“It's late November, 1942. The 19:05 to Paris is armed with a bomb and hurtling towards its destination threatening civilian destruction.
On board, the passengers include a Resistance Conspirator, an Mi6 Agent and a Prisoner of War on the run. To avert disaster, they have only one hope: an emergency meeting to identify the Saboteur, throw him off and Stop the Train!”
I’m back with news of an exciting new project - the product of which went to market this week! STOP THE TRAIN! is the debut board game from my talented friends at ESCAPE PLAN. As the world has adapted to COVID restrictions and repeated lockdowns, the team at ESCAPE PLAN used this year to accelerate their expansion into the booming board games market. Following an immensely successful KICKSTARTER campaign, in which they smashed their target by over 300%, STOP THE TRAIN! has already received rave reviews from avid gamers.
I was thrilled to receive a call from Brendan at ESCAPE PLAN over the summer, gauging my interest in working with them once again. Whenever I see his number pop up on my phone, my sound design senses start tingling as I know he’s going to have another exciting idea to chat about. This time was no different: “Could we design a soundscape for a board game?” The short answer was yes!
The audio clip above is an extract from the 40-MINUTE LONG SOUNDSCAPE we produced to accompany gameplay of STOP THE TRAIN! During our initial discussions, Brendan and I were quick to agree that we wanted to capture the drama of the game and transport players out of their living rooms and into a 1940s Paris setting. Immersion was the name of the game (well, it wasn’t, it was STOP THE TRAIN!, but you catch my drift). That said, we were careful not to bombard players with sound to the point where they can’t focus on the game. STOP THE TRAIN! is after all a semi-cooperative, social deduction game so it was important to give players room to think.
If you’re already familiar with ESCAPE PLAN and their escape rooms, you’ll know that immersing players in 1940s settings and delivering drama as well as excitement is always their ultimate goal. I carry these aims forward with my work on the audio side of their creations. I try to use authentic sound material to create detail, narrative and drama at the right moments. This project was challenging in new ways; I’d never designed audio for a board game before! An escape room setting allows us to control what the players hear and when they hear it. We wouldn’t have any of that control this time around, so we paid special attention to getting the balance right between dramatic moments, underscore, location/period detail, fun and excitement.
I know I’m biased, but I think we nailed it. I’ve played the game in it’s developmental stages, both with the audio and without, and I really feel that the audio adds that extra little something, turning an already exciting game into a nerve-jangling, across-the-table-shouting, not-one-person-trusting, rail-grinding thrill ride. Did I mention I might be a tad biased?
There’s only one way you’ll fully understand what I mean, and that’s to go and check out STOP THE TRAIN! and order a copy for yourself. Whether you’re a board game nut or not, it genuinely is a fantastic addition to a night in with family or friends. Who knows, we might all be able to have one of those this Christmas after all!
I’ll be writing a more detailed post early next year about my work on STOP THE TRAIN! A deep-dive into my soundscape design for anyone who’s interested in seeing how I build these audio worlds. I’ll also be back here much sooner than that with news about some more really cool projects I’ve been working on recently.
Thanks for reading!