Game Audio Network Guild

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 . 

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 

...Of diligently trying to purchase EWQL Symphonic Choirs, only to have to put it aside for a more immediate money problem, I finally bought it (and at a price that I can afford)! Thank you NAMM deal! Only half a month in, and this year's already looking up!

 ~Bryan J

Hi!

 Just wanted to share a trailer.  It´s from a small game we´re  doing all audio for, thought would be cool because it´s very fun and it´s Hallowen!  ;-)

Cheers,

J & G

Pro Zombie Soccer Trailer 1

Music Teaser 1

Music Teaser 2

MCV PR Note