Replied to this topic here instead of in the Augio Guys's Thread.
quote:Originally posted by chistyle
Hi, I'm just wondering if anyone knows how to get involved in Sound design for Games?
As I Have loads of experience in using DAW and Audio Engineering software such as Nuendo, Vsti's etc...
Sound design for games is quite a complex field to master. There are so many elements of it that you need to know about.
1. Actual Content Design
This involves the actual creation of a new sound which includes: recording, layering, processing, mixing, mastering.
2. Technical Sound Design (What most sound designers do)
This is how will the game use sounds - how are they implemented, played back. ie a Car Engine being put into a game. How does that work with programmers. What does the sound designer need to record, process. What do the programmers need to create to implement the sound - what feed back from the game affects the sound. How is the sound mixed in the game, are environmental sounds going to be a wav loop or are they going to be 3D positional sounds which randomly generate elements for a realistic non-linear sound scape.
3. Digital Audio theory. Sounds are never always 44.1kHz. What sound theory do you need to know to process and create sounds for various implementations.
4. Understanding of audio implementation methodologies/techniques in games. This is kind of tied in with the technical sound design role.
5. Sound designers may also be required to perform
- Dialogue editing, recording and directing
- Video Post Production
- Music editing
- Audio implementation : Scripting, Level Editors, Asset Management.
The best thing to do is to get yourself involved on one of hundreds of free projects that can be found online from beginner teams making games. Read as much material as possible about game engines, and implementation techniques. Find PC games and look at how the audio was implemented and designed if there are assets in the directories.
Have a look at books like Aaron Marks' Complete Guide to Game Audio.