Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546054
102 M PS E . O R G would you share with them? DE: If you want to be a sound designer, I'll echo what Ben Burtt often says —study something else. Understand history, understand the way the human mind works. Understand why people are moved by sound. Understand the cultural differences between how emotions are conveyed through cinema or through sound. For game people who aspire to work in games, specifically as sound designers, most people seem to be learning through studying games and watching game cinematics. I would highly recommend that you get an education in cinema. Remember, even though you want to make games, a lot of game directors get inspired by Hollywood, and it pays to have that experience and knowledge in linear storytelling and the tradition of Hollywood sound effects. JF: To echo that sentiment, I think the big thing this game taught our Foley team is to not be so literal all the time. In game audio, it's very easy to go down the trap of, "Hey, we have these systems that are built with realistic physics, so if we see something, you want to hear something." When we limit ourselves to just what we see on screen instead of what we want people to feel, we lose all these different colors that we could have painted with. My biggest advice for young aspiring game sound designers: Listen to these games and observe the ways in which you are moved. As a teenager, I was blown away that a single footstep in snow could convey so much drama and inspire so much emotion. Learn to listen critically to sound as language and then learn to speak that language, it'll bring a new level of emotion into everything you do. AP: Yeah, I love games as much as the next person. But if games are my whole life, I feel like I'm missing out on tapping into a lot of wonderful things that cannot Top to bottom: Sound designer Danny Barboza creating haptic sounds with friction mallets; Sam infiltrating an enemy camp; Sam navigating a dangerous landscape; Studio engineer Adam Wollach and sound designer Charlie Ritter creating guitar noise and haptics on a custom guitar rig.