| [ about | the team | Bjorn Lynne ] |
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Music & SFX
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Bjorn Lynne, is known by many as Team17's music maestro. Bjorn has been into computer music for a long time,
some of you may remember him as none other than 'Dr. Awesome' back in the Amiga days. Bjorn has come along way
since then, you can even buy his records in HMV!
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How does the music differ in Worms Armageddon to previous Worms games?
It's more, bigger, scarier and I guess, more Armageddon-esque!!! No seriously though, this time it's more
ambiences and less 'tunes'. Just to make it a bit different, really. More sound effects have also been blended
into the music, to make it all into a complete soundscape, rather than just background music. Also, I tried to
implement a slightly more 'epic' feel into it this time. Less groove, more pomp.
Have you used any new equipment in the recording?
Sure. The main instruments used on the Worms Armageddon music include a Kurzweil K2500, a Novation Supernova, a
couple of guitars (electric and acoustic), an electric bass guitar and a lot of samples from various sources -
including some from my garden!
Where do you draw your musical influences from?
I'm extremely easily influenced, and I get influenced and inspired by just about all the music I hear,
everywhere. I'll hear a funk tune on an old detective series on TV, then I want to go and make something like
that. Then I'll hear a heavy metal track somewhere, then I want to go and make something like that. I might put
on a CD with orchestral music (usually Roussell, Holst or Gorecki), and before I've heard 10 minutes of it, I
immediately want to switch on all my gear and try to make something like that. Then if I watch Star Trek or
something on the telly, I can't really concentrate properly on the show itself, because I keep listening to the
music instead of the dialogue. And then that will inspire me, as well. So I'll want to do something like that
the next time I come in the studio.
The Worms we all know and love have a distinctly cute sound. How did you create that sound?
Oh, that's easy. You just record your normal voice, speaking a bit s-l-o-w-l-y, then when you've got the
recording on the PC, you speed it up by a factor of something like 1.7 or something... and voila, you've got
your Wormsy voices. I did some other stuff to the sounds as well - volume balancing, reduced plosives and
sibilants, a bit of EQ'ing and finally some level compression to make it all sound crisp and clear. But
basically, anybody at home wanting to make Worms-type vocals can just use the 'pitch shift' function in any
sample editing software, and shift their voices about 6-8 half notes up.
Did you do much 'live' recording to create the sound fx in the game? Like making things explode and
stuff?
I did a fair bit of walking around with a tiny MiniDisc recorder and a microphone, to record sound effects. I
didn't get to blow anything up this time, but a lot of other sounds were made by dropping things, hitting
things, blowing into things, and so on. Obviously, later on the sounds were heavily edited and processed in a
software package called Sound Forge, with various software special effect plug-ins. For example, what was
originally the sound of a metal hammer hitting a garage door, ended up as the sound of thunder in the game -
after a lot of editing in Sound Forge. The one sound in the whole game that was easiest to make was the one
where a Worm falls into flames and gets burned. In this case, I simply held the microphone up to my face and
said 'Tsssss...!'. It went straight in like that, without any editing. I also nearly ruined a microphone making
the 'splish' sound that plays when a Worm skips along the water, because I dropped a small stone into a bucket
and held the microphone up to it, but alas I forgot about the big splash it would produce, and the microphone
got all soaking wet. Anyway, I managed to dry off most of the water, and I think the mic still
works!
What make this the best Worms game ever?
I think all the one-player options make a big difference this time. Worms has always been a superb game to play
along with your mates, but this time it is also a superb one-player game, with all the training, missions,
death matches, ranking systems, medals and everything. Add all the new weapons, techniques, options and
graphics, and there's no doubt that this is by far the best Worms game ever.
What do you do in your spare time when you're not recording?
More recording! Actually when I'm not writing or recording game music or sound effects, I'm usually writing or
recording my own, non game oriented music. I am a recording artist on an independent record label and I am
always working on some new album that has nothing to do with games. This helps me to keep things real and get a
perspective on the whole genre of game music. My latest album is very fantasy inspired (dungeons, dragons,
goblins and all that!). It's called 'Wolves of the Gods and I've done it in my spare time over the last year
or so. Mostly I get to do this kind of thing on the weekends.
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| [ about | the team ] |
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Since the release of the original Worms, the game has grown and the number of people who've contributed
to the game has also grown. As with all Team17 games, Worms Armageddon was a team effort. We've managed
to track down some of the team to ask them what makes this the best Worms game ever. Just click their
names to read their interviews.
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| Producer |
[ Martyn Brown ]
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| Assistant Producer |
Craig Jones
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| Design |
John Eggett
Porl Dunstan
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| Artists |
[ Jan Ruud ]
Mission Graphics
[ Rico Holmes ]
Additional Graphics
[ Paul Robinson ]
Additional Graphics
Danny Cartwright
Tony Senghore
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| Programmers |
[ Colin Surridge ]
Menu System
[ Phil Carlisle ]
Network & Additional Programming
[ Rob Hill ]
DX Interface Implementation/Code Support
[ Martin Randall ]
DX Interface Implementation/Installer
Karl Morton
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| Sound and Music |
[ Bjorn Lynne ]
Matinee Studios
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| Web Design |
Paul James
Guy Palmer
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| Quality Assurance |
[ Paul Field ]
Kelvin Aston
[ Mark Baldwin ]
[ Grant Towell ]
[ Andy Aveyard ]
Brian Fitzpatrick
[ Paul Webb ]
[ Kevin Carthew ]
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| Localisation |
Paul Sharp
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| Original Concept |
[ Andy Davidson ]
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