God of War: Ragnarok dev reveals how he used his baby's real in-womb heartbeat to create the game's soundscape
The effect was used to create the Spark of the World
A God of War: Ragnarok developer has revealed that one of the game's subtlest sound effects is the sound of their baby's heartbeat from inside the womb.
In a recent tweet, PlayStation senior sound designer Alex Previty revealed what went into creating the sound effects heard during the Spark of the World section of God of War: Ragnarok. In a clip, you can see Kratos looking around the environment as a peculiar echoing sound rings out around him. Underneath that, a heartbeat sound rings out, adding a strangely visceral effect.
That's likely deliberate given the story implications of this part of the game, which I won't spoil here, but it turns out that that heartbeat effect is very real. Previty revealed that the sound "is actually my daughter's heartbeat while she was still in the womb," and that he recorded it using a Doppler - a fetal heartbeat monitoring device.
