Games with the best sounding audio design likely share one major feature — audio was not an afterthought in development. As game audio pros, we maintain it’s never too early to bring your voice, music, and SFX teams into discussions that will set the optimal stage for sound design from a game’s foundation up. If you’re looking for faster, easier, and cooler sound design, internalize these important tips straight from Unlock Audio’s producer, project manager, and all-around facilitator of game audio success, Michelle Thomas.
1. Treat Game Audio the Same As You Would Art
No one lands on a game concept and saves the art till later in development. Visual exploration happens early, so why wouldn’t a signature soundscape be given the same upfront consideration? Just as creative directors shoulder image and story, your game audio deserves consistent, dedicated oversight by an audio director. Allowing someone to champion a consistent audio vision across music, SFX, and voice offers countless advantages for producing games with a commanding audio presence. From an audio outsourcing perspective, we’re happy whether that leadership is established by the studio in-house or provided through us as part of our partnership.
Sound designers can create new audio assets all throughout development, but developers can set the stage for the best possible implementation of these assets by establishing a clear audio vision early between engineering and audio teams. Technical sound designers also benefit immensely from early involvement — well before asset libraries start populating. Proper preparation for implementation requires technical sound designers and engineers to be aligned on how audio systems will work best before too much of the game’s foundation has been built.
Consider this: for every hour of asset creation, technical sound design usually takes another two. By putting sound design off until later in development, devs risk the need to make major, avoidable compromises in the quality and efficiency of their audio implementation given a lack of time. Making decisions about how to treat audio after suboptimal foundations are in place could either require a lot of developer rework to achieve the optimal performance, or force studios to cut corners, especially if launch deadlines are looming.
2. Use Close Collaboration to Your Best Benefit
Whether you’re working with an internal audio team or an outsource audio partner like Unlock Audio, it’s essential to maintain a strong framework for collaboration, starting with clear pointpersons between audio and development teams.
Our own level of engagement varies from producing plug-and-play assets to full-on soundscape creation, music composition and production, voice direction, and audio system implementation. Given the wide range in which we supplement developer teams, we channel all collaborations through our own producer/project manager (co-author Michelle), who juggles all our project resources, communications, and expectations to help us be the best and most transparent audio partner we can possibly be.
Having a dedicated audio project manager/producer provides our partners with a lot of flexibility and opens doors to how they can create the coolest-sounding games possible. First is through direct conversations with dev studio producers, which revolve around procedural matters: resources, scheduling, and progress updates. These conversations help keep collaborations running smoothly and fully aligned on logistical expectations. When needs inevitably pivot or shift, this powerhouse pairing is who hashes out the plan of action for addressing new production priorities.
Secondly, creative directors on the developer side gain a producer’s ear on our side to help execute their vision. This relationship is centered more on understanding the creative objectives and establishing expectations on what it will take to deliver and by when. Opening a direct line of communication between lead creatives and an audio-side producer has proven helpful to process feedback and get quick clarification or confirmation when needed, keeping our audio outputs and inputs flowing.
3. Give Technical Sound Designers Room to Reign
On an even deeper note, studios should feel confident giving audio implementation teams direct access to back-end project files and blueprints. Well before these designers begin tying sounds to gameplay events, it’s essential for them to spend time getting to know the project and seeing how everything is connected on the back-end.
Allowing them visibility into the back-end is not a means of circumventing engineering teams but rather a proactive approach that creates opportunity for stronger collaboration between audio and engineering. Since technical sound designers are looking through the lens of how audio works as a system, they’re crucial players in developer collaborations to make sound work its hardest for an optimal gameplay experience — no compromises.
If game studios take these three tips to heart and afford their audio teams time, access and clearer channels for collaboration, then the aforementioned goals of faster, easier and cooler sound design will always be that much more within reach.
