The Interactive Audio Development Team

It takes many experienced people, working together in complementary roles, to create a modern game or virtual experience. This chapter explains how interactive audio development work is partitioned in large and small projects, by job role and by content category.

An audio recording crew confronts a monster truck

Contrasting the roles of sound designers, system and application audio programmers, this chapter considers the work involved in creating audio for front-end menus, weapons, ambiences and vehicle sounds, crowds, surfaces, reflections and reverberation. Since speech recording and translation dominates the audio budget for many world-market products, its special requirements are discussed in detail.

Another key aspect of this chapter deals with Platform differences, showing how to exploit commonality while playing to the strengths and minimising the weaknesses of each interactive audio platform, be that a PC, console, arcade cabinet, VR headset or mobile phone.

Other topics

• Level design and asset management budgets.
• The Vertical Slice.
• Attaching triggers to audio events.
• Finding out why sounds aren't sounding.
• Suppressed rainfall.
• Detecting damage.
• Reporting status, avoiding monotony.
• When audio should control graphics and vice versa.
• Lip sync.
• Ducking systems.
• Interactive music cues.
• Localised speech and six-figure asset counts.
• Separate text and sound locales.
• Phrasing, splicing and word order.
• Premature congratulations and needless repetition.
• Preparing for late changes.

Further reading

Sample Replay - previous chapter abstract.
Audio Resource Management - next chapter abstract.
Return to the index of chapters.
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Copyright © 2019 Simon N Goodwin     [';']