Last Thursday, we celebrated the release of The Silent Swan!!
Our team had the opportunity to delve into the game's artistic journey and showcase it to the press. We were fortunate to have Virginia Calvo as the event's host and live music during the celebration. Our musician and composer, Francisco Arroyo, performed the soundtrack of The Silent Swan live.
Highnoon Ekain and Andoni Eizaguirre explained the evolution that The Silent Swan underwent. In the beginning, we didn't have a clear direction, so we started to design the game based on Ekain's drawings. Eventually, we found inspiration in architectural references such as Hugh Ferriss and Iakov Chernikhov, which deeply influenced the game, especially its artistic side.
And last but not least, the gifts! Thanks to Selecta Play, we gave away physical editions along with PS5 keys and a special print featuring the game's landscapes.
[VIDEO DEL EVENTO]
It was a very special day for us that we’ll remember forever. We hope you enjoy The Silent Swan, the first of many to come.
The latest The Silent Swan update is now available!
This update mainly fixes the recurrent low texture quality throughout the game alongside the following minor bug fixes:
“The Belltower” achievement can now be obtained, requiring to ring the bell atop the belltower.
“Lost in the Woods” achievement has been fixed, requiring to reach the Verdurant Lair (Shaman’s lair).
“The Last Road” achievement has been fixed, requiring to walk through the gates of the Unseen Complex.
“The Bells of Kavrazyma” achievement has been fixed, requiring to interact with 10 different bells.
Notebook is now disabled during the opening sequence.
The Silent Swan is available now!
The Silent Swan is available now!
The day has come, The Silent Swan, the narrative adventure of Praenaris, in which the scenarios make you feel mystery, legend, and an immersive and evocative atmosphere, is now available at PS5 y Steam.
In The Silent Swan you are Mirov Kavrazyma and you must explore, in first person, The Land Beyond The Walls to find your wife, Selene. The only clues she can leave you are some simple paper swans that contain all the secrets of The Fall, which will help you discover why your lineage is in disgrace. In this way you will unveil the history of two cities: Urzhum and Sernur; of two conflicts: past and future; and of two people: Selene and yourself.
A sober and minimalist experience that invites you to explore, to search for clues and to enjoy every detail. A game full of poetry for this routine of ours, sometimes too fast to enjoy it.
Featured Content:
Traverse breathtaking desolate scenery: Huge cities and structures that rise through the fog and tear the skies of never-before-seen landscapes.
An intriguing narrative: Pursue the mysterious paper swans that hold the secrets of the Land Beyond the Walls and the life of our protagonist.
Open world narrative twist: Observe your surroundings and let the setting guide you through a vast, fully traversable terrain, where you will have letters and narrative threads to track through exploration.
Multiple endings: Make the decisions that will determine the conclusion of your story and that of the characters you encounter along the way.
The day has come, The Silent Swan, the narrative adventure of Praenaris, in which the scenarios make you feel mystery, legend, and an immersive and evocative atmosphere, is now available at PS5 y Steam.
In The Silent Swan you are Mirov Kavrazyma and you must explore, in first person, The Land Beyond The Walls to find your wife, Selene. The only clues she can leave you are some simple paper swans that contain all the secrets of The Fall, which will help you discover why your lineage is in disgrace. In this way you will unveil the history of two cities: Urzhum and Sernur; of two conflicts: past and future; and of two people: Selene and yourself.
A sober and minimalist experience that invites you to explore, to search for clues and to enjoy every detail. A game full of poetry for this routine of ours, sometimes too fast to enjoy it.
Featured Content:
Traverse breathtaking desolate scenery: Huge cities and structures that rise through the fog and tear the skies of never-before-seen landscapes.
An intriguing narrative: Pursue the mysterious paper swans that hold the secrets of the Land Beyond the Walls and the life of our protagonist.
Open world narrative twist: Observe your surroundings and let the setting guide you through a vast, fully traversable terrain, where you will have letters and narrative threads to track through exploration.
Multiple endings: Make the decisions that will determine the conclusion of your story and that of the characters you encounter along the way.
In this Devlog #5, we will discuss music with Francisco Arroyo, the Music Composer at Praenaris.
Francisco is responsible for every sound in our games. He infuses personality into our experiences and makes The Silent Swan as immersive as it could be. Therefore, we wanted him to elaborate on what the soundtrack signifies to him, his workflow, and how he manages to create impactful music.
Francisco started to collaborate with Praenaris when The Silent Swan only had one completed song and the game required music to fill gaps in between places.
The Starting Point
A briefing was sent to him with some references such as Blade Runner and a list of locations where songs were missing. Nevertheless, he explored other styles and discovered the current music type that you can hear in our trailers.
A soundtrack of 12 songs forms the music of The Silent Swan.
Each song is tailored to different parts of the game, such as the main menu, the road where you use the bike and every city. However, there is also room for silence, which is an important element of the game. Our music is not looped, and we let players find joy in silence too, particularly in abandoned locations.
Music Purpose
The soundtrack serves a dual purpose, both narratively and atmospherically. It complements the scenes of the game and describes them, yet we intentionally avoid drawing attention away from the gameplay. We don’t include direct references so we believe our music is something unique.
Production
If you are not familiar with composing, we can simplify it into two main parts: the first involves creating the chords and melody, while the second consists of modifying them using EQ, synthesizers, delays, and more.
Francisco created simple melodies with acoustic elements, a string orchestra, and a piano, which he later modified for every song except the last one. The songs in the game feature only a few chords and large notes, but the final song in The Silent Swan is a complete orchestra piece. It is more technically complex at a compositional level and there is almost no production.
You can observe the contrast between songs in the images below, the second one represents the final song, Land Beyond the Seas, which has more chords and less production.
Symbology
Here is our favorite aspect of our music!
Francisco uses music to represent things that are happening in the game. He composes songs with the story of The Silent Swan in mind.
For instance, the piano symbolizes Mirov who is alone, he is the only one left in the present.
Also, when Francisco employs a large reverb, mutes the string orchestra or places it in the background, he symbolizes the passage of time. He represents this way the echoes of a civilization that was once full of life.
Only the last song has 37 tracks, Land Beyond the Seas, it captivates another ambient as it is another place. This one is the most traditional song in the game and the favorite one of Francisco who shared with us that it was also the most challenging to compose."
We are glad that you have been able to get to know Francisco better and see first hand all the love we are putting in each section of The Silent Swan.
The Silent Swan, the narrative adventure of Praenaris, in which the scenarios make you feel mystery, legend, and an immersive setting, will have a physical edition for PS5. It will be made possible by Selecta Play, which will bring to stores this immense and mysterious open world, urban, full of walkable buildings carved in a single monolithic block, and that you can already add to your Wishlist on PS5 and Steam.
In The Silent Swan you are Mirov Kavrazyma and you must explore, in first person, The Land Beyond The Walls to find your wife, Selene. The only clues she can leave you are some simple paper swans that contain all the secrets of The Fall, which will help you discover why your lineage is in disgrace. In this way you will unveil the history of two cities: Urzhum and Sernur; of two conflicts: past and future; and of two people: Selene and yourself.
A sober and minimalist experience that invites you to explore, to search for clues and to enjoy every detail. A game full of poetry for this routine of ours, sometimes too fast to enjoy it.
Featured Content:
Traverse breathtaking desolate scenery: Huge cities and structures that rise through the fog and tear the skies of never-before-seen landscapes.
An intriguing narrative: Pursue the mysterious paper swans that hold the secrets of the Land Beyond the Walls and the life of our protagonist.
Open world narrative twist: Observe your surroundings and let the setting guide you through a vast, fully traversable terrain, where you will have letters and narrative threads to track through exploration.
Multiple endings: Make the decisions that will determine the conclusion of your story and that of the characters you encounter along the way.
Today in devlog #4 we will talk about another of the pillars of development: programming.
On this occasion we introduce you to David Tabernero, Programmer at Praenaris. David is mainly in charge of creating all the systems and mechanics that we will enjoy in The Silent Swan, working together with the whole Praenaris team. Among his tasks are:
Creation of new mechanics: David is in charge, through code, of shaping the mechanics that make up the videogame. These mechanics are previously specified from the design team which explains to David how they want the player to interact with the different elements of the scenario so that David can recreate it in the most faithful way.
UI and Game Feel: On the other hand David is also in charge of building all the interface systems that we will see throughout the video game, from the pause and start menus, as all the indicators and icons that we will see throughout the extensive world of The Silent Swan. This task would not be complete without adding the "Game Feel", it is all those little details that help the player to have a more satisfying gaming experience, details such as the transition between the audio of the different areas of the game, the vibration of the controller at certain times and the different camera turns help the player to have a much more immersive experience.
In addition to meeting David, in this post we leave you his social media so you can get to know David better and see first hand all the love we are putting in each section of The Silent Swan.
Today in devlog #3 we will talk about one of the most important positions in a development: the Technical artist.
On this occasion we introduce you to Javier Serrano, Technical artist at Praenaris. Javier's main job consists mainly in the in-game assembly of scenarios and gameplay elements, working together with the Art and Programming teams. Among his tasks are:
Engine Integration: One of Javier's main tasks is the integration of all the 3D models in the Unity graphic engine, that is to say, to give life to the scenarios by assembling all the graphic elements in the game scene itself with which we will be able to interact and admire along our journey.
Lighting: Once these scenarios are built, the next step is to illuminate them and get that gloomy atmosphere that is designed from the Concept Art team. Lighting is an essential part as it allows us to give to the player sensations and feelings through the use of different lights and visual effects, helping immersion and making you feel that you walk through the vast scenarios of The Silent Swan as if you were inside that world.
Game assembly: Once we have all the pieces of the videogame, the next step is to join them in a consistent way, this is where Javier working together with the programming team assembles all the pieces of the game, including artistic and programming ones, in order to have an executable build that reflects all the effort and love that we put to The Silent Swan
In addition to know more about Javier, We leave you some of his most recent works so you can enjoy our art and the love we are putting in each scene of The Silent Swan.
