When it comes to working with sound designers/composers, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all way of having an effective audio pipeline; it depends on which practices suit your company working style or culture the most to bring out the best in your game. IMBA will share various project postmortems from small, bite-sized casual games to AAA titles, and discuss how you can find the best audio pipeline for your team.
Play By Ear: Sound Design for Games | Sharon Kho, Gwen Guo
1. Play by Ear:
Sound Design for Games
Sharon Kho and Gwen Guo
Co-founders, IMBA Interactive
2. About Us
• A small game audio company based in Singapore
• Provide top-notch audio for game dev studios
• Build game audio communities in this region
4. Taipei Game Jam experience
‘Technical’ Team ‘Creative’ Team
Mostly programmers An all-rounded team
Prototyped multiple ideas Went with one single idea
Prioritise mechanics Prioritise narrative
Less game industry experience More game industry experience
5. How did the sound designer manage this?
?
CREATIVE
TEAM
TECHNICAL
TEAM
6. How did the sound designer manage this?
PRODUCTION
PIPELINE
CREATIVE
OWNERSHIP
KNOWLEDGE
SHARING
12. SHARED KNOWLEDGE
• PROJECT BASICS
• Age group and demographic
• Genre and Platform
• Where are you/dev team located or based off?
• Why are you making this game?
13. SHARED KNOWLEDGE
• TECHNICAL BASICS
• How is the budget for audio like?
• What is the game going to be developed on?
• Tools and Middleware?
• Filesize budget
• When are the milestones and deadlines?
14. SHARED KNOWLEDGE
• GOING DEEPER
• What do we want the players to experience?
• Why are going in this creative direction?
• Is there any other media we can take reference
from?
• Your company’s branding and/or culture?
15. SHARED KNOWLEDGE
• THE TEAM
• Who are the audio programmers
• Who is the game designer?
• Who are the animators?
16. PIPELINE
• Production Pipeline
• Tools and Processes
• Communication Pipeline
• Managing Expectations
• Conflict Resolution
HOW?
22. Keeping the “pipes” clean
Promptness
Honesty
Clarity
Be kind
Audio Team
Project manager
Producer
Manage
Expectations
Individual A Individual B
23. Conclusion
• Determine Creative Boundaries
• No such thing as TMI
• Establish/Tailor a Production and
Communication pipeline that fits the
project and team.
• Basically, no such thing as a “One Size
Fits All” strategy