“Besides Serious Sam games, I have worked on 50 other games and projects and to this day, The Talos Principle is still one of my favourites. Switching from a fast, violent and often silly FPS game like 2011’s Serious Sam 3: BFE to 2014’s The Talos Principle, a meditative ‘world puzzler’ like Myst or Portal, was, for Mravunac, “a breath of fresh air.” Serious Sam 3: BFE-not always a subtle affair: It certainly helped me see things from a different perspective and to learn first-hand what our fans want, so I’m very thankful for that.” Serious sound “I already had extensive experience in marketing thanks to past career choices, so I took the role of CMO to help promote our games. Since my audio turnaround time is quite fast, we wanted to explore other areas where I could be useful to Croteam.
It’s a seemingly odd move from the outside, but one which he puts in context: “Being an in-house composer and sound designer is awesome, but you have to realise that some projects take more than a year or two to complete.
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Finding the perfect balance between sound effects and music is like discovering the Holy Grail, and it’s something we strive for in every game.”īeyond being the audio lead, Mravunac has since also become the company’s Chief Marketing Officer. “While this gives me more control over the overall audio landscape, it’s more limiting in terms of creativity. But since I compose music as well, my approach is somewhat more ‘surgical’ as I can predict some events in the game where audio clutter could occur and I can plan in advance to avoid that. “We often mix and match our ideas until we come up with something we both feel is right for the game, and that usually works right out of the box. Our COO is a game designer, producer and sound designer among a dozen other things, and he has a very good idea of how things should sound. Considering that we’re still in business, it must mean we are doing something right!”Īlthough he’s responsible for overall game audio, he isn’t alone: “All of us at Croteam wear many hats and luckily I’m not the only sound designer on the team. We’ve been recognised as one of the leading companies in the gaming world, which is no small achievement. We’ve all learned a lot since Serious Sam: The First Encounter. We’ve done some really great things and some not so great (but still damn good). Mravunac has been audio lead at Croteam for 18 (ish) years, explaining: “It has been an awesome roller coaster ride so far. One thing is certain though: You can now pre-order The Talos Principle soundtrack on glorious double LP vinyl from -and check out the music right here, right now whilst you read on: Mr.
Are these my fingers typing on this keyboard? Who made this coffee? Mind you, dear reader, you can’t really be sure that this article was penned by a human.
#Ne x the talos principle image series#
Since Damjan Mravunac, game music composer and sound designer across the Serious Sam and The Talos Principle series (as well as Chief Marketing Officer at Croatia-based Croteam), emailed me his interview responses, I can’t really be sure they weren’t written by an AI. What does it mean to be alive? Can a robot be, or become, considered human? Are we all just pre-programmed mechanical animals? A disembodied voice tells the player during philosophical puzzler The Talos Principle that “games are part of what makes us human.” That’s just as well, because we all bloody love games here. We chatted to Damjan Mravunac, the composer (among other things) for Croteam’s Serious Sam and The Talos Principle series, about his audio philosophy.
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