DOFUS - Music revamp! 25/11/2019 - 16:00

Hello,

I'm Pitch and I'm the audio director of Ankama's sound department. Today, we're going to talk about an ambitious project close to my heart: the DOFUS music revamp.
Before I explain this gigantic project in detail, allow me to start with the introductions (or the reunions for many among you). I have the immense honor to work with the talented Guillaume Pladys (Guigui to those who know him), the outstanding composer of all of the DOFUS and WAKFU music.

For close to 3 years now, we have been talking with Guigui about how he has been standardizing the musical themes for the World of Twelve. It has required a long period of reflection that really began to make sense this year with DOFUS's 15th anniversary. What better occasion to finally get this gigantic project off the ground?

But words mean nothing without action. Thus, we need a clear, detailed explanation from our bard so that you'll understand the stakes and the philosophy to this revamp. Here's a brief interview I had with our maestro.

But before all that, let's let the music speak for itself with a new sample of this revamp inspired by Astrub City.
 

Pitch: Guigui, can you tell us what this revamp consists of exactly?

First and foremost, it's about renewing and modernizing the music in DOFUS, creating new melodies, replacing the game's soundtrack to make it fit better with the Krosmoz's musical universe. It's a melodious revival that I hope will be worthy of a 15th anniversary!

In addition, this revamp includes the best of 15 years of DOFUS music! You'll find the most popular songs from DOFUS 1.29, from DOFUS 2.0, sprinkled with a hint of the transmedia musical themes that one can already hear, for example, in WAKFU and WAVEN (SoundCloud link), in addition to all the new compositions!
 

Pitch: How did you prepare yourself to do this work?

First of all, it was necessary to reorganize and classify all the music composed for the game from the very beginning! I think I'm pretty close to 1,500 songs for the Krosmoz if you count all the different games for PC, table, telephone, etc. It was an archaeologist's dream – we even had to dig up old music saved on CD-ROM! We weren't far off from cassette tapes!

After that, it was possible to start writing! The hardest part is standardizing 15 years of music production: respecting the spirit of 1.29, incorporating the new things from 2.0 and the transmedia themes, and composing new music that gels with it all.

In the music department, we discussed the needs, the duration and the distribution of the music by geographic zone. After talking it all over, we agreed on forty-something new exploration and combat songs (about 1h 45 of music...) on the main DOFUS map!

Each piece was then analyzed by a committee of wise sound department employees and then incorporated into the game and rebalanced to achieve the best possible integration with the soundscapes (forest or cities, for example), common noises and lastly the music.

When all of these elements together are in harmony, the music is a success!
 

Pitch: Is this project finished?

Far from it! We're launching the first round in December! As previously mentioned, this first part of the music revamp doesn't pertain to the adventure and combat content of the main map (for example, dungeon music still needs updating).

Going about things this way allows me to modernize some music I may have forgotten (that you might be particularly fond of), then incorporating it into the game or elsewhere in another way.