The Game Audio Explosion - A Guide to Great Game Sound Part I: Pre-production and Sound Design
I. FAR BEYOND BLEEPS AND LOOPS
The new console era is upon us. It has been met by developers everywhere with great anticipation, promise, …and yet, reluctance. Programmers have spent a large portion of the past decade squeezing every last bit of potential from our PS2s, Xbox’s and Gamecubes. Now, after tricking these machines into performing beyond their expectations, the shackles of technology have been lifted yet again. But will the next generation consoles guarantee better audio?
No. We can certainly expect more audio due to an increase in available memory, and the ability to add additional content within BD-ROM and dual layer DVD-ROM formats. But what makes audio sound good doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with performance and delivery specs. Surely, our ability to manipulate audio will improve, but Electrolux EDC77570W it will mean nothing if the content doesn’t deliver. This article focuses on sound creation, and will enable you to pave the way for effective and successful interactive game sound.
You have the ability to put the creative spark Panasonic SDR-SW20 in motion regardless of which game format you are developing. Knowing and preparing your sound team as well as understanding the processes through which they work, will ultimately help you to keep the audio on track, both artistically and financially.
II. THE AUDIO TEAM
A few years back, I was scoring a short animated film. One of the animators for this film held a day job at a well-known entertainment company that had just released a CG movie about dinosaurs. I asked him what he did on that project, to which he replied, “I did all the toenails.” I couldn’t help but think of the army of people responsible for the teeth, eyes, scales, and so on. None-the-less, I saw the movie and it was visually stunning. Realistically, game budgets will not allow for such an extravagant audio team, but it does illustrate a good principle; that your audio personnel have well- defined roles with which to focus their efforts. Collectively, your audio will be that much better for it.
Game budgets once mandated that production costs stay low, so it wasn’t unusual to find that one or two people produced all of a game’s audio. Today, the stakes are much higher, and so are the budgets. Consumer expectations have grown, requiring a movie-like experience within the confines of their homes. The interactive market has become a battlefield for franchise superiority. Bland, over-used audio must not be the exposed link in the armor of any publisher or developer.
Whether you are using an in-house audio department or outsourcing the audio completely, it is important that individuals have well-defined roles that do not cross over into the other aspects of sound production. If the Audio Director is splitting time as the Sound Designer, and the Sound Designer is also the Composer, you can be sure that none of these shared jobs will get the proper attention they require. It is important to obtain a list of your entire audio team that breaks down the responsibilities of each member. Use your sound budget to fortify any areas in sound production that need particular emphasis. We will discuss more on budgets later, but for now let’s start at the beginning.
III. COMMUNICATING THE VISION: PRE-PRODUCTION
A. EARLY BIRD CATCHES THE WORM
By their very nature, creative people are passionate Евровидение Новости about what they do. You shouldn’t have difficulty finding the enthusiasm amongst your sound team. Yet this inherent motivation is not something to be left without guidance. You will be doing your budget as well as your team’s morale, a disservice by letting your sound team simply “have at it”. When it comes time to add sound, the sound designers have both an advantage and a disadvantage compared to the other production team members.
The advantage is, that by the time the game is ready for audio creation, the game has taken real shape and personality. This helps to guide the direction of the sound effects design. The disadvantage is, that since the sound design is one of the last stages to be developed, previously fallen deadlines become the responsibility of the sound design team to make up. By bringing your sound designers up to speed early, you can avoid costly third and fourth revisions.
B. THE DOCUMENTS, PLEASE! Giving the sound team the most recent build to play, only gives them a partial picture of the artistic direction of the game. The sound team, like the art department, must understand the metamorphosis of the game’s characters and landscapes.
To do this, compile a book or digital archive that chronologically depicts the artwork, from the earliest sketches to the final in-game representations. Arrange an in-depth meeting between the sound designers, composer and the Art Director to discuss the game’s development from an artistic standpoint. This will help your audio team create the proper palette of sounds in much the same way an artist creates a palette of colors.
For story-driven games, distributing copies of the script will be necessary to illustrate the motivation and goal of the game. While this is critical for composers, the sound designers will benefit by the added sense of immersion into the game.
Perhaps the best form of communicating the vision will come from the Game Designer. The game designer works tirelessly in his pursuit to create “the best game ever”. He is never short of words when describing the intent of the game. Though his work is creative, his methods are mostly technical. No one understands the abilities of the characters in such detail as the game designer, as the great number of technical documents he produces will attest. These documents are invaluable to the audio team. By thoroughly examining level overviews and enemy specs, both sound designers and composers can create complimentary aural depictions. Bosses that are slow but powerful, or enemies that are stealthy will be revealed in great detail within these documents, providing the backdrop from which the sound designers can create.
C. THE DEMOS – GETTING ON THE SAME PAGE
Once the above preproduction steps have been completed, it’s time for the sound design team and composer to begin creating demos from game capture. Create three to four movies 60 to 90 seconds in length from different levels in the game. Be sure to include the ambient portion prior to the action in order to hear the game shift from low to high levels of activity. However, this may not be possible
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