Capturing human history has been a goal for the Civilization franchise since the first iteration. With each successive game in the franchise, the level of care into authentically representing a culture has increased. Our audio team faced challenges finding the most effective ways to accurately represent a culture's music, language, and sounds. These challenges led to new collaborations and design methodologies highlighting the unique sounds around the world and ensuring we capture as many details as possible. Our panel will consist of Dmytro Nebesh, sound designer at Firaxis games, Geoff Knorr, composer on Civilization VII, Finn Taylor, narrative designer and historian at Firaxis games, and Kadet Kuhne, Assoc. Audio Director at Firaxis games. We will discuss the challenges and importance of designing authentic cultural sounds for a game, and the positive results it can have for the overall game design and player immersion.

Takeaway

Audience members will learn various approaches to tackle historical representations. Many games will use history as a backdrop, and understanding when, why, and how to present historical characteristics authentically is an essential part of the design process. Audiences will see how audio is an important and effective way to bring representation into a game, when the corresponding effort is put in.

Intended Audience

Sound designers, voice designers, composers, historians, and intermediate developers that are exploring ways to bring historical authenticity into their games, and work with other cultures and musicians from various backgrounds in the research and creation of culturally accurate representation.