devcom 2017

Description:
New Games in VR/AR require completely new workflows. The talk showcases future Game and VR Audio Mixing workflows by example of the dearVR Spatial Connect for "Mixing for VR being in VR".
This is the perfect workflow to mix spatial audio as long as you want in your DAW and bring this mix in full quality object-based to Unity or scene-based Ambisonics. Experience Game Audio and Sound Design editied in a DAW and mixed in VR. Check the demo video here.

Take Away
Knowing the perfect workflow for mixing immersive object-based audio for VR/AR transfered to Unity projects. New media like VR/AR require completely new workflows.

Audience Adressed: Audio Devs, Sound Designer, VR/AR Devs

ATTENTION: while there will be standard headphones provided on site, we advise you to bring your own headphones if you plan on visiting Sound & SFX talks to guarantee the best possible experience!

A look into of the key attributes of game audio and how to think about them functionally. This is not just about why audio matters, but about why and how it will help your game sell better and build are more loyal community.

ATTENTION: while there will be standard headphones provided on site, we advise you to bring your own headphones if you plan on visiting Sound & SFX talks to guarantee the best possible experience!

I'll present some of my techniques to capture and distill an emotional message out of a game scene and create a musical idea and instrumentation concept out of it.

ATTENTION: while there will be standard headphones provided on site, we advise you to bring your own headphones if you plan on visiting Sound & SFX talks to guarantee the best possible experience!

Take a glimpse at the process of composing for Fox N Forests  a game heavily inspired by the SNES era. Explore the quirks, features and limitations of the glorious old hardware, and what needs to be considered in order to get “that SNES sound” from a modern DAW!

ATTENTION: while there will be standard headphones provided on site, we advise you to bring your own headphones if you plan on visiting Sound & SFX talks to guarantee the best possible experience!

VR is the gaming tech everyone’s talking about. Yet not every developer out there can venture into VR development for various reasons - nor should they since probably not every gamer would want to play solely VR titles anyway. But what if you could incorporate a little of VR’s halo, the high immersion, into your flat 2D game… Well, use audio! I’ll let you know how.

ATTENTION: while there will be standard headphones provided on site, we advise you to bring your own headphones if you plan on visiting Sound & SFX talks to guarantee the best possible experience!

Description:
Despite spatialisation being essential for an overall VR audio experience, the way a sound designer actually designs sounds for giving proper feedback is even more important. This talk covers how a sound designer can bridge the semantic gap between the actual sound that can be measured and the sound being perceived and interpreted by human beings and how this relates to VR. It covers how to universally create a language in sound that everybody can understand, despite cultural differences and different backgrounds and make that work for your game.

Take Away
This talk shows methods of a sound designer to create sounds to be universally understood by a game audience.

Audience Adressed: Developers, Students, Sound Enthusiasts

ATTENTION: while there will be standard headphones provided on site, we advise you to bring your own headphones if you plan on visiting Sound & SFX talks to guarantee the best possible experience!

Description:
What is a reasonable compensation regarding my experience in game audio? Should I go for an academic degree in music? If you ever mulled over questions like these, this session about the game audio industry is just the thing for you. I conducted an extensive survey about the labour market and business and working practices and compared the findings with other available industry data. In this session, I will present the findings and talk about important developments and the current state of the game audio sector in general. We will discuss compensation, education, business and working practices and other topics.

Take Away
A realistic overview of the current state of the game audio sector, awareness of several issues in the industry, concrete information on long-discussed topics like compensation, education and business practices

Audience Adressed: Game audio professionals, educators, etc

Description:

The communication between game developers and music composers is often challenging, as two very different worlds collide. From my experience of over 12 years and over 100 game projects, I will provide work examples and advice to optimise the communication and get the best and quickest results. These are some of the questions I will strive to answer: Do I need a musical education to talk to the composer? What instructions does the composer need to work efficiently? How much artistic liberty should I give? What is realistic and what is unrealistic to ask? How should I present negative feedback constructively? The conference will be useful for game developers, art directors, audio directors and music composers alike.

Audience Adressed: Developers, publisher, service providers

ATTENTION: To attend this Master Class, headphones are needed - there will be headphones provided on site but to guarantee the best possible experience it is advised for you to bring your own headphones!

How and why do music, sound and voices affect the players’ minds so immediate? How does the brain deal with audiovisual information and what consequences does that have for the developer? How can music and sound influence the gaming experience and give new ideas to game designers? What are the functions of music beyond “creating a mood” and why should game makes consider audio aspects already in the early phase of the development process. How can a proper audio planning avoid costs and make audio a powerful tool in the hands of developers?

Jörg Mackensen (MD toneworx studios), Kai Rosenkranz (composer, Gothic 3, The Long Journey Home) and Helge Borgarts (composer, Bring Them Home, Moorhuhn Tiger & Chicken) talk about different aspects of music and audio in video games by presenting different showcases and ideas.