God of War Ragnarok sound designer unveils her "weaponized ASMR" tricks

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This developer is a literal wizard

God of War Ragnarok
(Image credit: Sony/Santa Monica Studio)

One God of War Ragnarok dev has shown off the weird and wonderful tools she put to use creating the sequel's sound effects.

Earlier this week, Wired published the video below, where God of War Ragnarok foley artist Joanna Fang took viewers behind the scenes on the game's sound design. There's all sorts of whacky tools Fang has in her brilliant sound studio, including phones, globes, construction tools, plants, and more.

Fang reveals she used lumps of charcoal on the ground, and then stamped all over them to recreate the effects of walking on snow. The technician says the whole thing is sort of like "weaponized ASMR": Fang wants to manipulate the way viewers or players feel with sound. It's sort of like tricking your audience into believing they're hearing one thing without even trying, when actually what they're hearing is something entirely different. 

The video is honestly wild, and really illustrates just how talented sound designers are. I think we overlook sound designers a lot of the time, because when attention is drawn to the sound of a game, it's more often than not directed at the actual composer for the score, rather than sound designer themselves. This is proof that sound designers are absolute geniuses. 

Just earlier this week, someone else from God of War Ragnarok got some huge attention: Tyr's actor, who teased the character's role isn't yet over, possibly pointing to DLC or even a sequel. 

Earlier this year, God of War Ragnarok's writers revealed one of the sequel's most annoying features was a complete oversight on their part. 

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Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.

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