Level 3
3-Credit Tuition
$1,497Non-Credit Tuition
$1,250Game Audio Production with Wwise is an exploration of the world of video games using Audiokinetic’s Wwise, a powerful and accessible middleware tool for integrating audio into a game. This course utilizes two actual video games (Limbo and AngryBots) that you will fill with your own music, voice, and sound. The course is focused on the creative process of designing unique audio as well as the practical challenges of putting the content into a game. Understanding this workflow is essential to becoming a better designer for interactive media.
Video game creation is a rapidly evolving industry that continually benefits from new technology and expanding demographics. While big AAA games enjoy larger audio teams, it is not uncommon for smaller- to mid-size game projects to rely on a single person to do most or all of the audio content creation. This course will prepare you to handle all of the major aspects of creating game audio: from pre-production and script preparation to dynamic music composition, and from foley recording to technical implementation skills and interactive mixing.
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Create audio and integrate it into commercial games
- Compose music that changes dynamically in response to game events
- Design unique sound, dialog, and creature voices to bring a game to life
- Use the many powerful features of Audiokinetic’s Wwise authoring tool
Syllabus
Lesson 1: Setting up your Game Audio Production Environment
- Game Production Roles
- Game Development Software
- Audio Middleware
- File Organization and Data Backup
- File Management Tips
Lesson 2: Pre-Production
- Defining Your Sound
- Audio Design Goals
- Imitate or Innovate
- Spotting
- Planning It Out: Organizing Your Time and Effort
- Creating a Schedule
- Designing a Mockup
Lesson 3: Ambience
- Telling a Story with Background Sound
- Creating Ambience
- Defining the Boundaries
- Slicing Up the Loop
- Dynamic Elements in Ambient Sound Design
- Creating Sounds to Blend with Ambience
Lesson 4: Sound Design
- Capture your Sounds
- Foley
- A Noisy Library
- Searching for Sounds
- Software Plugins
- Interactive Sounds
Lesson 5: Adaptive Music
- Using Temp Scores to Explore the Effect of Music on Games
- Temp Music
- What Makes Music “Adaptive”?
- Parameters and Switches
- Adaptive Composition Strategies
- Temp to Real Score
- Low Health Music
- Adding a Vertical Layer
- Extending Your Music
Lesson 6: Composing a Musical Maze
- Horizontal Approach
- Adding a Horizontal Layer
- Codecs
- Creating a Conversion Settings Share Set
- Playlists
- Musical QA
- Checking Your Transitions
- Trade-Offs
Lesson 7: Stingers, Transitions, and Custom Cues
- Mind the Gap: Understanding and Working with Transitions
- Transition Examples
- Musical Glue: Creating Your Own Transition
- Musical Explanation Points: Working with Stingers
- Identifying Stingers
- Getting Crafty with Custom Cues
- Composing a Stinger
Lesson 8: Dialog
- The Voice of the Game: An Overview of Dialog Needs in a Game
- Spotting for Dialog
- Preparing for a Recording Session
- Script and Studio Prep
- Working with Actors
- Preparing Dialog for the Game
- Editing and Processing
Lesson 9: Horror Ambience and Music
- Setting Up Limbo
- Foley Performance
- Visceral Sound
- Designing Fear
- Implementing Fear
- Sound Design and Music
Lesson 10: Interactive Music
- Video Game Genre Aesthetics
- Plugins and Synthesizers for Horror Music
- The Power of RTPCs
- Integrating Music into Wwise that Responds to the Tension Parameter
- Composing Stingers for Horror
Lesson 11: Mixing
- Traditional Mixing vs. In-Game Mixing
- Runtime Effects
- Assigning Individual Events to Groups
- HDR (High Dynamic Range) Mixing Systems and Surround Sound
- Memory Management, Voices, Platforms, and Localization
Lesson 12: Getting a Gig
- Capturing Game Footage to Make a Demo
- Comparing an Original Audio Mockup to the Final Audio Demo
- Showcasing Your Skills and Personality on Your Website
- Audio Demo Reels
- Networking
Requirements
Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements
Completion of one of the following courses Pro Tools 101, Pro Tools 110, Producing Music with Logic, Producing Music with Reason, Producing Music with Cubase, Ableton Live Fundamentals, or equivalent knowledge and experience is required.
- Basic experience recording with a microphone and computer
- Familiarity with basic audio concepts like sample rates, file formats, and compression
- Ability to write music in a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)
- Ability to install new software and troubleshoot problems
- Ability to capture computer screen movies using a program like Screenflow or Fraps
- Basic skills with video editing, compression, and file transferring
Required Textbook(s)
- None required
Software Requirements
- DAW such as Pro Tools, Ableton Live, Cubase, or Logic Pro X for writing music and incorporating video
- Audiokinetic Wwise for Windows (free for noncommercial use). Although the Mac version of Wwise is stable, it is not currently possible to use with the Limbo game project
NOTE: All Mac users will be required to run Windows via Bootcamp or VMware Fusion - Unity 5 Personal Edition (Free)
- Windows 10; or macOS 10.12 Sierra (or higher) with Bootcamp or VMware Fusion 11 (or higher)
- DirectX 11 (or higher)
- Basic screen capture and editing software such as QuickTime, ScreenFlow, or Snapz Pro X (Mac); Jing or Camtasia (PC)
Hardware Requirements
- MIDI Keyboard
- Graphics card: OpenGL 2.0 compatible card with 256 MB shared or dedicated RAM (ATI or NVIDIA)
- At least 8GB RAM (16 GB or more recommended)
- Hard drive with at least 400GB free space
After enrolling, please check the Getting Started section of your course for potential deals on required materials. Our Student Deals page also features several discounts you can take advantage of as a current student. Please contact support@online.berklee.edu for any questions.
General Course Requirements
Below are the minimum requirements to access the course environment and participate in live chats. Please make sure to also check the Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements section above, and ensure your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements for all software needed for your course.
Mac Users
PC Users
All Users
- Latest version of Google Chrome
- Zoom meeting software (available in the course when joining your first chat)
- Webcam
- Speakers or headphones
- External or internal Microphone
- Broadband Internet connection
Instructors
Author
Brad Fotsch is a sound designer, composer, and interactive audio connoisseur. His energized and experimental approach to creating audio comes from almost a decade of making games, a curiosity for how music and sound guide our feelings and a life-long quest for adventure travel. Currently he is creating sound and music for a new independent studio called Funomena with some of the creators of Journey and Katamari Damacy. Previously he helped create realistic and immersive worlds in Medal of Honor and Command and Conquer at Electronic Arts until leading the sonic madness of Steven Spielberg’s Boom Blox series. He studied music and technology at Berklee College of Music in Boston and now currently resides in Venice Beach, CA.
Instructor
Nick Gallant has run the Interactive Audio team at Disney since 2011; prior to that he was a music/rhythm game pioneer, working on Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Tap Tap Revenge, Samba De Amigo, Karoake Revolution, and many more. Nick has over 125 game credits to his name since 2005. He is an Emmy award winning composer, and songwriter, having worked on many independent movies and TV shows. As a songwriter, Nick has released 6 albums, and continues to write and produce music as an artist. He likes spending time with the people he loves, surfing, being on mountains, and most of all being a father.
Instructor
Award winning composer George Oldziey got his first big introduction into the world of film scoring when he joined forces with film director Robert Rodriguez to create the score for Spy Kids 2 and has since served as composer, contributing composer, orchestrator and score producer for other feature films such as Spy Kids 3D, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Kill Bill, Volume 2, Sin City, Grindhouse - Planet
Terror, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, Shorts and Sin City; A Dame to Kill For and the Christmas 2020 Netflix release We Can Be Heroes.
George has also scored numerous documentaries and short films, including the award-winning short film Remember Me, which won the award for Best Musical Score at the 2017 168 Film Festival. He also won Best Musical Score at the 2018 Los Angeles Live Score Film Festival for the Best Picture winning short film Arrow and Oil.
George was an in-house composer for Electronic Arts for whom he created scores for some of the most iconic hits in the video game industry, including the Wing Commander, Ultima and Crusader series. After leaving EA he continued to compose and produce music for other games, including Spongebob Squarepants for Playstation 2, the epic orchestral score for Shaiya, Red Faction: Guerilla and the Certain Affinity game Crimson Alliance.
George is also a much sought after orchestrator and arranger, having done all the arranging for Chilean singer Mon Laferte's 2019 Latin Grammy winning album Norma, horn arrangements for Aerosmith's Dueces are Wild tour, and orchestrations for the 2018 film The Grinch.
What's Next?
When taken for credit, Game Audio Production with Wwise can be applied towards these associated programs:
Associated Certificate Programs
Associated Degree Majors
Related Music Career Roles
Employers look for skills learned in this course, when hiring for the following music career roles:
Questions?
Contact our Academic Advisors by phone at 1-866-BERKLEE (U.S.), 1-617-747-2146 (INT'L), or by email at advisors@online.berklee.edu.
We can also answer basic questions in the comments below. Please note that all comments are public.
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