Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1470109
66 I m ps e . o rg One thing that I'm thrilled that my team and I are able to present to the overall game audio community is that dialogue is an actual craft in sound. [laughs] It is a discipline in sound that people can pursue and create in. A lot of developers are starting to put "dialogue supervisors" or "dialogue designers" in their job listings, especially if it's a heavy narrative title or they simply know there's going to be a lot of dialogue in their titles. To have somebody to help manage that and guide the process and development is a very big recognition of our craft. We're also improving the mentoring of our young staff and even our senior staff. I'm proud that our team has been able to make this a key factor within our overall growth. It has benefitted not only those who are coming directly from school, but those that have transitioned from the film/TV world to game audio. Game dialogue is slowly coming into the spotlight in terms of people knowing it's a discipline that people can pursue within game audio. It's not only asset management, but we're also very creative and we collaborate with our sound designers. PlayStation has afforded that to our team—to be technical and creative as well. EM: What advice would you give to young aspiring sound editors who want to get into game dialogue? LR: For anybody who loves storytelling and combining it with sound design, it's a fun avenue to pursue. It's important to learn the fundamentals of audio and post- production, and understand how tools like Wwise and Unreal work, play games to learn how each game tries to tell their story, and analyze it from cinematics to in-story dialogue and their gameplay mechanics. Many game developers are very familiar with the Game Developers Conference. That's an annual event where a lot of people who are interested in games have the chance to learn from professionals in the industry who share their experiences and processes. Nowadays, there are more programs that are being offered to students to learn game audio and game development. There are universities and trade schools that not only have game development as a major, but also game audio as a focus. Also, aside from playing games, watch films and TV shows because there's a lot of material that game developers and creative developers reference. It's common for us to ask, "How did the filmmakers use sound to further enhance the story" and "did you hear that effect that they did on their dialogue or that particular sound effect in that movie? Can we try and recreate that, or derive a similar sound for one of our titles?" We're beginning to collaborate on franchises that are joining our game audio community with the film/TV community, and hoping that we can further inspire one another to create, engage and challenge our creativity. If you're interested in titles that tell an engaging and immersive story, dialogue is a great avenue. Miles explores the streets of Harlem in Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales ©Marvel