All modern games now need to have sound output of a suitable quality to match their graphical glory, but the ability to create a feast for the ears is something few possess. So if you fancy yourself as a bit of a composer or creator of sound effects maybe the role of games audio engineer is for you?
Before we consider the necessary skills involved in creating audio for games, the first challenge you may face is actually finding a suitable position to apply for. Larger developers may have enough games in development at any one time that a full time audio engineer is an allowable luxury, but for smaller developers who may only be creating a single game at a time an audio engineer might find themselves sat idle for long periods, so such companies might turn to an external contractor for all their aural requirements. For this reason you might consider becoming self employed and offering your skills to companies as they need them, although obviously you then have to take the risk of finding enough work to keep the money coming in, and initially proving that you are capable of doing the work may be a challenge.
The following skills are those that an audio engineer might be expected to possess:-
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Basic Sound Creation : There is more to this than knowing how to use a sound sampler! You will most likely be expected to know how to go about cleaning up a sound source to remove any pops, cracks and whistles (and ideally how to record a sound without such problems in the first place). You will also be expected to know how to take a sound sample and make it loop seamlessly, and also how to do all this using as little memory as possible.
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Sound Effect Creation : Being able to show examples of various types of sound effects and demonstrate how you created them is important. If you are creating the sound effect for a laser gun, it’s no good just sampling a blaster from Star Wars (this will be recognised!). Instead create your own sound effect by layering different sounds together and making good use of the audio filters in your sound package.
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Music Composition : This is a very difficult area to be competent in. Your demo disc should contain a variety of different musical styles, but always consider where in a game you would expect a particular tune to fit well. Consider making an arrangement with the same muscial theme presented in several different ways. For example, consider how a piece of music could be subtly altered to indicate that the player is in danger, or has just completed an important quest. Look at other games and Hollywood films for inspiration in how to achieve this.
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Audio Coding : Not strictly necessary, but you might gain an advantage if you can demonstrate some skills in sound programming. The newer consoles now allow sound to be synthesised and filtered in real time, so knowing how to implement some useful audio techniques in code could be a real benefit. Even just knowing the theory behind such things as audio filters can be a real help when working with a programmer trying to implement such things.
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