I have some great news that I wanted to share with my fellow G.A.N.G. members. I was interviewed by senior editor Kevin VanOrd of GameSpot for a profile article which is now featured on the home page of GameSpot.com.

The article discusses my career in the game industry, from my first job as a game composer to my latest project, Assassin's Creed III Liberation. You can read the article here:

From God of War to Assassin's Creed III Liberation: The Musical Journey of Winifred Phillips 

You can hear some samples from the Assassin's Creed III Liberation soundtrack here:

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrLOycTFJDI 100x100]

A few years ago George Hufnagl used to do 3x5 interviews on his blog. Now he returned it on Creating Sound. To kick it off he interviewed Damien Kastbauer (Lost Chocolate Lab):

 http://creatingsound.com/2012/04/3x5-interview-with-damien-kastbauer-aka-lost-chocolate-lab-2/

Hey all.  First and formost, hello to the community, from a new community member.  I signed up for G.A.N.G. while at the GDC townhall meeting a few days ago and am excited about being active in the community.

I wanted to share a video I produced with Andrew Lackey and team of Wabi Sabi Sound  here in Berkeley, Ca.  This is, hopefully, only the first in a series of short docs I'll produce on the topic of jobs in the game industry. I thought I'd begin the series with my first love.  Audio.

 Enjoy. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udQOi5cgIqo 

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udQOi5cgIqo 560x315]

 

Here is another interview, published today on Designing Sound. This time is with Kirstofor Mellroth talking about his work on Crackdown 2.

In terms of sound, what were the most challenging changes in the sequel? What did you want to improve or change?

By far the most difficult thing about doing a Crackdown game is the fact that the entire game is co-op, non-linear, and open world. With this design every system you make must support every game mode and every scenario in every game mode. Player characters can create an enormous scale of sounds in Crackdown and with the introduction of 4 players, the potential for audio mayhem goes through the roof. You can make something sound awesome, but can you also make it sound awesome when 4 players do it side by side?

There are a few things we wanted to improve this time over the last.

#1 Sandbox audio fidelity. We think CD1 has a very cool and unique sound but we could not be satisfied with the past. We wanted to push the sandbox sound design in every area further. This meant redesigning every system from both a technical and aesthetic level. It meant all new field recording. It meant expanding the sandbox and trying to get more memorable sounds into it while not overwhelming the player with repetition.

#2 authoring environment. Our previous tech was cool but very specific. We needed something more flexible and more up to date with things like live update, synthesis, dynamic mixing, etc. Something that allowed collaboration across oceans and timezones. This was an easy choice and we immediately selected Wwise as our environment.

#3 Emotional impact. The last game’s sound was 100% simulation. This helps give the game a very unique sound but also leaves it emotionally flat during big moments. We wanted to give the game more emotion this time and elected to add an original score as our primary solution. This worked extremely well in a game like Crackdown 2. Much better than we could have envisioned. We got such a great score and it’s integrated in very unique ways. The beginning, end, life, death, day, night, height exploration, and races all feel much more impactful this time around.

Full interview here . 

 

Some days ago I published an interview with the team behing the great audio of Singularity. They shared a lot of cool details on different aspects of the game and also talked the techniques and tools used to achieve that. The participants were:

• Mark Killborn, Audio Lead
• Kevin Schilder, Lead Sound Designer
• Jer Sypult, Sound Designer
• Darren Blondin, Sound Designer
• Andy Bayless, Sound Designer

 

You can read the interview here 

 [video:http://vimeo.com/10159797 550x400]

SoundWorks Collection has published three videos featuring interviews with Marty O'Donnell and Tommy Tallarico. Also there is a video from the sound panel "Where It All Began: Lessons That Can Be Learned From First Generation", with:

• Rod Abernethy (Composer, Rednote Audio)
• Alexander Brandon(Creative Director, Heatwave Interactive)
• Brian Schmidt (President, Brian Schmidt Studios, LLC)
• Brad Fuller (Partner, Sonaural LLC)
• Tommy Tallarico (President, Tommy Tallarico Studios)

Not just a walk down memory lane, this panel will explore how the music of first generation 8-bit games was created and what makes it so well loved by gamers of all ages. What makes those old 8-bit tunes still so endearing, instantly recognizable and still fun to listen to? We will explore the glory days of game music, how it was created under unbelievable technical restrictions compared to today’s production standards. We’ll also explore how the modern day composer and audio director can use many of the same concepts and techniques used in first generation in today’s music.

SoundWorks Collection GDC10 

 

Read it here

If you want, can also take a look at this video from Machinima featuring the sound of the game.

 [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NStiw7Xa6Wk 500x350]

Congratulations to all the sound team there! Awesome work, guys!

 

Hey guys,

I just thought you'd like to check this out.  The Boston Globe published a piece on Berklee, interactive audio, our Video Game Music Club, and more.  You can check it out here.

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2010/01/19/berklee_is_teaching_students_to_compose_scores_for_video_games/

Thanks!

-  Nazer