In In the spring of 2024, Paul Lackey and I had the opportunity to travel to Peru to record the sound of Overwatch 2 for the then-up toward Peru map. The opportunity for recordings representing Blizzard is rarely taken for granted. In the context, when a new map purchases sound, we can usually find what we need through an existing sound library or shrink the recorder where we need it. In this case, we didn’t find enough relevant content in the commercial sound library, and sending Paul and me to Peru to record locations is more feasible. We recorded the trip ourselves, took turns recordings on our phones, and then I edited the video to share our experience with the rest of the Dev team.
Paul and I spent ten days traveling through Cusco, Pisac, Oranta Tambo and choquequirao. We may have never lived that much. The 4-day trek of Choquequirao and Back is particularly painful as it is known to be one of Peru’s most challenging treks. We chose to visit choquequirao on Machu Picchu because we needed to record natural sounds, and Machu Picchu was too crowded for tourists. Choquequirao is very difficult to access, seeing about 10-20 tourists a day, while Machu Picchu sees about 4,000 tourists a day. The trek was tough, but we had an amazing guide, Ricardo Marim and Quechuas Expeditions, making sure we had everything we needed along the way.
It’s hard not to be moved by places like this. The combination of exhaustion, warm welcome from the locals and surrounded by impossible beauty has left me with tears several times. When I look back at this shot, I laughed at me for being barely showing in the interview segment. Everything is so overwhelming.
Hopefully you can get something from this video. This experience inspired me to go out and record more and spend more time on nature.
