Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546054
62 M PS E . O R G So I had to delegate. I asked teammates to take things on, redistributed the load, and learned—by necessity—how to trust a team. I might never have learned it that way otherwise. A physical limitation forced a leadership skill. I'm probably too good at delegating now. But that moment changed how I work, and it's carried through ever since. I love working with teams, I love collaboration, and I love solving complex, hard problems. That's what keeps me going. EM: Do you have any favorite projects that you've worked on? BA: We just wrapped up Halo: Campaign Evolved and I'm really proud of what our team was able to do. It was incredible teamwork by our internal audio team and others. This was a highly collaborative project and I'm super happy with the results. Hopefully, everyone is enjoying it as well. Also, Plants vs. Zombies Heroes stands out creatively. I designed all of the interactive music, wrote all the music, and worked with Luca Fusi on sound design. Then Damian Kastbauer and I mixed it together—a small, hands-on team. I loved every day of it. On my commute home, little melodic ideas would pop into my head and I'd record them, then go into the studio the next day and develop them. Pure creative joy. EM: Do you still get to work on music directly? BA: We have specialists on the team who are genuinely better at those things than I am—Joel Yarger on music, for instance, is fantastic. I've always tried to work with or hire people who are stronger than me in their area of focus. My role now is understanding how it all comes together at a higher level and bringing those elements into a coherent whole. I think that's where I add the most value. It's a different kind of craft, but it's still very much a creative one. EM: You've spoken in the past about the importance of women in our industry. I'd love to hear more about that. BA: There weren't many of us when we started—but there were some, and those relationships have lasted entire careers. People like Mary Olson, Pam Aronoff, Kristen Quinn, Elise Baldwin, Jennifer Lewis—women who have been in this industry a long time. We supported each other when we were few and far between, we kept doing good work and showing up, and that helped create space for more women to enter and stay. When I was in the early audio production team at Microsoft, we actually had quite a few women in the group— more than in some later environments. There are pockets of us everywhere. I want to give a genuine shout-out to all of the women in game audio who are leading, creating, and persisting. We're doing great work. Support each other—whatever stage of your career you're in. EM: What excites you about the future of game audio? BA: I know there's a lot of conversation and anxiety around AI at the moment. Perhaps some of that is valid. However, I hope it is merely another tool that we creators can utilize to do mundane tasks—like tagging animations. Beyond AI, I'm excited by continued advances in tooling and by growing accessibility—more people, on more platforms, all over the world, able to play these games in different ways. And at the core, what always excites me is