?What goes behindGwen GuoCo-founder, IMBA InteractiveSound Designfor Games

Quick show of hands, how many in the crowd are game composers/sound designers? Or aspiring to be one?How many are developers who work with game audio designers/composers?

(to tailor my talk)

Intro: Played games from as young as 5, from DOOM to HOMM to Barbies Fashion Show. I promise that all of this is somehow relevant later onNever had a formal background in music. However, fell in love with electronic dance music at 14 and tried producing my own music using an old program (then called Fruity Loops, eventually Reason, where I taught myself signal flow). Worked full time as an in-house composer/sound designer for a few years (all this while, Ive played a whole bunch of games including playing competitive TFC/TF2) and decided to pursue an official diploma in Sound Design, freelanced for a while and eventually started IMBA with 2 co-founders. Now were 4 years old!

Still play games, more recently Stardew Valley, FFXV and Paladins (the Overwatch clone, but thats another debate for another day)

Excellence in Audio (2013) Dusty Revenge, PD Design StudioBest Game Audio (2014)Dusty Revenge, PD Design Studio

Best Game Audio (2013) Amazing Studly Strikes, Inzen StudioBest Game (2013) One Upon Light, SUTD Game Lab

Out Now!

Out Now!

Some of the award-winning titles weve worked on

Games made in the Philippines!

Dont you think the main character in Innkeeper 2 looks like Canadian President, Justin Trudeau?

Sound Design for GamesWhat goes behind it?What traits should you look out for?Inserting sound designer into the teamPre-productionProductionImplementationPolish

Today is NOT about music composition. Today is about Sound Design and the work that goes behind it, or more commonly known as sound effects.

Quite a different path from traditional game composing, yet these days, music is sometimes treated as sound design and vice versa, like LIMBO where the ambience is the music score and Rez, where the sound effects are part of the music

Technical Knowledge

Professional Gear

Licensing Knowledge

Good Ears

Creative Vision

Good communication

Versatile

You want to hire this sound designer!

Game Engines and Implementation

Understands Player Responses

Game Dev Cycle KnowledgeWhat to look out for

Versatility, usually more applicable to game composers to cover a range of genres, but also applies to sound effects and the knowledge of how to produce for all sorts of games from epic hollywood-style explosions to a gentle UI button in a casual game.

Understands player responses explains the amount of games which I play, or pretty much how I convinced my parents that playing an obscene amount of games can lead to a career Also leads to more critical listening in games. For example in Overwatch, calling out an Ulti as a teammate vs enemy is different in a couple of ways voice in native language for enemy players, and theyre also slightly louder. Or how in NBA Live, the sound of the basketball hitting the ground is affected by which angle and height its being bounced from.

Insert audio person here

ArtAudio

CodeDesignQA

StoryMarketingUI/UX

Cannot reiterate enough on why audio people are essential to the basic structure of the team. Even though on contract, we could be outsourced or freelancers, internally, we should be privy and have easy access to game info such as art, design, scheduling. Whether were in-house or outsourced, keeping your sound designer in the loop of the bigger picture creates realistic expectations of deliverables and creative contributions

Could be same Slack group, access to Trello, even better, access to build

We are not the lost child in game dev that nobody wants/knows how to talk to!

Your AwesomeGame!

Pre-Production

Asset List

References

Concepts

Budget

Timeline

The first 2 is heavily dependent on who has creative ownership. Some clients would want more say in the audio direction, others would allow the sound team to go crazy. Either way, there should be solutions for both.

Concepts

ART PLZSTORY PLZGDD PLZ

Sound designers, like artists, need time to soak in the game design and story (if your game has any). Ensure that your sound designer has access to all these to better work out a creative solution. This is especially true when youd like the sound designer to have more creative ownership

Pre-Production

Asset List

References

Concepts

Budget

Timeline

Kick drum from __________Short and snappy like _______Creepy ambience like _______

References

If youd like to have creative ownership of the sound rather than let the sound designer interpret your game on their own, be specific on what youd like the sound designer to do. Audio always works better than just words. Tell us exactly what you like about references youve provided. This is to ensure efficiency and common understanding of creative direction when we have a palette to reference to.

i.e. I want it to sound jazzy what kind of jazzy? Norah Jones jazzy? Snarky Puppy jazzy?

Pre-Production

Asset List

References

Concepts

Budget

Timeline

Budget

Timeline

Always budget for sound! (so that i get to eat) Typically between 10% - 25% production budget *based on research done on Kickstarter game projectsAim to have the best sound for your game, not as an afterthoughtMusic and sound design are 2 separate costsAnd are 2 separate disciplines

Always provide a realistic timeline (avoid asking us to come in a week before publish!). A snapshot of our multiple timelines for multiple projects. Having a realistic timeline helps us block out time specially for your game so we can fully dedicate ourselves to it. Typically at least 2 weeks of production time for about 20 SFX is ideal.

Pre-Production

Asset List

References

Concepts

Budget

Timeline

Asset List

The asset sheet is the mother of all sound design processes. Without it, there is no organisation or version control. Ensure that the sound asset sheet has all the essential information which both the sound designer and programmer can understand.

QA and TestingIMPLEMENTATION

Asset Repository

Game Engine

Middle-ware

Sound Asset (SFX, VOICE, MUSIC)

Recorded Sound (Ambience, Foley, Voice, Musicians)

Editing/Manipulating of the SoundGame Audio Production & Implementation PipelinePRODUCTION

Asset List

PRODUCTION

Doing the source

Foley/RecordingSource: IMBA Interactive

Remember the good ol days where foley artists used coconut husks to recreate horse hoofs? Those days aint over yet! Great for realistic, tactile sounds, or collecting a source for an organic sound. Or a mix

Synthesis

Source: ADSR Music Production

Anyone heard of BFXR? Free browser-based synth for generating infinite possibilities of 8-bit sounds. Lots of game devs low on budget use this, but the sliders can be intimidating. Take the time to understand what each of these sliders do i.e.: ADSR Attack Decay Sustain Release to better customise your sound.

Cool for sci fi sound effects like UI

Editing Samples

Source: IMBA Interactive

Sound effects isnt just about dragging single sounds from libraries and calling it yours. Combining a mixture of source (samples, synthesis, recordings) to make the final sound. Take note of the solo-ing which shows each individual sound, then the last 2 final

This is a sewer monster in Masquerada. Because its based in the sewers, its a little more amphibious than a standard insect. Therefore, think about the biology of how its throat is constructed, how its mouth is like etc.

Also for editing, its also important to always strip silences. It will be relevant later on in optimisation.

QA and TestingIMPLEMENTATION

Asset Repository

Game Engine

Middle-ware

Sound Asset (SFX, VOICE, MUSIC)

Recorded Sound (Ambience, Foley, Voice, Musicians)

Editing/Manipulating of the SoundGame Audio Production & Implementation PipelinePRODUCTION

Asset List

IMPLEMENTATION

Getting the source to behave correctly in the gameRandomisation,Dynamic ambienceLow Pass Filter (muffled tone)Reverb Zones (in the 3D space)Floor zones (for different surfaces)Sound emitters (getting the sound to play in 3D space)

Sound FX RandomisationSource: basementhum

Some of the basics of sound playback, one of which is randomisation which prevents the repetition of sounds.

Others include sequence, a common example on Match-3 games of pitching up

Dynamic AmbienceSource: Tristan Panniers

Using real world as an example, being aware of the sounds which occur. If everyone keeps quiet, theres actually still a lot of sound going on (air con, crowd outside, chair creaks)

Reverb Zones

A sound which occurs in different spaces. A clap in the toilet would sound very different from a clap in a conference hall

Ground Surface Zones

Getting surfaces to change according to collision boxes.Wood, stone, dirt, water, grass etc

Ambient Emitters

Affects volume and panning dependent on where the sound listener is. Would differ for genres. 3D sounds are sounds physically in location, like a water fountain, people talking2D sounds are usually for UI sounds, music, ambience things which arent positionally affected as you move throughout the game

A common mistake which occurs is the panning which is too hard, especially noticeable when you wear headphones. Adjust the spread function in the Audio Source to reduce the panning extremity

Unitys Audio Mixer

Finally, mixing the volume levels, or affecting the muffled (LPF) effect when youre moving between environments, or where you get to have the ducking effect music volume lowering when dialogue is happening

POLISH/MAINTENANCE

After implementation, this is not the end!

Bug Tracking

Lots of bug-reporting solutions out there. If client doesnt have any, craft your own using a simple Google Sheets

Optimisation

Disk space VS memory

Always refer to the profiler for audio-related spikes.

For game audio, its often a balance between disk space and memoryTypically sounds which are long and triggered once in a scene can be .ogg because it decompresses at the start of the scene and thats it. Doing so can also save space for long sounds such as music and ambiences

Sounds which are easily spammed like short sound effects can be in .wav because if it occurs very often in a short time, the amount of memory required to decompress might affect performance in game

DEMAND A BUILD

or a video screencap

if you have no direct access to the build

you cant really polish without actually seeing how the sound performs in-game

In ConclusionThere is more to sound design in games than just churning out assetsGame Sound DesignProductionImplementationPolishRecordingSynthesisEditingPre-productionSFX BehaviourReal-time EffectsMixing

Looks familiar? Art, design all go through similar things. Keep this in mind when hiring your sound designer or if youre aspiring to become one.

THANK YOU!Q&A?gwen@imbainteractive.com

Thats all for now, if youre more interested in in-depth production techniques like how to create a roar for a spider monster, or how to make an explosion sound unique, catch me after lunch or drop me an email!