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
Syllabus
Lesson 1 Setting up your Game Audio Production Environment
Lesson 2 Pre-Production
Lesson 3 Ambience
Lesson 4 Sound Design
Lesson 5 Adaptive Music
Lesson 6 Composing a Musical Maze
Lesson 7 Stingers, Transitions, and Custom Cues
Lesson 8 Dialog
Lesson 9 Horror Ambience and Music
Lesson 10 Interactive Music
Lesson 11 Mixing
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)
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
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
- OS X 10.10 Yosemite or higher
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
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.
Nicholas Gallant
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.
George Oldziey
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.
