Game Audio Network Guild

Hi again everyone,

I have just posted an interesting article from one of our guest posters to the gamesounddesign.com site.  PJ Belcher gives us an overview of the ins and outs of getting your sound to play nice with the iPhone and iPad.  Have a read here:

http://gamesounddesign.com/tips-and-tricks-for-iphone-sound-design.html 

 

Today I published a new interview, this time with Jeff Whitcher, Audio Director on the great Red Dead Redemption from Rockstar Games.

The direction was established right from the start that we were going to cover the life and sounds of the old west as authentically as possible. All of the different departments are meticulous in their research and the audio team was able to glean quite a bit from the art department, in particular. Once we started seeing sketches and other art work, we were blown away with the level of detail and that gave us the impetus to work that much harder on the sound track. Audio had great communication with all of the other disciplines through out the development period.

We were afforded tremendous support in getting the tools and systems in place into which we would tap to hook up various audio behaviors. Our audio programmers are some of the most talented and intelligent people with whom I have ever worked. Often times, the sound editors would present ideas we wanted to achieve and our programmers made realizing those ideas an effortless reality.

Full interview here . 

Being a part of the games industry is about choosing to pursue fun and creativity for a living. On the job or off the job, my favorite part of being a sound designer is the opportunity to pursue new artistic and innovative avenues.

Just off the high of the crunch-time of shipping a game this week, I wasn’t ready to sit back and relax. So instead, I decided to take this weekend and pursue a fun little side project I’ve been thinking about for a while.

As an interesting way of showcasing some of my music and sound design I made a small flash app. It’s a digital representation of my studio that allows you to pan through to see (and hear!) my workspace.

Take a look and let me know what you think. As always I’d love to see what other inspired endeavors the rest of the audio community is up to – so share away!

Hi everyone,

 We all want to know how to improve our skills and talents.  And it is very important to continually try to discover new ways or ideas to do so.  I've just posted a new article on gamesounddesign.com that will hopefully answer some of those questions for you.  Take a look here:

 http://gamesounddesign.com/10-tips-to-make-you-a-better-sound-designer.html

 Enjoy! 

 

Here is another interview, published today on Designing Sound. This time is with Kirstofor Mellroth talking about his work on Crackdown 2.

In terms of sound, what were the most challenging changes in the sequel? What did you want to improve or change?

By far the most difficult thing about doing a Crackdown game is the fact that the entire game is co-op, non-linear, and open world. With this design every system you make must support every game mode and every scenario in every game mode. Player characters can create an enormous scale of sounds in Crackdown and with the introduction of 4 players, the potential for audio mayhem goes through the roof. You can make something sound awesome, but can you also make it sound awesome when 4 players do it side by side?

There are a few things we wanted to improve this time over the last.

#1 Sandbox audio fidelity. We think CD1 has a very cool and unique sound but we could not be satisfied with the past. We wanted to push the sandbox sound design in every area further. This meant redesigning every system from both a technical and aesthetic level. It meant all new field recording. It meant expanding the sandbox and trying to get more memorable sounds into it while not overwhelming the player with repetition.

#2 authoring environment. Our previous tech was cool but very specific. We needed something more flexible and more up to date with things like live update, synthesis, dynamic mixing, etc. Something that allowed collaboration across oceans and timezones. This was an easy choice and we immediately selected Wwise as our environment.

#3 Emotional impact. The last game’s sound was 100% simulation. This helps give the game a very unique sound but also leaves it emotionally flat during big moments. We wanted to give the game more emotion this time and elected to add an original score as our primary solution. This worked extremely well in a game like Crackdown 2. Much better than we could have envisioned. We got such a great score and it’s integrated in very unique ways. The beginning, end, life, death, day, night, height exploration, and races all feel much more impactful this time around.

Full interview here . 

 

Some days ago I published an interview with the team behing the great audio of Singularity. They shared a lot of cool details on different aspects of the game and also talked the techniques and tools used to achieve that. The participants were:

• Mark Killborn, Audio Lead
• Kevin Schilder, Lead Sound Designer
• Jer Sypult, Sound Designer
• Darren Blondin, Sound Designer
• Andy Bayless, Sound Designer

 

You can read the interview here 

Saturday, August 14th is our annual Summer BBQ!  Tommy has once again graciously offered to open his fun house to another great evening of networking.  Paul will be there, I'll be there, Tommy will of course be there so grab your bathing suit and your business cards and RSVP today.  Send an e-mail to sean@audiogang.org.

 Hope to see you on Saturday!

In the gaming industry the name ‘Garfield’ brings up a whole different image – a battleground of sorcery and divination, and tupperware boxes stacked with rows of playing cards. Richard Garfield is one of the world’s best known game designers. His first game, Magic: The Gathering garnered him a patent on trading card games and the rest is history.

I can personally say that I have been an admirer of his work for as long as I can remember, and even more pleased to admit that I had the opportunity to work with him briefly during a collaborative project he started with my first in-house company Mind Control Software (MCS). 

Recently though, I was surprised to stumble upon a Podcast on his company’s (Three Donkeys ) blog. Spurred on by the recent release of Oasis (2004 IGF Winner) for the iPad, MCS designer Marc LeBlanc and Richard met to discuss game mechanics and touch on a number of older MCS projects.

Here are a couple of segments if you care to take a listen:

 

• Interview Part 1
• Interview Part 2

If you’re into unique indie games, Oasis and Stomping Grounds are older but their mechanics (and music! Haha) have stood the test of time.

It’s great to hear that Richard appreciates some of my titles, because I am certainly a fan of his!

 

It's been awhile since I've had something to say. Usually, I like to chime in only when there's a subject that I'm really passionate about AND when I have a good idea of what I want to say about it.

I've been thinking about today's subject for awhile (months, that is) and for the longest time the only thoughts I had about it were that I was clear on the title (listed above). Not much substance there but a catchy heading eh?

So, I'm finally sitting down and hashing out my ideas when it occurs to me that my life has been borderline unmanageable for months! Call it a combination of work and life schedules colliding, taking on too much, whatever.

Point #1 - I've had a lot on my proverbial plate lately.

In December of 2009, I was full-time composing music for the new LucasArts/EA/Bioware MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. In the middle of a hectic composing schedule, I completed teaching a fall semester of Composing for Games at the USC Thornton School of Music, archived all my old scores (with lots of help from many of my students scanning my scores into pdf format THANK YOU!!!), packed up all my belongings in about a week (including my studio), moved from Los Angeles to Sonoma County in northern California, unpacked and re-setup my studio in a day and a half, and started composing and orchestrating again like a madman in order to meet our live orchestra recording schedule which was to begin a few weeks after I moved up. This does not include any personal life stuff that also needed to be done (like laundry and grocery shopping).

BTW I'd lived in L.A. for about 25 years since I graduated from college. Talk about changing the scenery!

Once I moved up north to join my fiance (who was already up here for a few months working at her new job), I completed my composing work on TOR (The Old Republic for short), composed a bunch more material for some music libraries, started a bay area based music prep service called SkyPrep, spent 6 months looking for a house to buy, attended GDC (Game Developer's Conference), closed escrow on our house, created an online version of my UCLA Extension Composing for Games course and taught it remotely from my new digs, worked my first official bay area music prep gig for Mark
Griskey's Force Unleashed II recording sessions, and a bunch more stuff I don't even recall doing.

Sound like a lot? Wait there's more!

Point #2 - There are layers of manageability within layers!

Two days before The first day of recording some music for TOR, I get a call. "We need 9 cues orchestrated and parts copied in two days, and oh, can you compose an extra cue?"
My answer - "Sure, just email me the files when they're ready and we'll make it happen."

You might be thinking, "Has he lost his marbles?"
My answer - "Nope."

Life and work are full of examples of things that seem unmanageable. The key is to stay calm and cool. Know exactly what you can accomplish on your own and where you'll need help. Prioritize by order of importance and deadlines. Plan for success by bringing in your backup team early enough to make managing everything not completely insane. Be honest with yourself about what it'll cost you (more on this later) and finally, execute everything to the highest level possible under the circumstances.

SO let's go through the list using this example:
1. Calm and cool? - Check! Seriously, I was fine with all this. I have an amazingly talented crew and we kick ass so I was confident we'd get it done.
2. Me vs. helpers - I knew I could compose/orchestrate the new piece no problem and orchestrate 2 of the 9 cues myself. I brought in 3 other guys to handle the other 7 cues plus my brother Phil kicked butt on the parts for all 10 cues. All within 36 hours.
3. Plan for success - Whenever I do anything in a crunch and bring in other people, I always play to their strengths. One of my guys is great at battle cues so guess what I gave him to do? Yup. Battle cues! I look at the whole list and selectively root out what I can do quickly and efficiently in addition to what every person on my crew does well.
4. Be honest - What did it cost me? Well, I was a bit tired :)
5. Execute - Check! Check! Check! This is about stepping up at the proper moment and knocking it out of the park. You don't think about it much you just get in the zone and do it.

It's really about making sure you have all the tools you need for success in a very competitive and challenging life. Any areas you feel are weak ones are those that need propping up with more knowledge, improved crew, and better management skills. These are things you can get from experience, research, and referrals.

Ever since asteroids smashed into the earth and destroyed a few dinosaurs (perhaps even earlier than this?), we've been managing the unmanageable. I'm not planning on extinction any time soon but I am continually pondering how to keep improving my craft, my abilities, my crew, and my life.

The Great Charles Maynes and I were mentioned in this interview. Look around the 3rd image. Great work to the developer High Moon Studios!

http://designingsound.org/2010/07/exclusive-interview-with-the-audio-team-of-transformers-war-for-cybertron/#more-5280