Game Audio Production with Wwise

Author: Brad Fotsch • Course Code: OMPRD-345

Game 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

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

Brad Fotsch

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.

Gina Zdanowicz

Instructor

Gina Zdanowicz is an Emmy-Nominated sound designer and music composer for games, film, and TV. Her love for video games, sound, and technology began at a very early age and grew into a decade-long career in the games industry.

After graduating from Berklee College of Music with a degree in music synthesis, Gina focused on a career in game audio, working in-house for game developers as well as operating her own independent sound studio, Serial Lab Studios. Her work can be heard on more than 100 game titles from award-winning AAA games to casual games such as Just Cause 3, Bioshock2, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, CrimeCraft, and Runeward, to name a few.

In addition to her work in games, Gina continues to score feature films and TV projects, which have won awards around the world and have premiered on networks such as Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. She currently resides in New Jersey, just outside of NYC, where she creates game audio for clients worldwide.

http://seriallab.com/

Prerequisites

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, Producing Music with Ableton Live, 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

No Required Textbooks

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.
- Download Audiokinetic Wwise
Unity 5 Personal Edition (Free)
- Download Unity Personal Edition

Mac Users

OS X 10.9 Mavericks or higher (click here for system requirements)
Windows 7 or higher Bootcamp (VMware Fusion 7 recommended)
DirectX: 9.0c or higher
Latest version of Google Chrome
Basic screen capture and editing software such as QuickTime, ScreenFlow, or Snapz Pro X

Windows Users

Windows 7 or higher (click here for system requirements)
DirectX: 9.0c or higher
Latest version of Google Chrome
Basic screen capture and editing software such as Jing or Camtasia

Hardware Requirements

Microphone
MIDI Keyboard
Graphics card: OpenGL 2.0 compatible card with 256 MB shared or dedicated RAM (ATI or NVIDIA)
At least 2 GB RAM (8 GB or more recommended)
Hard drive with at least 10 GB free space
Speakers or headphones
Webcam

Comments

Got a question? 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.

Next Term Starts September 25

Level
Duration

12 weeks
3-Credit Tuition

$1,479
or
Non-Credit Tuition

$1,229

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