Wednesday GameAudio AA - Sound Implementation April 23, 2014

[u/AutoModerator]

Getting the sounds into the game

Welcome to the subreddit feature post for game sound implementation questions, tips, tricks, shortcuts, and best practices. Offer your own or ask a question.

For example; What engines are you working with? Why do you prefer one over the other? What middleware? Other helpful app's? How often are you coding? Java script, C#, or ?? What do you spend most of your days actually doing? Does your audio team usually handle sound implementation or is that left to another department? How long do you get for this phase?

UPDATE - The GameAudio subreddit now has four bi-weekly feature posts; Monday Sound Creation, Tuesday Getting Started, Wednesday Sound Implementation, and Thursday Resource Recommendations. If you have ideas for other regular topics, please message the moderators.

Chat with us in the AudioPost subreddit IRC Channel or the AudioEngineering subreddit IRC Channel.

[u/[deleted]]

Hi guys and girls. So there was no Tuesday 'getting started' post this week...hope no-one minds if I move my questions into this thread.

I'm currently a student of undergraduate Digital Music, finishing off my 2nd year and making plans for the 3rd and beyond. We've covered a fair amount of sound design, composition and sound art principles. My main pursuits over the past couple of years have been sound for film and audio-visual programming. I've been an avid gamer for as long as I can remember, and during high school I dipped into a bit of level design (Unreal, Quake, Counter Strike). I'm looking to base my final dissertation and project around sound design for interactive media, with an emphasis on (non-linear) narrative. Potentially also moving on to an MSc/MA in Sound design afterwords.

My questions surround the intersection of tech and creativity in game audio.

• How do work opportunities for audio programmers compare to that of composers/sound designers?

• Is it worth investing into learning in-depth game programming in order to cross the boundaries, or is it better to develop a strong suit in one or the other?

• I've read to never give your work away for free. Given that I'm a student (albeit one of professional audio production), it's very tempting for me to invest a bit of time in a mod project or similar, just to get an original production on the resume. Any first-hand opinions of this would be appreciated.

• My strengths tend towards extreme detailing of sounds, spatialisation, and immersion. ie I can easily envisage how something should sound from a certain angle or distance, in an environment, and so on. As such, should my focus be upon the more technical implementation of sounds in games? If so, does this lean towards the use of UDK/Unity/Wwise/Fmod/etc, rather than composition, dialogue, general artistry?

• How is the industry in general these days? Is it realistic for a newcomer to be able to make a liveable income after a few years of dedication? For graduates?

I realise these are very much subjective questions, but any perspective would be very helpful. I'm enjoying sponging as much info as I can at the moment. Just getting started with Wwise and Project Adventure which is immense fun. First time I've actually enjoyed learning my way around an audio tool I think...

Thanks!

[u/Chippy569 → u/[deleted]]

I'll take a stab at this, no real data to back any of it up though so it's all my subjective opinion and should be regarded as such.

1. Audio programming jobs are typically limited to 1-2 per AAA title, where composers are typically 1 (maybe 2) per AAA title and sound designers can range from 1 to 12 depending on the scope of the title. That said, out of that whole group the programmer is probably the best-paid.

2. Mod projects are very popular for student projects. Obviously you have to start somewhere gaining some experience, and it's not going to be the big leagues right out of the gate. If you're "doing work for free" just be sure you're doing it for yourself, not for someone else.

3. There is a type of job becoming more popular as an audio implementation specialist, which seems like it might be a good fit for someone like you. Damien Kastbauer (of gameaudiopodcast or @lostlab on twitter) has done this for quite a long while. This type of person designs the systems within the audio engine that the sound designer then flushes out with content. It's a sort of bridge between programmer and designer if you will.

4. That's very dependent on a number of variables. There is no industry right now that guarantees a well-paying job immediately after graduating - there's always going to be some amount of luck, of active hunting, and of compromise on what you consider "livable." Working in AAA tends to pay better; sticking to indie titles is more difficult typically. Ultimately I think most of the people working in game audio do so because they love the work and are very passionate about making great sounds to go with great games, and being able to work at a place that makes you feel satisfied professionally is very rewarding.

As an aside, i'm curious to know if your coursework actually includes wwise or if you're digging into that yourself? And if you don't mind my asking, which school are you attending?