Unpacking Pickup.PNG
Image: Francesco Del Pia

Earlier this week, a zen game about unpacking, which is unsurprisingly called Unpacking, launched on Nintendo Switch. Since then, it's been getting a lot of attention, both for its players who don't know what GameCubes are, and for the stunning amount of detail within the isometric pixel art game.

The latest detail to go viral is one that doesn't usually get nearly enough recognition: the Foley work, done by BAFTA-award-winning composer and audio designer, Jeff van Dyck, who has credits on Total War, Hand of Fate, and a number of EA Sports games.

They say a picture tells a thousand words, but to show off audio design, you need a video, so here's one from a senior sound designer, Francesco Del Pia, which (at time of writing) has over 9,000 likes:

According to fellow audiophile Maximilien SP, van Dyck put together over 14,000 audio files just for these sounds. Again: 14,000 files just for picking up and putting down objects. Here's how van Dyck described the process:

"We had Reaper render the audio files into a deep folder structure that represented the containers & hierarchy in #Wwise. Then used a single template container to map all sounds to the correct surface switches. I felt giddy every time we did this process, it was magical!"

He went on to say that "the game has a lot of space and time for audio," because of the "impressionistic vibe" and low-resolution art. "This gives us an opportunity to add that detail back via the sound design."

Have you been playing Unpacking? Do you keep picking up and putting down items? Let us know what you think in the comments!

[source twitter.com]