Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1524863
How did you coordinate and collaborate within such a large team, especially during critical stages of production and a global pandemic? Johannes Hammers: Insomniac Games has committed itself to being a "digital first" studio. This allows us to operate a workforce from across the United States and Canada, virtually. From an audio perspective, we routinely had online mix sessions, content reviews, and collaborations through various tools that allowed very similar collaboration abilities that one would have in a physical space. This also allowed us to work with so many talented artists and designers who may not have been able to move across the country for such an opportunity. There was a significant effort on the part of IT to establish a reliable and stable infrastructure during the Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales video game that was the first to be developed during the pandemic. Lessons learned from that project paved the way for the development success of Marvel's Spider-Man 2. How did working on the two previous Marvel's Spider-Man games benefit your approach to sound design for Marvel's Spider- Man 2? What were some key lessons learned or techniques refined from those experiences? Johannes Hammers: We learned quite a bit from Marvel's Spider- Man: Miles Morales, and some key areas were the mix process, scheduling, workflow, and sound asset management. Working with the PlayStation 5 (PS5) was eye- Can you please introduce yourselves and describe your roles in the sound team for Marvel's Spider-Man 2? Johannes Hammers Advanced Senior Audio Designer/ Style Coordinator Responsibilities include audio concepts and previs, Sandman mission, Hero combat sound design, symbiotes/goo, and Venom's vocal design for efforts and reacts. Blake Johnson Advanced Senior II Audio Designer/ Mix Supervisor Responsibilities include city pedestrian design & integration, some city ambience design, gameplay Venom sound design, and mixing. CONTRIBUTORS: Jesse Allen Audio Manager Ben Pantelis Senior Technical Audio Designer Herschell Bailey Advanced Senior Audio Designer Csaba Wagner Company Director, Sweet Justice Sound (Cinematics) Joanna Fang Foley Artist, Sony Creative Arts Blake Collins Foley Mixer, Sony Creative Arts opening when it came to speed and fidelity. 3D audio opened things up creatively as did the streaming audio capabilities, and now in Marvel's Spider-Man 2, we had two heroes. Early in development, we felt it was especially important to clearly define both of our heroes' sonic identities and refresh Pete and Miles' combat effects. We carried over Miles' finisher sounds from the Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales game and Pete's from the 2018 Marvel's Spider-Man and used them as a blueprint moving forward. Of course, one of our main characters is the city itself, and NYC and its traffic system got a refresh. Herschell Bailey: Another benefit of working on the two previous Marvel's Spider-Man titles was, we had already done 4-5 years of research and experimentation to nail down our sonic signature, so we didn't have to "reinvent the wheel" for the third title. We tweaked the assets that we liked, we beefed up or swapped out the ones that we wanted to make more exciting. This left us more time to work on things that we needed completely new sounds for, for example, Kraven and Venom. How does 3D audio and the recent integration of Dolby Atmos impact your workflow for sound design in Marvel's Spider-Man 2? Can you discuss specific techniques or tools you used to implement these technologies? Blake Johnson: 3D audio is something we've been working with for a while now while Dolby Atmos is new to the PlayStation 5. We've learned that the way game