Aural.Audacity: April 2009

Here are the answers to the most frequently asked questions I get here...or in person.

If you have any other questions, feedback, or have topics you would like me to blog about, just fill out the comments section below. I'll be adding to this as things come up, or as I have time to. Feel free to post. -- Tuey

1. How did you get into the game industry?

This is probably the question I get the most often. I was really lucky. I started out as a game designer at a small company in Los Angeles (Gigawatt Studios), working mainly on kids titles. It was an awesome little place for me to learn the basics of good design, not to mention lots of learning about how game technology works, from programming to art pipelines. Its really paid off for my career to know the basics of everything. As you can tell, I switched careers from game design, and got into Sound Design. I mainly did this because I always felt there was something missing because audio typically doesn't get the time or attention that it needs.

Audio is far more than about things making sound. Its the emotional connection to the player that's really important. Sound gives guns power, it gives walk animations weight, and it gives a cinematic soul. I don't think in today's games you can have a true AAA title with bad sound, and moving forward, games are only going to be more complex.

2. How can I get into the game industry?

I think the first thing is to really get into scripting or programming first. Even if you want to design games, you MUST have an understanding of how games are made. Games aren't only about good ideas. They are about good implementation of good ideas. So, even if you don't want to be a programmer, you should have a basic understanding of programming so you know what the limitations are.

Even the best artists that I've known have a technical side. Without this, you cannot exploit the hardware as much as you need to in order to produce true AAA titles.

So, all that said, go to college and take some programming classes. Learn about the world. Take history. Take Art classes. A good game designer usually needs to have a lot of knowledge to pull from when creating new games. The more the better. Playing games is also important, of course, but if all of your ideas only riff off of other games then your ideas also must be derivative. Many colleges are offering game courses these days. Full Sail being one of them.

Another way is to get into game testing and try to make friends with people on the development side...but typically this is a difficult way to go, and game testing, while necessary, is a very difficult job for many reasons that I don't want to get into here. I have known a few really good game designers that came through this way, but both of them were also avid readers and were willing to learn a lot of technical things, often in their 'spare' time. Its possible, but difficult.

Usually coming up through test creates game producers (but not always). Producers are the the most organized people I've ever run across (for the most part), and they do all kinds of things to ensure that each department finishes features (or maps) according to rigid schedules.

Bottom line is this: Game development is the only job I can imagine having, but its not all fun and games. Its a business, and like all businesses, there are deadlines and hard work, all to put out a product, on time, and on budget.

3. What's the best sounding game you've played?

This one is easy. Half Life 2. Why? Because it was ahead of its time in a lot of ways. Things like a wet\dry reverb layer based on distance, really gives you the impression of space. They also did a lot of filtering on distant objects, things we riffed on in World at War.

But aside from all the technical stuff, the sound design in that game is absolutely amazing. Just knowing you killed a combine without having to look at him is awesome in and of itself (you remember the heart monitor flatline sound, right)? The weapon sounds are great, the mix is damned near perfect, and the acting is top notch.

I have to say that I thought HL2: Episode One was a little bit of a setback, mainly due to the music being way too loud...but HL2: Episode 2 got it perfect again.

Mixing is truly an artform. I think there should be separate categories in the yearly awards because I've heard a lot of games that have amazing sound design, but poor mixing (and vice versa). Its easy to have one and not the other.

One guy who's got this whole mixing thing down is Mark Ganus at Infinity Ward. Call of Duty 4 is one of the best mixed games I've ever heard. I have a lot of respect for what that guy does.