As a proud sandgroper, I’m well within my rights to say that Western Australia tends to feel like a desolate wasteland sometimes.
You notice it in the constant sense of isolation, the vast stretches of undeveloped emptiness and the adoration for a supermarket magnate who only ever wears singlets and loves growing potatoes (and I say that as a big Spud Shed fan).
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So I couldn’t be more thrilled that Australian developers Drop Bear Bytes have chosen my home state as the setting for their post-apocalyptic role-playing game Broken Roads.
The upcoming title is due for release early next year and I got to speak with the studio’s Audio Lead & Composer Tim Sunderland about creating the soundscape for this authentically Aussie armageddon.
“I thought to myself what would a post-apocalyptic musician have to play with,” Sunderland told Quest Daily.
“And I’ve written it from the perspective of someone that lives out in this tin shed, has maybe seen a bit too much sun and is just experimenting,” he added.
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Drop Bear Bytes are based in Torquay, a coastal town in Victoria, so I was curious what inspired the choice of Western Australia as the site of their dystopia.
“It was actually his [studio founder Craig Ritchie’s] idea. I think he’d done a trip previously in the Wheatbelt – and he thought to himself, ‘hey, this would be the perfect spot for a post-apocalyptic setting,” Sunderland said.
The gameplay and camera perspective seemed heavily inspired by classic RPGs like Fallout and Wasteland, but Sunderland is bringing some different influences to the soundtrack.
“One of the best soundtracks that’s ever been written is the Skyrim soundtrack, it’s just amazing from start to finish,” Sunderland said.
“I wanted the player to feel like the soundtrack was another player along side of them and wherever they were in the world, it complimented what they were seeing,” he said.
During my time previewing the game, I was majorly impressed with what this small studio has achieved.
The moral compass system has been created in a way where your ethical decisions aren’t black and white. For this demo, I created my character by answering a series of moral dilemmas where every option was compelling and well thought through.
The hand-drawn art style is effective in that it clearly conveys visual information to the player, but also caputres an authentic representation of outback Australia.
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I’m a huge fan of the first two Fallout games and this feels like a revival of what made those games successful, but with an Aussie twist that I can’t wait to see play out.
Broken Roads comes out on PC, Xbox Series S|X and Xbox One in early 2024, with releases on other platforms to be announced in the future. You can wishlist the game and find more information at this Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1403440/Broken_Roads/
See more from the interview with Tim Sunderland below
