Getting Started

Having just finished working my way through Sound Librarians FMOD Studio 101 Online course I am about to put all I have learnt to the test and attempt putting together some sounds for the Unity Angry Bots demo. Seeing as this is my first attempt at Sound Design for games I have decided to write a blog detailing the experience both as a way to help me squeeze the most from the project and in the hopes that perhaps someone else out there will benefit from it also.

My background is in music production and post-production for film but I have always loved games since that fateful Christmas morning many years ago when my parents presented me with my very first console: a Sega Master System II. I instantly loved the thing even though I had no idea what it was. All I knew was that it was in a big box, much bigger than anything my siblings had received, and that it had something to do with TV. Needless to say within moments of firing up the pre-loaded Alex Kidd in Miracle World (whose menu screen tune still haunts my parents to this very day) a gamer for life was born! Over twenty years later and I’m still a gamer, though now one who has the opportunity to have a hand in creating them, so here we are.

I am working off a 15 inch MacBook Pro with 4GB of memory and a 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7. I suspect it may be a little underpowered for what I will need as a sound designer for games but for the moment it’s what I’m stuck with so I’ll do the best with what I’ve got.

My basic plan is to perform the majority of editing and sound creation in Pro Tools before importing files to FMOD Studio. Once I’m satisfied with my sounds and events I’ll be using Unity to integrate them, something I currently have no clue about but will be covered as an additional component to the FMOD 101 Online Course when the time comes. To begin with I’ll be focusing on mainly using sound library files, until my brand new field recorder gets delivered and then I’ll have some fun making sounds from scratch. 

While there are many elements to sound design for games, initially I will be taking a simple approach with a focus on getting familiar with FMOD and how it can be used to implement sounds in a game. As such to begin with there will be less focus on the actual creation of sound effects and more focus on implementation. As the project progresses I'll delve into the other elements a bit more however.

That's all for now. I hope that this blog will be entertaining, educational and inspirational to anyone who may be interested in this sort of thing. I'm looking forward to whatever craziness comes my way as I try my hand in such an exciting and creative industry.