A Total War Saga: Troy is a turn based strategy game that loosely follows the story of the Iliad by Homer. The game was developed by CA’s studio in Sofia, Bulgaria, in conjunction with the UK Creative Assembly audio team.
My responsibilities on Troy included the creation of assets and maintaining the audio systems for the Campaign environments and UI. Many of Troy’s audio systems were initially developed for Total War: Three Kingdoms, which gave us a good starting point and allowed us to spend more time refining these systems and creating high quality content for them, with the goal of utilising audio to reinforce the ancient and mystic aesthetic of the game.
The day & night cycle from Three Kingdoms makes a return in the Troy Campaign map, meaning that the environmental soundscape is constantly changing, with different types of wildlife only being present at specific times of the day. The Campaign map also features wildlife that is unique to certain areas, which helps to create a sense of authenticity and also differentiates the various regions from each other.
We attempted to utilise the UI audio to reinforce the mystical aesthetic of the game whilst also representing the bronze age era that the game is set in. We built upon the modular UI system that we initially developed for Three Kingdoms and created a kit of sounds that consisted of various categories in order to give us a wide variety of sounds to utilise. We made original recordings that consisted of plates, tiles and other ceramic materials being smashed and manipulated in various ways to match the art style of the game, whereby pottery features prominently. We also recorded various metallic objects, including instruments that were played in both conventional and unconventional ways in order to create some of the more emotive and contextual sounds present in the UI audio.
The videos above showcase certain areas of the game including the Campaign map. For more information please visit: https://www.totalwar.com
Honours & Awards
TIGA Awards 2020 – A Total War Saga: Troy (Win)
Best Strategy Game
NAVGTR Awards 2021 – A Total War Saga: Troy (Win)
Outstanding Game, Strategy
NAVGTR Awards 2021 – A Total War Saga: Troy (Nomination)