- Founder of Big Robot Jim Rossignol on how visuals affected combat design in The Signal From Tölva.

In a piece recently published by PC Gamer, founder of development studio Big Robot Jim Rossignol discusses how bright visual effects and sci-fi sound clips contributed to enhancing how it feels to shoot guns in The Signal From Tölva. 

"We wanted to have big colorful lasers," Rossignol explains. "[We wanted] big long trails that last quite a long time and light up the landscape." This powerful display appears every time a player pulls the trigger, which is intended to help shooting things feel great.

The fantastic display of visuals aren't used to help gunplay feel better though. It's also designed to evoke a sense of awe. "When you see groups engaging each other in the distance you get that flicker of gunfire that allows you to see where people are firing from. That brings those battles to life," says Rossignol. 

Working in tandem with the visual fireworks set off by the guns are futuristic sound effects that help sell the combat. "Rather than having a single sound effect for when the weapons go off, we broke it down to an overall firing noise and a projectile leaving noise, so every weapon has components that make the sound better," he notes. "As you take your finger off the trigger you hear the end of your shot cut off, that just sells the behavior of the weapon more, and gives them way more life than they had."

Check out the entire interview over at PC Gamer.