When we started working on Saros, we knew we had an interesting challenge ahead of us. We had established a very distinctive audio identity with Returnal, and Housemarque gave us a clear direction from the beginning: “Refinement, not Reinvention.”

That became a useful principle throughout development. We carried forward our gameplay-first approach, our emphasis on strong and satisfying player feedback, our immersive soundscape, and our ambition to showcase PS5 features such as Tempest 3D Audio and DualSense haptics.

At the same time, Saros is a brand-new IP with its own characters, story and tone. Every piece of audio content needed to feel unique and help establish the world of Carcosa.

Very early on, we started looking for elements that could define Saros sonically. The Eclipse became one of our first creative anchors.

It is central to the world and story of the hostile planet, so we began experimenting with its sound identity. One of our most useful discoveries came from a didgeridoo recording session in our studio. With creative processing, the recordings felt epic and became incredibly versatile. With further manipulation, they could even begin to sound like a deep voice.

This eventually became the foundation for the Yellow King’s vocalisations and helped define the wider Saros sound palette, emphasising the influence of the Eclipse, the Yellow King and the Corruption throughout the game.

The cinematic announcement trailer, which was the first presentation of Saros to the public, became an opportunity to showcase these creative explorations, featuring the didgeridoo source alongside many other sounds.

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