Game Audio Network Guild

Saturday, August 14th is our annual Summer BBQ!  Tommy has once again graciously offered to open his fun house to another great evening of networking.  Paul will be there, I'll be there, Tommy will of course be there so grab your bathing suit and your business cards and RSVP today.  Send an e-mail to sean@audiogang.org.

 Hope to see you on Saturday!

In an effort to continuously upgrade the site, we recently increased space allocations for member profile audio uploads.  You now have up to 70MB of storage space and can load a maximum of 15 files to the site.

Hope you are able to take advantage of this new feature and remember if you have any comments or suggestions to please e-mail me, michelle@audiogang.org.

Best,

Michelle

 

Just a quick note on the following updates to our website we are currently working on:

1) Migrating the site to a dedicated server (better performance and speed!)

2) Newsletter - launch of the newest version of the monthly G.A.N.G. Newsletter

3) Build out our pro branches, IESD and GVAC

4) Miscellaneous updates that include rewriting the contact form page and ad updates

This list is basically in order of importance at the present.  If you have a suggestion please either post it here or send me an e-mail, michelle@audiogang.org.  Make sure you explain the importance factor when submitting an item for the list.  Hey at the very least we'll discuss your ideas.

Cheers,

Michelle

 

Congratulations to all the recent G.A.N.G. Award winners.  We honored a very distinguished group this year at the event held on March 26th during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

 As you know G.A.N.G. provides a set number of trophies per category and doesn't limit participation in the award recognition program by additional members of development teams.

 If you were part of a team that won a trophy at this or any previous year's awards show, that is to say your name would appear in the credits category of a winning product, and you want a duplicate  of the original trophy, just e-mail me, michelle@audiogang.org for details on purchasing one for your office or studio!

I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Best,

Michelle 

 

 

At this year's Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco the issue of women in games was once again a hot topic of discussion.  For those of you who are involved in the game industry and are interested in the discussion on women in games there are a host of resources on the internet. 

Women in Games International, is a group working to promote diversity in the workplace.  They hold conferences and meetings around the globe.  http://www.womeningamesinternational.org/

 Additionally the Women in Games SIG,  ( http://www.igda.org/women/ ), a branch of the IGDA, hold panel discussions and social gatherings at various venues across the country.  This group also has Facebook as well as LinkedIn pages and uses both a discussion board and e-mail list  ( http://www.igda.org/women/get-involved.html ) to promote the global conversation about current topics that directly affect women in the game industry.  The topics are vast and the discussions are lively!  I encourage you to get involved.

At the recent SF Game Developers Conference WIG SIG member, Phaedra Boinodiris, presented a panel discussion titled: 

Play Games to Work Smarter: Why It is More Critical than Ever that Women Play and Develop Games

Gamedev contributer, Sande Chen, wrote a detailed summary of the talk: ( http://www.gamedev.net/columns/events/gdc2009/article.asp?id=1764 ).

 I notice more and more women are joining GANG as well.  This is a positive trend for our Guild and the industry as a whole.

 Feel free to contact me with any questions you might have regarding the above information or just to start a new conversation!

-Michelle 

The question has come up on the forums recently as to how to update your individual membership level.

We will eventually have a form that you can fill out and submit online but as in the past if your professional status has changed please e-mail me  michelle@audiogang.org  with the specifics regarding the update.  This information includes but may not be limited to your current employer, requested achievement level, number of years of industry experience, and qualifying projects.  Upon a brief review your profile will be updated.

Thank you for your participation!

 Best Wishes,

Michelle

 

 

 

 

An Interview with Knut Avenstroup Haugen on "Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures"

So after a bit of a wait here it is the interview you have been waiting for and the next in our series of G.A.N.G. member spotlight interviews. Knut (pronounced (k-noot) and I spoke over the phone (skype is a wonderful thing!) about the creation and application of music for the new hit title "Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures."  Knut is a Norwegian based composer.  The cool thing is that recently I had the great opportunity to meet Knut, in L.A. for meetings, in person at this summer's G.A.N.G. BBQ!  How cool was that?  Made the whole interview process come full circle for me.  So onto the interview where Knut talks not only about how he created music for a hit product but also about life as a composer working in Oslo.

GANG:  I am very excited to be speaking with you today.  For the record can you tell us who you are working for?

Knut:  I work freelance for FuncCom, a Norwegian Developer.  They have a publishing connection with the American company Eidos.

 

GANG:  Can you tell us a little bit about your background?

Knut:  I started out as a piano player.  I studied for 5 years at the conservatory in Kristiansand, and continued to study piano at Utrecht in Holland.  While I was at Kristiansand I studied a bit of composition.  I liked it very much as I have always been interested in film scores.  After Utrecht, I enrolled in the University of Oslo and studied composition and musicology there.  So, I have been studying music and composition for 9 years. I currently have the equivalent of 2 Masters Degrees.  It is somewhat different in conservatory but basically I have the equivalent of 1 Masters Degree in piano and the other in composition.

 

GANG:  Are there a lot of composers in Norway? Do you have the equivalent of an SCL type of organization in Norway?

Knut:  Yes (there is an SCL in Norway), although I am not a member yet.  For other composers there are film and TV opportunities but not as many as there are in America.  Norway is a country of 5 million people and in recent years there are more there are more opportunities.  The films made here are good.  They are not Hollywood productions but they make movies here and TV shows and I would say there are more opportunities for writing music for film and TV than for games at the moment.

 

GANG:  How did you get involved with Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures?

Knut:  I had been a composer for several years writing concert pieces and by coincidence got in touch with Morten Sørlie, the former audio director at FunCom.  He had heard a bit of my music and told me they were looking for a composer for a project.  So, basically I sent a demo and was lucky to get the job at FunCom.  I had to compete with a lot of other composers but eventually won out and got the job.  This was my first game experience.  I have always been a fan of games and been a gamer for a long time.

 

GANG:  Can you describe the game?

Knut:  The game is MMO online multiplayer, based on the original Conan stories written by Robert E. Howard in the 1930's.  This game goes back to the lore of that original story, unlike the comic books of the 70's or 80's, it's much more true to the original universe.  The game itself if a huge world consisting of 4 main countries you can explore and adventure.  Combat is a very large part of game play, and what is really the big attraction is the depth of the universe.  It is like LOR, a huge universe you can dive into and never fully explore.  People are excited about that.  Like many MMO's you create and customize your own character.  The game itself will last for several hundred hours while you constantly develop your character and get stronger and get more equipment. 

There is a main story line which you can follow through and you will actually be able to beat the end boss.  The game doesn't stop there because after that you can build (or join) your own players city and then you can become a black smith for example.  There are a lot of quests that you can do with other people and you can live there for as long as you want.

 

GANG:  How big of a team worked on this project?

Knut:  In the end there were about 150 people working on the project.  For my part I did most of the work on my own including the composing, arranging, studio recording, and mixing. 

 

GANG:  How did you work with the rest of the project's audio team?

Knut:  To begin with (Knut and the Sound Design Team) we worked separately.  We would come together with unfinished pieces and talk about how we could get a more atmospheric setting.  It was at this point that we would discuss how the ambient music should work with the ambient sound effects.  Sometimes I used sound effects in my music, and sometimes I separated them out.  We had a constant dialog throughout the production.  I also interacted with Audio Director, Music Director, and Game Director, collaborating with them throughout the project.

 

GANG:  How long was this project in the making?

Knut:  The project has been under development for about 5 years.  I've been involved for 3.5 years.  It shipped May 20^th (of this year) in the US and May 23^rd in Europe & Australia.

 

GANG:  Where did you find the inspiration for your compositions?

Knut:  When I first started out on the project I studied ancient music.  I studied composers like Wagner and studied medieval music.  My main goal of this project was to avoid certain clichés that would tie the game too closely with a specific period of time.  I created a Hyborian Sound that layers into the bottom of everything.  On top of that I used inspiration of traditional music from different countries.  (I used) Spanish textures to create a sense of Spain.  Cimmeria is a mix of cultures: Celtic, low lands with the main instrument being solo violin, and Nordic, highlands and snowy peaks I was lucky to get Helene Bøksle a famous Norwegian vocalist.  It was very nice to be able to make some parts of the music Norwegian.  Helene is an amazing singer.  She lends fantastic feeling of Nordic essence to the music.  I am very pleased and I am glad I had the opportunity to make that music.  There are two other cultures, Aquilonia, uses a basic Hyborian mixed with an ancient medieval sound.  I used English horn and oboe here.  It's also a military state so I used military drums and ancient brass instruments such as those made out of animal horns - primeval barbaric instruments. The final culture, Styrgia, I was lucky to find a Moroccan folk musician to play music for that culture.  It has a North African or Arabic feel.  This is a quite different, sounding part of the score.  It's much more other worldly or dark and sinister, and you find out that this is the most evil culture.

 

GANG:  Can you describe what you mean by Hyborian Sound?

Knut:  Hybora is the game world.  Hyborian sound is something I came up with to describe all parts of the score because of this core.  Even though the cultures are very different you will recognize that they are all from Age of Conan because of this sound that ties it all together.  It sounds ancient, and isn't too complex harmonically, rhythmically.  I made it easy (for people) to grasp.

 

GANG:  Can you describe how the music interacts with the game?

Knut:  There are maybe 20-25 playfields, indoor and outdoor, and each one is very large.  Each playfield is divided into bounded areas.  We put invisible markers around these areas and within this border we play the (associated) cue.  We basically attempted to make as many bounded areas as possible so the music is not repetitive.  In each bounded area we play a piece of music that is tailored for this area.  At a certain point the music ends and takes some time before it begins again.

There is also cut scene and combat music.  There is more than 40 minutes of combat music consisting of more than 30 minutes of live choir.  The combat music is unique for each of the three biggest countries which are Aquelonia, Cimmeria, & Styrgia.  The combat music is connected to the cultural background.  It is unique for each of the main countries.  There are two types of combat music, normal and boss.  The normal combat music is divided into many small pieces that I then puzzled together in many ways.  In this way you get the feeling that the music is never the same.  It feels new every time you hear it.  This is the same for all of the cultures and boss encounters.

The final culture is the Acheron an ancient culture that has died out.  There is an underlying idea throughout the game that people want to bring it back.  This culture seems to crop up several places.  (For example) People dig up items from this culture, or meet demons from ancient times.  It has its own unique music that is evil, dark, and very other worldly.  In the lore they talk about it as the alter dark.

 

GANG:  How many individual pieces of background music were created for the game?

Knut:  There are a total of 3.5 hours of music and about 200 individual tracks of music when everything was edited down.  It was a massive undertaking.

 

GANG:  What methods did you use for creating the music?

Knut:  I think it is important to note that not everything has been recorded live.  What I have basically been doing is composing all the pieces with sampled orchestra.  For the pieces that are more or less traditional music I have used more live instruments because it is more important that it be realistic sounding.  For the big orchestral pieces I have based them on sampled orchestra and overdubbed most of the string parts with live strings.  So the first violin part has been blended with sampled violin, second violin part with second violin.  I have mixed a live recording in with each of the string sections.  All the important solo parts are played live, especially instruments that are very different to emulate like choir.  They are recorded live.  I recorded the male choir recorded in church and the mixed choir in the studio.  This process (making the blend sound natural) took an incredible amount of time and was the most time consuming part of the project.  I am very pleased with the result because it is very difficult to hear that it is not live in some places.

 

GANG:  Because you were responsible for all of the musical aspects of this project, how would you say you divided your time?

Knut:  Composition - 20% - 30%; Prep/Recording - 20%; Mixing - 40% - 50%; Score Writing - 10%.  (For example) It took me three weeks to write the combat music.  I first did the composition, then arranged the orchestration, recorded a first draft, got approval, recorded the instruments, implement them into the music, and then mixed.

 

GANG:  What challenges did you face?  Would you do anything differently?

Knut:  It is all a learning process.  You use the means you have at your disposal.  I had to choose the way of producing the music that would fit within budget and within time frame.  So of course it depends on possibilities you have when you start up.  With Age of Conan it was an evolving process because the game was growing during development.  It was supposed to be one (1) year project and then it turned into a five (5) year.  In that time I rewrote and improved many pieces because we changed things and then we decided to go with surround sound for whole score.  So, I had to remix and recompose music.  Of course I learn all the time, I will do things in another way the next time.  I know more about what will work because I have more experience.  Of course if I have a live orchestra at my disposal I will have to work in an entirely different way.  Most of the time though I will anticipate working like I have - using a mix of sampled instruments and live instruments.  I will be able to plan my time better because of experience.

Many people are very equipment oriented. They think that you'll not be able to do something if you don't have this or that tool. It's true that you need some basic tools - like in all trades, but new equipment isn't necessarily what you need to make your product better. Whatever the tools are, if you base your work on what you can achieve with them, they will always limit you. Do it the other way around and say: "This is what I want to achieve. How should I approach this to make the music sound as good as possible?"  Instead of an expensive Pro-Tools rig, you might find that you'd be better off with a few lessons in composition or orchestration.

Another important fact is that you should leave the tasks that you don't master to those who are good at it and try and be the best within your area of expertise instead. You cannot be best at everything: If you're a composer and working with samples most of the time, it would be a better idea to pay for a few hours in the studio to record that solo violin instead of spending the money on a solo violin sample library. You might not get the new equipment, but you will get a much better result. You'll also free up a lot of time that you'd otherwise spend trying to get the sampled violin to sound acceptable.

 

GANG:  Are any special challenges you face working from Europe?

Knut:  FunCom is based in Oslo, so that has been great.  I don't have to be there often until the end stages so I assume I could have worked somewhere else.  The game that came before Dreamfall, they used a composer in Barcelona and that worked out perfectly.

 

GANG:  Do you see yourself working for companies outside of Oslo? 

Knut:  Yes of course.  I will have to.  Oslo is changing some, but there is still not much going on here, except for FunCom so to get work I will have to go abroad.  So, we will see.  I am open to moving!

 

GANG:  What has been the most rewarding aspect of working on this project?

Knut:  Finishing!  Because it has been so huge and at some points it was overwhelming.  Just to be finished with it and feel that I have managed to go through this project and go through to the end and make all this music is a great feeling.  If I wasn't satisfied with the pieces I wrote I don't think I would have the same feeling about finishing.  But I like what I wrote and can say that finishing this project is an important inspiration for me.

 

GANG:  Can you say anything about what you might currently be working on? 

Knut:  Recently I scored a live orchestral performance for the Age of Conan launch party.  For the past two weeks I have been working on something completely differently. In two weeks there will be a 200 year anniversary celebration of Norway's National Poet, Henrik Wergeland, so I have written a piece for string quartet, harp, and tenor voice.  In September of last year I wrote two large pieces for the Oslo Opera Festival.  So, there may be more of those kinds of jobs in the future as well.

 

GANG:  Can you say a few words about being a member of GANG?

Knut:  Being a part of G.A.N.G. is very important when you live in a country with not even a handful of people working in the same line of business as yourself: There are few people to ask for advice both when it comes to business related questions and issues related to music production. The resources available from the G.A.N.G. site have been very valuable to me.

Being a composer also requires me to spend a lot of time networking.  Everything I've ever done as a professional composer has been a result of someone knowing someone. Of course it doesn't help knowing people if they don't like what you do, but on the other hand, being a great composer won't do you much good if no-one gets to hear your music.  Being a G.A.N.G. member seems to be the best way to get in touch with other game audio professionals.

Even though for the time being I'm not able to take advantage of all the benefits of being a member (like attending gatherings and so forth) since I currently live on the other side of the globe, it's still very reassuring just knowing that you're a part of a larger community that basically has your best interests at heart.

 

For more information on the Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures please visit the website at, http://www.ageofconan.com, or http://www.community.ageofconan.com.

And for more information on Knut, you can check out his profile and hear samples of his music from the game on the new Game Audio Website, http://www.audiogang.org/.

 

So, we're in the process of redesigning the newsletter and plan on launching the new publication the first of the year.  In the meantime Knut and I talked about a lot of great issues that I want to share with you all so I will be publishing the entire interview here in the next few days.

I had an opportunity to interview Norwegian based composer Knut Avenstroup Haugen yesterday on his experience composing music for "Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures" as well as the current state of Game Development in Norway.

 Stay tuned for an indepth look at how he created more than 4 hours of music for the game as well as a little about what life is like in Oslo.

Best Wishes,

Michelle

 

My son just walked over to my computer while I was editing my profile page and promptly said, "you've got a myspace page?"  This was followed closely by an announcement to the entire household pretty much at the top of his lungs, "Mom's got a myspace page you guys."  That of course was followed by an even louder "M-O-M!"

 It took me the better part of 5 minutes and some major cruising around the site to convince him that I was, in fact, actually on the new GANG website and that what I was doing was editing the profile of my, as I called it, "mygang" page.

 I almost sensed a bit of disappointment in his tone as he said, "yeah, alright," but he loves my new profile image.

-M