Deus Shift, a turn-based multiplayer strategy game, went through numerous production changes from its inception as a game called 'Arcane Lands'. Originally the player would choose abilities from 4 environmental spell classes, and work to transform the board into his favored element to crush his opponent.
Each track was crafted around a specific element in mind (earth, water, fire, air). One of the biggest challenges of this soundtrack was finding a way to define each element within the music while keeping the tracks similar enough to allow for cross fading if the predominant element of the board changed.
The sound effects were crafted from an even mix of live recordings and ground up oscillator work. The live recordings were quite fun as they consisted of capturing fire burning, wood breaking, and ice melting... the latter of which turned out to be much more complicated than I assumed! This part alone resulted in 2 days of experimentation which eventually led to, among other things, stuffing mason jars full of ice and dropping the jars into pots of boiling water while a directional mic was plunged into the lip of the bottle.
You can play Deus Shift for free on Kongregate: Kongregate.com
