Comments on: Game Audio in Spain : What I Saw and What I Did

By: Mirella

Mirella — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 19:56:37 +0000

In reply to Jon Clark. 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.

By: Mirella

Mirella — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 19:56:02 +0000

In reply to Michael Quinton. 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 :).

By: Mirella

Mirella — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 19:54:59 +0000

In reply to George.

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).

By: Mirella

Mirella — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 19:52:35 +0000

In reply to Lost Chocolate Lab. 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.

By: Jon Clark

Jon Clark — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 05:19:58 +0000

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!

By: Michael Quinton

Michael Quinton — Sun, 05 Apr 2015 15:20:34 +0000

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.

By: George

George — Sun, 05 Apr 2015 09:38:11 +0000

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.

By: Lost Chocolate Lab

Lost Chocolate Lab — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 17:51:48 +0000

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. :)