# How I’m making Pilgrimage sound alive

Pilgrimage devlog 5 · September 15, 2026

[Pilgrimage](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync)

The fifth devlog for [Pilgrimage](https://www.tomjohn.design/content/pilgrimage) starts with sound, because before this the sound design was awful [(0:23)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=23s).

Every kind of character has its own selection voice now, speaking Old English that I generated with ElevenLabs, with a little translation that shows for a second [(0:46)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=46s). The monks say "Deo gratias" [(1:32)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=92s). There are birds, water, waterfalls and wind in the trees, sounds for the animals, and footsteps that play every time a sprite takes a step [(1:53)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=113s). Sounds fade as you zoom out and come back as you zoom in [(3:01)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=181s). The crowd murmur isn't good yet, and the music is still a YouTube loop of medieval songs I don't have a license for, which I'm going to replace [(2:39)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=159s).

![Selecting a monk at the chapel, captioned as I say: “a monk real quick. Let me turn up the volume. Uh selection voices all the way. Deo gratias. All right, so the monks have their own selection”](https://nlzkl2bo0qmd3uti.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/talks/clips/pilgrimage-sound-design/deo-gratias-aYYoonrLC44bGQhmjV7guuerG1W1bH.mp4 "Clip")

## The interface

I redid the whole UI [(4:50)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=290s). Everything's in Geist now, with UnifrakturCook for titles, a green theme, new resource icons, and light and dark mode, because I'm a UI designer and I couldn't live with myself otherwise [(5:20)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=320s). The build menu is a layered list of buildings with details when you hover, and that's my bread and butter, the same kind of thing I do for product work [(6:55)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=415s). Buildings that aren't yours are missing your color, the way they are in RTS games [(7:42)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=462s).

## Buildings that grow

The sheep and goat pen took me a long time. Shepherds herd the animals in, milk the goats and leave food in the corner for other people to carry around the map [(8:28)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=508s). I went overboard with buildings at first and I'm cutting them back to what the game needs [(9:13)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=553s).

![Shepherds and goats inside the sheep pen, captioned as I say: “this is interactive. It's selectable. You can see the inside. They'll milk the goats. They'll put it over in the corner. And then there's”](https://nlzkl2bo0qmd3uti.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/talks/clips/pilgrimage-sound-design/sheep-pen-S3IB8ITWTt9juUc5KyEvIai3Xbnnhm.mp4 "Clip")

The church is meant to grow: a hovel chapel, then a church, a cathedral and a basilica, with buildings you can add onto it [(9:35)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=575s). Once it's a church, there are two rails at the relic so people get through twice as fast [(10:48)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=648s), and a monks' residence placed against it opens a door that only the monks use, so they can rest [(11:05)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=665s).

![The upgraded church, with two rails at the relic, captioned as I say: “building this. Now, there's totally different dynamic in here. And this is actually able to serve people twice as fast because there's two rails right here. So, when you're getting people to come in and look at the relic, they can go”](https://nlzkl2bo0qmd3uti.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/talks/clips/pilgrimage-sound-design/two-rails-6VkYeSNyDgsFKHZ74wiHfImJFO7Vp2.mp4 "Clip")

## Where's the game?

Pathfinding is still really hard, and I still don't have the core gameplay loop [(11:49)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=709s). It looks good, and I'm so happy with the visual direction, but right now it's a visual demo. I'm not saying that critically. I just need to figure out how you play it [(13:19)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=799s). So I built a top-down debugging tool where I can place buildings, change how far people are willing to walk, and how much each visit adds to the relic's renown, and see how a town would grow over a long time before any of it goes into the game [(13:44)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=824s).

![The pathfinding debugging tool, showing how far people will travel, captioned as I say: “So like this blue square for example, these blue squares are um how far people are willing to travel to go to the church.”](https://nlzkl2bo0qmd3uti.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/talks/clips/pilgrimage-sound-design/effort-budget-k1tWMzGfrc6VwFP4TncX6oEuJhrDXw.mp4 "Clip")

My target is 60 FPS with 1,500 characters, which I seem to be hitting, and 30 FPS with 10,000 [(18:15)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRJQnRCync&t=1095s). There's more on that in [the performance devlog](https://www.tomjohn.design/content/pilgrimage-performance).