On today's episode of Twenty Thousand Hertz,
the podcast about the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds
dives deep into the sonic wonderland behind the best-selling video game
of all time: Minecraft.
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| Artwork by Matthew Fleming |
Since its
release in 2011, Minecraft's affecting music and eccentric sound effects
have become as unmistakable as its blocky visuals. Through interviews
with the game's original composer and sound designer Daniel Rosenfeld (aka C418), host Dallas Taylor
reveals how Rosenfeld created everything from the surprisingly peaceful
and organic score, to the signature crunch a player hears while
digging, to the noises of creatures like cows, Creepers and so many
more.
Read a full recap at GameSpot.
The story begins in an online forum called the Independent Games Source, where Daniel Rosenfeld first met Minecraft designer Markus Persson.
Persson liked Rosenfeld's work, and gave him free reign to score his
upcoming project, never guessing it would grow into a worldwide,
generation-crossing phenomenon. Inspired by the jarring contrast of the
music and graphics in Dwarf Fortress, Rosenfeld wanted to compose
something that at first made no sense for the game's visuals -
beautiful, ambient and haunting.
When the game added its hectic
multiplayer mode, he produced the optimistic and percussive "Creative"
music. But because it was impossible to ever know what a player was
doing within the world, he let the many tracks start and stop at
seemingly random intervals, a choice that would become a defining
characteristic of the game.
The music was the easy part, though. When Rosenfeld needed to
create convincing sound effects for all of Minecraft's actions and
creatures, he had virtually no experience as a sound designer. He
sourced free samples - resulting in an unexpected choice for the digging noise that was later repurposed - but also used his natural resources. He recorded himself jumping into snow, used a water hose for spider sounds, pitch-shifted gunshots for exploding Creepers, and voiced the zombies when he had the flu.
Minecraft follows previous Twenty Thousand Hertz episodes on the Xbox Startup Sound, Video Game Soundscapes, 8-Bit Audio and more than 115 other topics you can find here: https://www.20k.org/archive
In addition to hosting the multi Webby Award-winning, tens of
millions times-downloaded podcast, Dallas Taylor serves as Creative
Director of Defacto Sound, a leading sound design studio whose thousands of projects include video games and game trailers. Check out a highlight reel here: https://youtu.be/83N52xPpmZ0
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