Crack Open the Black Box:
Setting Game Audio Expectations
Do you know all that it truly takes to create great audio for games? No one will criticize you if you say, “Not really.” Even audio teams with decades of shared experience struggle to explain the value of the time and effort required to deliver on their stream of audio requests.
Uncertainty stems from audio operating in a “black box” where requests are submitted and assets simply pop out. This incurious perception persists whether audio teams are in-house or outsourced. Yet, the longer the complexities of audio creation are left shrouded in mystery, the more studios will continue to struggle with proper resourcing, procedural bottlenecks, and retention of audio knowledge as their audio teams get spread too thin.
The truth of the matter is that many audio teams struggle to explain or advocate for their own work because they are already chasing development deadlines built without the realities of audio creation in mind. And developers who fail to continually prioritize the audio teams’ needs risk costly bleeds in their production pipeline.
No audio pro wants to find themselves in a position of having to compromise on creative vision, variety, or cohesion just to meet the timeline of development milestones established without a purview of the available resources and scope of creative demand. Deconstructing the black box around audio creation is an essential step developers must take to ensure their audio teams are primed to deliver fully on the shared vision for more original and impactful gaming experiences.
1. Understand the Jobs Behind the Craft
Audio creation takes time, although it’s hard to know for sure what to expect! It may seem counterintuitive, but the shortest sound effects sometimes take the longest time to create. A good sound designer struggles less with making sounds as much as they do with making them work within the grand creative scheme.
It’s rarely so simple as lobbing a request for a quick “SPLAT!” over the audio department fence. While game audio has the luxury of expansive stock libraries to reference, no out-of-the-box effect is going to provide the cohesive originality that today’s gamers expect. Sound designers will pick apart and reprocess stock sounds a hundred ways to find the tailor-made feel a game’s creative vision demands — and they may yet decide on recording something altogether new if they don’t get the results they want.
Much of the same can be said for music. A game composer may be asked to score a one-off song for a trailer, but the time required to write one track is compounded by many instrumental parts. Although they can quickly synthesize instruments they haven’t mastered the performance of, they will often lean on dedicated, professional instrumentalists to perform individual parts for the most skillful, high-quality captures before packaging audio tracks however is required for further production or implementation.
Not only do sound designers, composers and audio producers have to mind the stylistic standards and variables set forth across a game’s soundscape for creative cohesion, they also have to consider the technical needs of the post-production or implementation teams for packaging and hand-off. If they can understand the needs of who they are handing assets off to, isn’t it fair to ask that those who make audio requests hold a similar stake in ensuring the time and resources are made available to do their job right?
2. Don’t Overgeneralize Audio Roles
Consider for a moment the role of the audio director. It’s a mistake to assume the audio director can step into any or all roles under their supervision — that’s not the ultimate responsibility of their role. They serve to translate the vision across their many managed roles and support teams with the references, training and resources to meet creative demands.
Yet, audio directors, sound designers, and the like are often expected to wear multiple hats and fulfill responsibilities of producer or programmer counterparts on top of their primary duties — diluting their ability to put consistent effort where their experience matters most. If an audio director is tied up in producing audio assets, the rest of their team is likely falling short on other valuable support. With a clearer understanding of roles, responsibilities, and creative processes, studios can build more realistic expectations on how separate roles relate, thereby strengthening the value gained by keeping responsibilities dedicated.
When audio is kept in a black box, sound files get treated as a commodity to simply plug in, but better gaming experiences are made when people and processes are plugged into the professional exchange first and audio teams take on an early, indispensable role in delivering their very best on a shared creative vision.
3. Lead With Curiosity
Creative leadership in games draws heavily from the visual and narrative arts. This is no surprise given art is one of the first elements to take shape in development. But there’s also no reason that creative direction couldn’t be led by someone with an audio background either!
We’re not suggesting that every developer or creative lead needs to share a degree in audio production. Rather, be willing to question whether the development roadmaps or milestones give ample priority to the needs of teams like audio whose work depends on the time-lock and content-lock of animation, design, environments, and cinematics to even begin. Yet, audio benefits immensely from being represented through all of the upfront work so they are creatively primed when it’s time to hit record.
Give your audio teams a clear and early way to voice what it takes to deliver their best work and to steer realistic timelines. Enlist a dedicated producer to advocate for strong audio processes, schedules, and the institution of staggered milestones — not parallel — to allow audio teams a proper developmental window after the preceding creative processes are complete. Be ready to ask what any new request would take without assuming minimal impact on workflows or workloads.
The most impactful game audio is achieved through constant conversation and a mutual stake in collaborative success. Technologies and processes are constantly evolving, so don’t shackle audio teams to ways of work that made it to the end one way or another in the past. Chances are there’s a better method, tool, or approach that could improve the outputs of this important creative exchange. So, give your in-house or outsource audio teams a say to create even better sounding games for folks to play!