also wanted to make weapons more versatile and give players the chance to do more than just one thing with one weapon, especially with hard practice and skill.

The ETK-Tesla Prototype was an awesome weapon in Sanctum 1, and of course it’s going to be a part of your arsenal in Sanctum 2 as well. We wanted to design a weapon that was unique both visually and gameplay-wise, that’s comfortable to use but still makes you feel extremely badass. Before the ETK-Tesla Prototype got its official name, it was called “the electric teeth fucker” at the office.

The Sub-Minigun is also one of our more strange creations. We felt we needed another rapid fire weapon next to the Assault Rifle, but we wanted to make it more badass than your everyday SMG. The Sub-Minigun blends features from both an SMG and a Minigun, providing an extremely fast firing rate at close range, but it is also one of Sanctum 2s most versatile weapons. Its secondary fire shoots a long-range plasma projectile that does damage over time to the target it sticks to. This makes it an ideal close-range weapon, but also lets players weaken or kill heavier enemies from afar.

Sniping enemies is way too fun, so we felt like we really wanted a sniping weapon in Sanctum 2. However, we still wanted it to be more than just a high-damage slow weapon. That’s why the sniper now has a secondary fire that fires a penetrating bullet that explodes and does damage in a cone behind the first enemy it hits. This makes the sniper both a perfect long-range weapon for heavy enemies, but once you’ve mastered its secondary fire mode, it can be excellent in taking out more than one enemy at a time as well.

That will be all for this week. Make sure to follow me on Twitter so I get more followers than my friends!

See you next friday,

Kisses and hugs,

Armin Ibrisagic

Ohai!

I'm Emmy "enmi" Wahlbäck, artsy hyperactive noobcake of Coffee Stain Studios. I want to share some notes about the art style of Sanctum 2 and how we've been working on making it look as friggin' neat as possible. To start off, let's focus on the characters because thats my favorite part! When Sanctum 2 was in its planning stages we had already decided that we wanted four unique characters. I'll talk you through thoughts about character design one character at a time. But not the fourth one. The fourth one is top secret. TOP SECRET!

SKYE

The game takes place a few years after Sanctum so it felt natural to upgrade Skye a bit. She's grown older, more battle hardened and scarred. We went through a whole bunch of ideas for her outfit and hair. It felt important to keep the essence of Skye as this streamlined, quick but brutal badass. When designing game characters, even in fantasy or sci-fi settings I like to gather inspiration from a lot of different sources instead of just looking at other games or movies within those genres. I spent a lot of time gathering references from street fashion, haute couture as well as functional military gear. Skye decided to shave half her hair off after she got hit across the head by a really annoying lume. It died horribly of course, but left a nasty scar on the side of Skye's head. Her old headband was replaced by an earpiece connected to the rest of her tech which has all been slimmed down to give her a more agile appearance. To enhance her authority I designed shoulder armor with strong hard edges as well as marks of her status. In Sanctum 2 she has been promoted to the highest ranked Core Guardian. The correctness of the uniform is supposed to stand in contrast to the raw attitude of her scars and wild hair. The art direction for Sanctum 2 aims to be sharp, crisp and clean. We amped up the whiteness of Elysion One and its technology and added darker areas as well as more variety in materials. Skyes blue jumpsuit got an upgrade with black and a richer shade of dark turquoise. If she ever gets bored in between fights she sometimes occupies herself with carving her kill-count into her armor. Only counting the really big enemies of course. If she included every pathetic little runner she massacred she'd have no time left to actually keep killing!

HAIGEN

Hawkins was kind of tricky to figure out. We knew we wanted a male character and we knew he and Skye were supposed to loathe each other. During the concept stages we just called him "Douche" since that's probably what Skye would have called him. His armor was quite difficult to design too since we wanted him to be really tall and lanky but still function as a close combat brawler. How to dress a tech-nerd so that he'll be able to withstand brutal lume bashing while tearing their limbs off with a shotgun? Well, the main inspiration came from the sort of protective gear that is used by crazy people who disarm bombs for a living. Blast protection around the neck, helmet with a shield for the face, some big headphones for chill music and several layers of protective gear over his chest and ribcage, that should do the trick! To be able to carry all his tools and gadgets he's got massive bags attatched to his belt. Silhouette is a vital part of character design and to make his shape dynamic and balanced I designed a pair of reeeally baggy pants for him to go along with his heavy chestplate. The idea is to bring out the difference between his skinny body and the brawler armor that was probably made to fit way sturdier Core Guardians than Haigen.

SWEET

The idea of Sweet Autumn was being tossed around long before we even knew if there was going to be a Sanctum 2. There are hints of her existance in the first game and there was a clear vision of who she was before the design was made.  As a concept artist I think it's kind of rare to get an assignment where you get a chance to design a character that is so close to your own personal taste. I felt like a happy kid in a candy shop while doodling different sweet designs. Her style is a combination of Harajuku street fasion, functional snowboard gear all mixed up with the armor tech of Elysion One. Because of her speedy and childish personality it was natural to have her modify and customize the Core Guardian uniform to make it less boring and more personal. I experimented with other colour variations on her jumpsuit but we ended up deciding to keep the turquoise and black suit closest to the body and add other colours on top of that. She's tied her own orange overalls around her hips, painted graffiti all over her exo skeleton and glove. There are some crazy cute stickers on there too. Her hair is streaked in pink and blue but that's probably temporary since Sweet is the kind of girl who changes her looks according to her moods. We wanted to make Sweet look sweet of course but it's been really important to us that her sweetness isn't her main feature as a character. All that bubblegum cuteness is what might strike you at first glance but there is more to her than that. You'll just have to dig through the game to figure her out. Haah, I bet you're all curious now, aren't ya!

Next time I get a chance to talk to you you'll probably get to know more about enemies and environments. We'll have to see!

Take care and eat ice cream.

@bittersweetenmi

Towers!

For those who have been following our Facebook page, we’ve been talking a lot about towers lately, and with good reason too! Towers are in many ways the most important armament in a Core Guardians disposal. They are the man-made machines programmed to be humanity’s only ally in LOEK III, the only thing standing between the Core Guardians and certain death.

If you’re going to make a tower defense game like Sanctum, towers will obviously have an extremely important role. When we first started developing Sanctum 2, we wanted to re-make old favorites from Sanctum 1 like the Lightning and the Gatling tower, but we also wanted to include all the awesome ideas we had for Sanctum 1 but never had the time or money to make. We want Sanctum 2 to generally feel bigger, better and more awesome than its predecessor, and giving players new and exciting ways of blasting, zapping and pummeling their enemies to red piles of gibs, meat and offal is a great way to start!

One of the first things players will notice is that we now have a new and more effective way of upgrading towers. For example, instead of having to pay 100 resources to upgrade a tower, players will be able to pool in money continuously to upgrade its stats. Towers still have levels, but if it costs 100 resources to upgrade a lightning tower from level 1 to level 2, and you only have 72 resources, you’ll be able to press and hold the left mouse button to “pool” your resources into the tower, and you’ll have a lightning tower that’s 72% upgraded from level 1 to level 2. This means that you’ll never have to start an action-phase with surplus money, as money can always be pooled into a tower to upgrade its stats! (Unless it’s maxed, of course)

The Focus Laser is a new tower to the Sanctum 2 lineup. It locks on to an enemy, and the longer it focuses on its target, the stronger and thicker it’s laser becomes. It’s the perfect tower for smashing through slow and heavy armored enemies, and most importantly, it looks extremely cool while doing it.

The Amp Spire is also a new tower in Sanctum 2. It functions as an energy beacon that increases the damage of all towers close to it. Upgrading it increases both the damage bonus and the range of the tower. We’ve been testing it at the office lately, and it can really give rise to very interesting strategies and maze layouts!

The Cannon Tower is maybe the most versatile tower in Sanctum 2. We showed it on our Facebook page a couple of weeks ago, but I think it's so awesome that I want to talk more about it! The canon tower is quite special, you see. On lower levels, it fires quick, light shots that are excellent in taking out small to medium-sized enemies. However, its range and attack damage is greatly increased when you upgrade it, but its fire rate is greatly lowered, which makes it less effective against small enemies, but much more effective against heavier ones. Deciding whether to build many smaller Cannon towers for quick and light damage, or to upgrade one into armor-smashing artillery piece will be very important for players who pick the Cannon tower in their setup!

That's all for now, have a lovely weekend everyone!

Kisses and hugs, 
Armin Ibrisagic