Message Boards give warm welcomes to our newest addition to the developer's family, Sarah Steele! She works over the Sound Dept. Meaning, all the awesome sound effects and cool dialogue we hear in the game.

I wanted to start a new post not all to welcome her, but to give Pirates a new place to dock there questions and pick up a Mug or two of hardy, sweet answers. So any questions, ask here or around the Tavern! More than enough tables!

I wanted to start off with a few questions and comments. First off, Sarah Steele, let me say, you guys do an awmazing job! Probably one of the most crucial yet over looked jobs, because it's the sound that's ever so needed, but we've become so accustom to always having it, we forget it's part of the project! I love all the voices, music, and effects your team works hard on. Very little to complain about really. I do have just a few questions to ask of you Sarah:

1. Blind Mew writes up many quests for the game and Ratbeard controls all the animations and graphics. Do you work very close with them? Not only that, but we have hundreds of NPC's with speech. How or where do you find all the voice actors/actress to support the whole game, especially when we go to many worlds that require those with accents corresponding to the world (ex. Actors with Italian-Accents for Valencia, Greek-Accented Actors for the Eagles of Aquila, etc.)? Lastly, is it hard to get the right sound for the script? As in how you want a line to sound?

2. KI produces many of it's own custom musics for the game. Are you responsible over the composers who work on the background and critical musics? Also is it difficult to create a piece of music for the Skyways and Lands? I always think of it as, 'Oh, this piece doesn't make that eerie-ness we need' or 'Can you make this part be a little softer to add more wimsy' and a lot of back to the drawing boards on music.

3. Roughly, how long did it take to make most of the sounds for Books 1-14?

3. Something that's become Blind Mew catch-phrase is "That would be telling..." if we ever ask something that would force him to reveal a cool or juicy surprise in the later books. So if I asked you say "What would the Darkmoor music sound like?" or "How would the critical for the Kroks in Krokotopia go?" what do you think your "can't reveal-yet!" phrase would be?

Again, ever so pleased to meet you Sarah Steele! And Thanks in advance for the answers! (if any that is...)

Thank you Cunning Finnigan for the kind words. I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying the sound fx, voice overs, and music! We always wonder if any pirates are enjoying them!

1. We work closely with Blind Mew and Ratbeard to help get a feel for the personality and voice we want for the character. Thankfully, we live in Austin, Texas, where we can find many talented voice actors/actresses here. We do have a few actors that we use from LA, London, and Scotland. It usually isn't too difficult to find their right "voice" for a specific character, but sometimes we hold closed auditions to find just the right one.

2. Nelson Everhart is our amazing composer and we guide him for how we may want specific worlds and/or pieces to feel, but he writes all the music himself. The critical stingers are done by our sound designers in the studio. They are very talented and they will write music in their spare time. It isn't too difficult to get the "right piece" for the music to go with Skyways or other areas like that, but we do sometimes have Nelson make a few tweaks.

3. About 8 to 10 months.

4. "Spoilers....." (Can you guess which reference this is? )

Thanks for the questions Cunning Finnigan.

Sarah Steele,
I have to say that the companion Sarah Steele is VERY strong in the early levels even! It makes me want her as FIRSTMATE all the time! She's so powerful, I like to cheer her ON! Yeeh! :P I also just promoted her for the first time last week! I have to say KI did amazing with companions. :P

~Brave Steven Xanderman
Level 16 Swashbuckler

Welcome, Sarah Steele! P101's soundtrack/voices are my favorite parts of the game, and I'm so excited to know that you work closely to their creation. I have a few questions as well:

1. I seldom hear voices in the soundtracks; choral, etc. I'd love to hear them. Are they present and quiet? If not, then why not? (Edited 10 hours later: Heard a choral bit in Monquista. Love it!)
2. A few of the sound effects are truly unique. Take the cats, for example. Do you collect the sounds from some sort of program, artificially create them, bring cats, etc? What about other things like the poison sounds for Swashbucklers?
3. This might be more of a Nelson-oriented question, as was the first one, but I'll give it a shot: I'm curious on the ensemble. Are they all one group that plays game soundtracks for livings, or are they individual artists/sections that come together for the project?

Once again, LOVE LOVE LOVE the music/sfx/voiceovers. Give yourself a pat on the back. Fair winds on these here boards!

Viva Los Piratas!

Destiny S. Devereaux

This is posted in another area but Sarah, I wanted you to be sure to know how much your hard work is continuing to bless me. Please pass this on to Blind Mew and all other responsible parties so I don't clutter up the boards with the same post.

"My latest huge giggle is when they deal with the sirens and put wax in their ears. All the muffled voices and all the 'What's' Had me laughing so loud I was in danger of waking up the household, as my back pain had me awake in the middle of the night and I was playing. All the laughter made me feel Oh So Much better . Kudo's again to Blind Mew for the hysterical writing and to Sara Steele for her team's fantastic vocal acting. Woop, what a ride! "

Sarah Steele on Jun 7, 2013 wrote:

Thanks Chrissys Blessings!

I'm glad to hear that the El Toro sounds are more balanced now and you are enjoying the sound again. That means a lot to us!

Very true! As you stated, a true sound master is known for being invisible, but thank you for noticing all the little details we put into the game. That has made my day!

I hope everyone continues to enjoy the sound fx, voices overs, and music!

Sarah I am glad to see you being promoted from my crew to also being a developer congratulations! Is it hard to make music? How do you get the ideas?

Hey, Sarah, I just wanna say how much I LOVE Catbeard's and the Mustang Toreador's critical music. They are simply to die for. I totally want their critical music on my phone .

i think the background music in mooshu and cool ranch are great and that all companions have their own critical and the music makes the crits even more awesome! great job!

if the game ends in el dorado, i'll NEVER go there!!!