A Curriculum for Game Audio

A Curriculum for Game Audio

Chair:
Richard Stevens, Leeds Metropolitan University
Panelists:
Dan Bardino, Creative Services Manager, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited
Andy Farnell, Author of Designing Sound
David Mollerstedt, DICE - Sweden
Dave Raybould, Leeds Metropolitan University - UK
Nia Wearn, Staffordshire Univerity - Staffordshire, UK
Me!

Just attended the AES London convention on Monday and took part in the panel discussion on the IASIG (Interactive Audio Special Interest Group) Game Audio Curriculum.

As you can see we had a good panel, and me as well! It was good to see Dan again, as he always brings a great deal to these talks (well he did at the Pinewood TIGA talk) with humour, clarity and insight. David brought Swedish deadpan humour and well thought out comments, not least of which was when asked what theoretical research he would like carried out replied he wanted to do research into consumer feedback about Game Audio. Do people actually care and so on? A point delightfully answered moments later when the panel was asked to name their favourite ever game audio, and Nia said she generally plays without sound…hahaha! (admittedly she said it’s mainly DS type stuff on a bus)

Great comedy timing though.

Further to the research idea, Dan asked a very good question when we had retired to the pub for further discussion…. How many people are actually employed directly in “Game Audio” in the UK..? The answer we came up with…not very many at all! The studios have pretty small numbers (2-5 maybe) in permanent employ, and they have a core of outsourcing resources they use (e.g. Side, for example). Two to five may sound reasonable, but we are talking about Sony and EA studios here, among the bigger players out there…

Aside from that somewhat gloomy note, the discussion touched on many interesting things.

Chief among them maybe was the very fluid situation game audio and game audio creation is in. The curriculum would have a hard time being definitive, as actual working practices are in no way currently fixed. Nor are the tools used. Universally they were deemed to be not up to scratch yet, but steadily improving. On the plus side, the actual field of ‘Game Audio’ was held to be an exciting and innovative area of audio development. The tools and methods are ‘up for grabs’ and the flexibility of purpose and implementation is to be admired. For example Film and TV have many fixed rules and techniques, which can be ignored in game audio design. Now sometimes this is not for the better, but at other times it opens things up and puts a new and exciting spin on things. It’s as if new questions are being asked (often for the first time) and because of that there are no “set answers” yet.

The discussion highlighted how rapidly things were moving forward as many of the points raised (for example discussions about the roles of Audio implementers and the balance between creative and technical ability) hinged on past definitions or past technical limitations. Whereas old game audio delivery systems often had extremely limited technical delivery capacity, which called on a fairly deep technical understanding of the limitations and how to get around them, modern consoles and PCs often have enough oomph to let the audio team worry about the quality of content rather than the actual capacity to deliver it.

Dan, Dave and I were uniformly in the “creative” camp as the prime asset of a modern game audio employee. Technical skill, without the commensurate desire to make things sound great and above all to fit those sounds into the feel of the game in question, was of limited value.
With the modern team ethos of Video Game creation, a lone tech hero was infinitely less valuable than someone who can communicate effectively with the larger team around them, and not just the audio team. The creative lead, and programming, design and art teams must all be effectively communicated with both to help create and then to ensure smooth delivery. Mind you the lone hero will always have a role somewhere I am sure, possibly in smaller teams or teams designing for portable / limited delivery systems, such as the burgeoning mobile market.

It’s good to think that game audio is still very much on a steeply upward curve, with a lot more to come, and seeing guys like David and Dan, I’m sure that EA and Sony are in good hands! Both are looking for constant forward motion, and as tools improve, and people get their heads around what can be done, I am sure we will be seeing a lot of interesting things happening. For one thing, the panel noted that the new wave of gaming interfaces (Sony Move, Xbox Natal, etc) could inspire a whole new field of control systems and audio feedback and input, with voice activation and recognition something that could have a real impact on game immersion and involvement (and looking silly potentially).

Visions of sitting in darkened rooms shouting Dive! Dive! Dive! at the screen while depth charges pound your 5.1 “sub” woofer spring to mind (pardon the unmissable pun opportunity)….

The IASIG draft curriculum doc can be downloaded from the IASIG website:
http://www.iasig.org/wg/eduwg/index.shtml