Jed Miclot, Senior Sound Designer at Double Helix Games (now part of Amazon Game Studios), delivered an insightful online guest lecture on the sound design of Killer Instinct for Xbox One. In this engaging session, he provided a detailed breakdown of his creative and technical approach to crafting the game’s dynamic and immersive audio experience.
From Film to Games: Miclot’s Journey into Sound Design
Miclot began by sharing his professional background, highlighting his transition from film post-production to video game sound design. Having worked on Harry Potter and other film projects, he eventually shifted his focus to interactive media, drawn by the challenge of designing sound for dynamic gameplay scenarios.
Building a Unique Sonic Identity for Killer Instinct
One of the core themes of the lecture was the importance of creating a distinct audio identity for each character in Killer Instinct. Miclot explained how he designed unique sound palettes that reflected each fighter’s personality, abilities, and fighting style.
Jago, the Tibetan monk fighter, features martial arts-inspired sonic elements that reflect his disciplined yet powerful combat style. His movements are accompanied by crisp martial arts strikes, recorded using real wooden staffs, hand-to-hand impacts, and air displacement effects to simulate the speed of his attacks. To heighten realism, Miclot layered subtle breathing effects and controlled exhalations, making each attack feel deliberate and refined.
Glacius, an alien composed of ice, required frozen textures and resonant impacts to capture his otherworldly nature. To achieve this, Miclot recorded frozen fabric being twisted and broken, ice cubes cracking in water, and glass-like resonance using contact microphones on frozen metal objects. His attacks, which involve ice shards and liquid nitrogen-inspired transformations, were enhanced by recording icicles being shattered and the sound of dry ice sublimating.
For Sabrewulf, the werewolf, a blend of organic growls and Foley elements such as breaking wood and cloth ripping emphasized his primal nature. Miclot layered real wolf growls, lion roars, and bear vocalizations, processed to create a hybrid beast-like voice. His claw attacks were enhanced using recordings of splintering wood and ripping fabric, simulating the forceful tearing of his enemies.
Spinal, the skeletal pirate, was brought to life through creaking bones and wooden textures to enhance his eerie presence. Miclot recorded old wooden floorboards creaking, bones knocking together, and rattling chains to create an undead, cursed aesthetic. Spinal’s vocalizations were constructed using manipulated human screams, whispery ghostly echoes, and reversed percussion elements.
Foley Recording and Creative Sound Sourcing
Miclot’s approach to Foley embraced experimentation with physical objects and environmental interactions to craft a rich and immersive soundscape. To enhance the weight and impact of heavy-footed characters like Sabrewulf, he recorded the sound of pumpkins being smashed, allowing the mix of soft pulp and hard shell impacts to produce a visceral quality that made movements feel raw and animalistic. For Glacius, Miclot soaked an old pair of jeans in water and froze them, manipulating the fabric once solid to capture the crisp crackling of frozen textures. This method proved so effective in simulating ice fractures that it even led to confusion among coworkers when they discovered frozen jeans in the office freezer.
To enhance the eerie atmosphere of Spinal’s stage, Miclot recorded his girlfriend’s snoring while she was unwell, capturing deep, guttural breaths that he later pitched down to resemble an eerie, spectral presence. He also manipulated the sound of air shifting in a toilet bowl, producing unsettling moaning effects that contributed to the ghostly ambiance of Spinal’s environment.
For Orchid’s electrical attacks, Miclot recorded a real Tesla coil generating powerful electrical discharges, using its raw, high-voltage arcs to provide an authentic crackling intensity. He controlled the coil’s amplitude and rate of sparks in real time, capturing variations that could be used dynamically during combat sequences. Similarly, for Sadira’s web-based attacks, he needed a sound that conveyed both elasticity and tension. Stretching duct tape across a long surface and peeling it at different speeds allowed him to mimic the sticky, sinewy strands wrapping around enemies, creating a uniquely organic yet unnerving sound.
Innovative Sound Techniques: Layering and Positional Audio
A key aspect of Killer Instinct’s audio design was its innovative approach to impact sounds. Rather than relying on a single, static sound effect, Miclot designed each impact to be dynamic and multi-layered, enhancing spatial awareness and immersion. When a character is slammed to the ground, the sound is composed of multiple elements, including positional slapback echoes that create a sense of depth and space.
Miclot demonstrated how this system worked using Orchid’s backflip slam, a move where the character is thrown to the ground with a heavy impact. Instead of a single sound event, the slam triggered seven different sound layers, including a shockwave layer, multiple slapback echoes, and a low-frequency boom that played through the subwoofer to reinforce the force of the impact.
For Glacius’s ice-based attacks, different layers of sound simulated the fracturing and shifting of frozen structures. When Glacius smashes an enemy with an ice attack, multiple sound components activate: an initial impact recorded using frozen jeans snapping, a delayed crackling sound simulating stress fractures in the ice, and a distant slapback echo mimicking sound reflections off frozen surfaces.
This dynamic approach was also applied to environmental destruction. When objects in the stage break, multiple sound layers are triggered based on how close the player is to the destruction. If debris falls in the background, the slapback echoes adjust dynamically, making it feel as though the sound is traveling across the space. Miclot’s use of adaptive layering and positional audio ensured that every attack felt spatially alive, adjusting dynamically whether a character was fighting in a confined, echo-heavy environment or an open battlefield.
Adaptive Music: Enhancing Gameplay Feedback
Miclot also discussed the role of Killer Instinct’s dynamic music system, which was designed in collaboration with composer Mick Gordon. Unlike traditional game scores that loop continuously, Killer Instinct’s soundtrack adapts to player actions. The music shifts intensity when a player achieves a high combo streak, providing real-time feedback on gameplay performance. A granular processing effect momentarily distorts the music when a combo breaker is performed, reinforcing the action’s impact. If players stop fighting for six seconds, the music transitions to classic themes from the original Killer Instinct soundtrack. During an ultra combo, each successful hit triggers a sequence of musical notes tied to the character’s theme, turning the final blows into a rhythmic spectacle.
Final Reflections
Miclot’s guest lecture provided an in-depth look at the intricacies of fighting game sound design. His work on Killer Instinct showcased how experimental Foley, creative recording techniques, and adaptive audio implementation can enhance a game’s engagement. By sharing practical insights and demonstrating the thought process behind each sound, his lecture offered valuable knowledge for those looking to push the boundaries of game audio design.