Creating a Unique Language for Gods Will Fall
The Audio Direction Behind the Game’s Voice System
When WeMakeAudio took on the creative and technical audio direction for Gods Will Fall, the dark fantasy rogue-like beat-'em-up from Clever Beans and Deep Silver, one of our biggest challenges was designing the game's voice system. It wasn’t just about combat sounds — we needed a dynamic dialogue system to bring the story to life and immerse players in a world of ancient gods, terrifying beasts, and procedurally generated warriors.
“WeMakeAudio brought a distinctive audio design to each of the diverse worlds of our game “Gods Will Fall”. With both music and bone-crunching, chain-clanking sound effects that created exactly the right spooky atmosphere we were looking for. No request was too much – they even created and recorded a unique Celtic-style language for our NPCs to speak”
Martin Turton, Clever Beans
There is no way to overstate how excellent Gods Will Fall sounds.
Game Pressure
The Challenge: Designing a Dynamic Voice System
Set on an island controlled by brutal gods and their minions, Gods Will Fall follows a group of shipwrecked warriors who must battle their way through 10 brutal realms to escape. The twist? The warriors are procedurally generated — their appearance, gender, weapons, skills, and even relationships with one another are all randomly created. This ensures that each playthrough is completely unique.
This raised a critical question: How do we create a dialogue system that’s both believable and engaging when the characters and gameplay are constantly changing?
We knew we needed the warriors to express real emotions in battle, interact meaningfully with each other, and react to gameplay in ways that felt natural and immersive. We also wanted their conversations to reflect their relationships, personalities, and individual journeys.
From Script to Sound: Creating Beanish
Inspired by the nonsensical language of Simlish, we decided to craft a completely unique spoken language for our warriors. But what would a group of shipwrecked warriors from a long-lost civilisation sound like? To figure this out, we dove deep into the world of Constructed Languages (Conlangs) — the art of creating new languages from scratch.
We looked at ancient languages like Gaelic and Old Norse to build a sound that felt both ancient and realistic. From there, we began developing Beanish, our very own warrior language. We started with a script in English, covering potential dialogue interactions, reactions to game events, and battle sounds then we considered how different factors — such as physical traits, power-ups, damage, and emotional states — would influence the way the warriors spoke.
To ensure that Beanish was functional and authentic, we created a language converter to translate full sentences and phrases into Beanish. We even devised a phonetic script for the voice actors to follow, ensuring every voice effect sounded just right.
Bringing It to Life: Casting and Performance
Once we had the language in place, it was time to start the casting. We sought voice actors from regions where Gaelic is spoken casting six talented voice actors, each of whom portrayed two characters, thus providing the variation we needed for our warriors.
We recorded their performances with great attention to detail, capturing the full spectrum of emotions and character depth. This allowed us to craft realistic character interactions; from warriors celebrating a victory, grieving a loss, or reacting to a power-up to fearsome battle sounds.
The Integration: Crafting the Audio Experience
Next, we integrated the voices into the game’s audio engine. We made sure that each warrior's voice adapted to different in-game scenarios — whether they were responding to death, celebrating a win, healing, or receiving a power boost. This added an extra layer of immersion, hinting at the warriors relationship with each other. The result is a voice system that’s not only authentic and immersive but also establishes a strong emotional connection between players and the warriors as they embark on their perilous journey.
Wrapping It Up: Crafting a Fully Immersive Audio World
Creating a unique language for Gods Will Fall was an incredibly rewarding challenge. By developing Beanish, we were able to create a voice system that seamlessly integrated into the game, bringing the world to life in ways beyond traditional dialogue. It’s a great example of how sound and language can elevate a game’s narrative and emotional depth.
In addition to the voice system, WeMakeAudio created the entire creative and technical direction for Gods Will Fall and its DLC; from a full musical score to sound design and implementation. At WeMakeAudio, we’re always pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in game audio. Gods Will Fall is a perfect example of how creative thinking and technical expertise come together to deliver something truly unique.
Gods Will Fall was released in 2021 across multiple platforms, including PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.