Nintendo Patents Watch

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Knowledge-based discourse

Sounds & Voxels

A unique sound design challenge for Donkey Kong Bananza is that the terrain is constantly changing due to destructions (image 1). The techniques they used to create the ever-changing sounds seem to be built upon the know-how from Tears of the Kingdom, which also used voxels extensively (images 2-4).

Ask the Developer excerpt: In this game, you progress by smashing all kinds of things. Your surroundings change constantly, so we worked hard to create sounds that reflect that change. We measured the sizes of areas such as open spaces and caves, and adjusted the volume and reverberation accordingly. Even for the background music, we split each song into multiple tracks and adjusted the balance according to Donkey Kong's surroundings and the size of the area. I think it's an audio experience unique to games that use voxel technology, so l hope players will listen out for those details too as they play.
“Tunes of the Kingdom” GDC presentation slide: The world in voxels
“Tunes of the Kingdom” GDC presentation slide: Search for sound paths with A*
“Tunes of the Kingdom” GDC presentation slide: To make sounds moving away more realistic

Sources

[Originally posted on 2025-07-15 Pacific Time]