Hi, I’m Levon Schwartz, I’ve led audio teams at Zynga and Ubisoft on titles like Star Wars Hunters and Assassin’s Creed, and I’ve worked on other amazing brands like Silent, Hill, Prince of Persia, Aliens, and more. Here are my 7 deadly sins of AAA Game Audio.
1. Repetition -
Almost nothing breaks world immersion faster than a noticeably repetitive sound, voice line, or music cue. Invest in more content, increase replay value. Good audio is less expensive than bad audio.
2. Bad Mix -
A bad mix is like putting all the ingredients on a pizza and then not baking it - it creates a poor first impression and ruins the content you spent so much time and money on. Mix as you go, and leave enough time at the end for a final mix - you’ll need it.
3. Sloppy Source -
You can’t polish a turd. Clean up rough source assets before implementation. No clicks, pops, lip-smacks, noise, artifacts and harsh frequencies. Keep it weird, but keep it clean.
4. Repetition -
See? Repetition sucks. It breaks the world? Repetition is annoying. Avoid repetition. Varied content creates replay value, sustains player immersion, and makes players happier.
5. Buggy VO -
Voices playing at unwanted times, cutting off abruptly, and behaving strangely, ruins expensive story moments. Voice implementation is complex and time consuming. Plan. Test early. Hire a specialist.
6. Harsh SFX -
Craft more “tonal”, and fewer “percussive” sounds, generally. Soften sharp, high-pitches. Whirring gears, squeaky doors, and other friction-based sounds that players hear a lot will get old fast.
7. Poor planning -
Plan the work. Plan time to redo all of the work. Plan for last-minute audio. Plan for bug-fixing. Plan for plans to change. Plan around other departments’ plans. Plan for trailers, demos, cinematics. Plan vacations.
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