Guest contribution by Mirella Diez Moran
My name is Mirella, I’m a video game sound designer and I’m Spanish too. I guess that in any other country none of these things would be particularly relevant, but given that there are very few people working in video game sound over here-not many more than twenty people-I guess I’m like some sort of unicorn.
When I decided I wanted to work as a video game sound designer, I had already worked in a few audiovisual projects. The problem with the Spanish film industry is that most companies are pretty crowded, so I was aware that it would be almost impossible to make a living out of working in it. It was then, when I played a game called “Sword & Sworcery”, that I realized that I could try entering the video game industry. I’m also a gamer since I was little, so I thought it was a brilliant idea.
The first thing that surprised me was that I couldn’t find any studies that focused in game audio at all. And it was pretty hard finding people working in the field, too.
That year the video game industry in Spain turned over way more benefits than the film industry, and yet it was really hard to find people actually working in it. How could this be? It didn’t take me long to realize that the biggest issue we’ve got in Spain regarding video game audio is a general lack of awareness that affects both academic studies and video game studios.
Concerning education, it’s still really hard to find any academic formation at all. The main way of learning the job is either being self-taught or studying in other country.
Concerning the Spanish video game industry, I’ve found that game audio is one of the fields no one ever seems to think about. Even though musicians may have things a bit easier, the common thing over here is that most companies, no matter the size, don’t have audio personnel in their office.
And it’s not just that there aren’t many audio designers inside the developer teams, there’s a widespread ignorance of their professional needs too. Many times one has to fight in order to be able to do a decent job.
It is common for developers to be reluctant to let both musicians and sound designers using the game engine or the repository server in order to integrate the audio into the game. I know many musicians that weren’t even allowed to see the game they were working at, so that they would have to write music blindly.
Implementing audio is always a polemic thing over here. The most common practice is that programmers trigger all sounds directly by writing the code for it, not allowing the audio professionals intervene in the process, leaving zero control to how their work will be displayed in the video game.
The use of audio middleware is far from becoming a standard, here in Spain. Developer teams have little knowledge of these kind of tools, and most of the times they don’t allow their use. Instead they usually offer some in-house made tools that tend to be insufficient, since they were developed without asking the audio professionals for their needs.
Besides all this, there is great ignorance concerning the video game sound creation process, and therefore studios tend to think that all the audio work for a game may be done in the latter weeks of development. In most of the cases, time estimations are totally unreal.
What I also found, concerning the freelance scene, is that economical retributions are very far from the real cost of the audio creation process.
Many of these issues may be a direct consequence of the lack of industry in the country until the indie expansion in the last 5 years or so. On top of that, many of the people that found new studios have no previous experience in the video game industry, which probably contributes to the general lack of awareness on game audio related stuff.
How could I fight all these issues when being a newcomer in the industry? Well, I thought it would be a good idea to rely on the few game audio professionals that went practically unnoticed in the country. Inspired by the awesome international Twitter community of #GameAudio, I created a Facebook group that would serve as a meeting point for game audio professionals where they could share their experience and knowledge with each other.
After that I also organized the first Spanish game audio meeting conferences ever, aimed for audio students in Madrid.
In the future I will also focus on Gamelab—Spain’s most relevant game developer event—featuring some game audio talk for once.
I still don’t know whether I’m making the right steps or not in order to create a better game audio culture in my country, but one thing is for sure: I won’t ever have to regret for not trying.
Mirella is a freelance video game sound designer, currently working on several indie titles, such as “Candle” and “Crossing Souls”. She can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or via Twitter @MissGameAudio.
So great to have your perspective on game audio in Spain. I think it’s important to hear things like “that game audio is one of the fields no one ever seems to think about” and “audio middleware is far from becoming a standard” from your perspective. These are things that (I think) many of us who have been in games, even a little while, have heard and seen evolve ever-so-slightly. What I mean is that it will (hopefully) get better in time! I think it’s through the advocacy you do through your work and in the community that these things get better.
“I still don’t know whether I’m making the right steps or not in order to create a better game audio culture in my country”
You’re taking ALL the right steps. :)
I think you are right! If we look back a few years ago the situation was worse than today. I truly believe in what we are doing as a community around the world. Thank you very much, Lost chocolate lab. You are always very supportive.
Unfortunately the situation is similar in many European countries.
This can however be regarded as a great opportunity for sound designers. If your job does not exist you have to create it. Among the many game studios out there there must be some who are open to improving the audio of their games by working with an audio professional. And most of these don’t even know it until you get in touch.
Hi, George, I think you are right. Everything has a good and a bad side. Like you said, my mates and I have to create this job.
There are a lot of game studios, but they don’t usually have money to pay for an audio professional, or they don’t want to pay for something that always has been done by downloading free sounds and just putting them into the game.
Creating a job is not as easy as it seems. In order to do so, one must change a great deal of the current game dev culture. And not everyone is willing to change something that has been an ongoing practice for the last 20 years (even if it is a bad practice).
Interesting article and great to hear about your experiences. You mentioned something about not being able to find a course in Sound Design. Well I am currently following an MSC in Sound Design at Edinburgh Napier University. It is an on-line course which means that you don’t have to move to Scotland to do it and to lose work due to having to move. I am now in my second and last year and I highly recommend this course to anyone. I have learned a lot, especially by being in a virtual classroom with fellow Sound Designers and being able to discuss and learn from them. This is a big bonus and it always helps with Networking which is essential to any freelancer. For me this was essential. Living on the island of Malta where Sound Design work is sparse and is often done on a part time basis, building a network is difficult since we are not on the mainland of Europe and where our knowledge in these things is very limited. By being in this course I have been able to learn many new things, make new contacts and to build my work base and form a direction for my career. There are also loads of lectures with prominent people in the sound design field from the film, games industry and sound researchers too.So you are learning from the tops of these industries and fields. Just in case you want to check this out please follow this link: –
http://www.courses.napier.ac.uk/sounddesign_w56742.htm
I hope that this helps and best of luck with all your endeavors.
Hi, Michel! Thank you for the information on this course! When I wrote aboutnot being able to find a course I meant here, in Spain. I know there are some online courses, like the “School of Video Game Audio” ones, and now I know about this one too! Thanks to you :).
I worked as a sound designer in U.S. video game production for many years and in about 2002, was assigned to work on a project with a company in Paris. The only people in our office assigned directly to this project were a producer and myself, the sound designer/lead. All other personnel were in the Paris office of the contractor and for three months, I had a daily meeting with the sound programmer at 5:00 am my time. If I were 20 years younger, I think I’d learn French or Spanish and join you in building up the European sound design field.
Best of luck in your efforts!
Hi, Jon! I think everybody in the game audio community is contributing to the cause of creating the European sound design field. Thank you for your kind words.