A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead dev diary spotlights its sound design

Stormind Games today released a new dev diary for its upcoming game A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead. This dev diary spotlights sound design — a major factor in the Quiet Place universe, given that the primary threat, the Death Angels, hunt through sound and have extremely sensitive hearing. The developers expanded on how they’ve incorporated that aspect into The Road Ahead’s design. The game, published by Saber Interactive, launches on October 17.

The developers demonstrate how sound is part of the gameplay — where the player character walks and on what surface matters, as the slightest rustle can risk alerting the enemies. Different materials create different noises at different volumes — sand, for example, can diffuse the sound of footsteps, while walking on metal requires extreme care. Once the player makes noise beyond a certain threshold, the creatures will detect them and attack.

Stormind sound designer Diego Sambataro says in the dev diary that the ground itself isn’t the only problem. “Leaves, water, glass and other materials may be scattered across surfaces — each having their own loudness, which might attract the attention of the creatures.” Opening drawers or doors also creates noise, and therefore danger. The developers have created a sound detection system that takes into account the loudness and direction of the player’s actions.

Sambataro also notes that the threshold for detection is different for each difficulty setting in The Road Ahead, and that the Death Angels themselves have hunting strategies. As the developers have shown before, the player character also has asthma and must rely on an inhaler to manage it, adding another wrinkle to the survival tactics.