Leading with Sound: Proactive Sound Practices in Video Game Development from Focal Press is the must-have companion guide to working on video game projects. Focused on the creative, collaborative, philosophical and organizational skills behind game sound and eschewing the technical, this book celebrates the subjects most essential to leading with sound in video game development at any level.
Refuting the traditional optics of sound as a service in favour of sound as a proactive visionary department, this book examines each of the four food-groups of dialogue, sound design, music and mix, not through the usual technical and production lenses of how and when, but the essential lens of why that enables leadership with sound. Leading with Sound is essential reading for aspiring sound designers, inside and outside of the classroom as well as experienced professionals in the game industry.
- Part One: Ports of Entry
- 01. What is this Book About?
- 02. The Big Four: Understanding the Four Food-groups of Audio (and how they inter-relate)
- 03. What Drives the Mix of Your Game.
- 04. Taking a Psychological Approach to Sound Categorization
- 05. What is a Game Developer?
- 06. What is Game Audio?
- 07. What You May be Missing: Vision to Drive Your Tools and Pipelines
- 08. Communication Essentials: Managing Expectations of Quality (The ‘L’ Scale)
- 09. Developing Early Audio Visions
- Part Two: Sound Design
- 10. Why do we Need Sounds?
- 11. Working with Sound.
- 12. Higher Level is Better.
- 13. What is Causing these Sounds and Where are they Located?
- 14. Ambiguity and Clarity.
- 15. Designing for Three Audiences. (Player, Spectator, Creator)
- 16. Thinking Horizontally, Vertically, and Diagonally about Asset Design.
- 17. Designing a Moment: Temporality in Interactive Sound Design.
- 18. Leading with Sound: Spectacle and Immersion.
- Part Three: Music
- 19. Why do we Need Music?
- 20. Music as Creative Crutches: Reaching for Music Too Soon & Too Late.
- 21. Defining the Sound: Towards an Iconic Music Design
- 22. The Shape of Emotion: We Can’t Feel Emotion All the Time.
- 23. Diegetic, Non-Diegetic and Trans-Diegetic Musical Spaces.
- 24. Non-Diegetic Space in Recorded Music
- 25. Leading with Music: Music as Spectacle Throughout Production and Post-Release
- Part Four: Voice
- 26. Why do we Need Voice?
- 27. Early Dialogue Development
- 28. The Sound of Voice: Dialects, Culture and Meaning
- 29. Casting Philosophies (Auditions, Recording, Iteration)
- 30. Let’s do it Again
- 31. Rethinking Dialogue Production: Infinite Alternatives
- 32. Leading with Voice: Leveraging the Spectacle of Performance
- Part Five: Mix
- 33. Why do we Need to Mix?
- 34. Mix Essentials
- 35. Philosophy of the Mix: Narrative Dynamics (Pushing, Pulling, Shaping)
- 36. Some Defining Terminology and Features of Non-Linear Mixing
- 37. Mix Consistency
- 38. Building the Mix
- 39. Planning and Surviving the Major Milestone and Final Mixes.
- 40. Leading with the Mix: The First and Last Thing You Think About.
- Part Six: Fade Out
- 41. The Importance of a Holistic (Four-Food-group) Vision
- 42. Studio Culture: A Theory of Everything
- 43. Game Audio Studio Spaces: Architectural Problems in Video Game Sound.
- 44. Games are for Everyone: Accessibility, Options and Customization in Audio for Gamers.
- 45. Finding Our Place, Between Vision and Service.