Hello there.
It’s been a long time since we’ve made a blog post at Trackwriters. That’s because we’ve been very busy and a few things have been a little bit secret.
The games company we’ve been working with on Through the Woods received a grant from the Norwegian Film Institute this week for 300,000 kroner, or around $45,000. This is the second major cash injection so far, the first being investment from the StartupLab Founders Fund (StartupLab is Norway’s fastest growing tech company incubator), with which StartupLab bought a small percentage of Antagonist.
All told, this is quite a lot of money. The NFI is a major funding organisation and that Through the Woods is one of the few games they have chosen to help shows a lot of faith in the game and the team. We hope that this might lead to them showing additional support for the project in the future as the NFI have been known traditionally to grant smaller amounts of money to help get new projects started before giving larger amounts once development ramps up. Through the Woods has become a serious project and Antagonist are already becoming a formidable player in the Norwegian games world.
Trackwriters’ Role
On the Trackwriters side, as the project develops the audio seems to be getting more and more important. We haven’t said too much about it thus far, as there are certain elements of the game that the Antagonist wished to downplay, but things are a little more out in the open now. The game is set in a dark forest on a small island in western Norway. Your son has been kidnapped and taken deep into the forest and, as his mother, it’s your job to plunge into the woods and save him.
The woods are inhabited by creatures of the natural world but also by beasts from Norse mythology. The game is, as we said, very dark. If you use your flashlight navigation will be easier, but the creatures will notice you quicker and may feel they have to defend their territory or even kill you, the intruder.
As you are safer with the flashlight off, the audio and sound design become crucial. The sound of the trees, the creatures of the forest and their whereabouts in relation to the player. You have to sit awhile, listen for potential danger, and avoid it. No one can defend themselves against threatened wild animals, who are possibly protecting their young, and the game is no different. If something decides you are dangerous, you are probably going to die.
Show Me More!
This is actually our first proper blog post about anything other than a piece of new equipment, so apologies if it is slightly unfocused or rambling. Basically, we are passionate about the project, as are the rest of the team at Antagonist, and we just want more people to know about it and follow along with the progress. There’s much more to say about the game, the story, the development, but really, how much time do you have?
To find out more about Through the Woods or Antagonist in general, visit Antagonist.no and keep an eye out in the future, budding game audio designers (such as ourselves!), as we’re considering making a video production diary of our process for the game.
You can also watch the new trailer below. Enjoy and thanks for reading!
Dan