- Ripple Effect studio audio director Jeff Wilson has discussed the game’s “gritty” soundtrack
- “The campaign has the most amount of music in it because it’s thematic,” he said
- He also explained how the team weaved “musical flavour” into the multiplayer experience
Ripple Effect studio audio director Jeff Wilson has spoken on the creation of the Battlefield 6 soundtrack, which he says was intended to capture the “gritty, authentic, modern soldier experience”.
In a new interview with TechRadar Gaming, the veteran first-person shooter (FPS) developer talked about working on the three “big tentpole experiences” that underpin the game: the premium campaign and multiplayer offering, plus the free-to-play Redsec battle royale mode.
“The campaign has the most amount of music in it because it’s thematic, it’s where we’re telling the stories of our characters,” he said. “When we move into multiplayer, we have to scale the music back quite a bit to reinforce the most important moments.”
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Still, the team was careful to capture “the world setting” and add some “musical flavor” at the start of each match. Loading screen music helps with “setting the tone for the location, drawing you back to some of the story arcs and single player,” with subtle motifs and themes that “tie back” to some of the most memorable moments of the campaign.
Music is even more scaled back in Redsec, as Wilson says the team wants “to keep the soundscape open for sound effects and voiceover that are super important.”
“You want to be able to hear the enemy running up behind you, right?” he adds, but stresses the importance of “small musical stingers” in key moments.
Although distinct, all music in the game is unified in that it’s intended to convey the fantasy of a “gritty, authentic, modern soldier experience.”
“That was the initial creative direction laid out by Thomas Anderson, who’s the creative director on Battlefield. Embracing that was key for everything.”
“It’s different for each game. Battlefield 1 was nostalgic, right? This game is not. We had to find what our version of heroism is; we’re talking about grounded and authentic.”
Battlefield 6 is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC.
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