The Particular Challenges of Audio for Games

Sound effects, music and more. Audio is critical to a truly immersive gaming experience. Yet it is often neglected, as Markus Zierhofer, CEO and Lead Composer at AudioCreatures, explains.

In the production of computer and video games, the audio sector presents special challenges. Markus Zierhofer, CEO and Lead Composer at AudioCreatures, discusses some of these aspects with GamesMarkt, in particular the challenges they face when creating sound effects, music, etc. for game studios. AudioCreatures is a game audio studio offering audio direction, sound design, original soundtracks and more to clients of all sizes and budgets.

Markus Zierhofer: "One of the biggest challenges is that game audio is often given very low priority in budget planning. As a result, despite the great interest and passion of customers for their favourite soundtracks, there is often not enough budget to e.g. record a lot of instruments live, which can significantly enhance the production and emotional quality of a music piece. We try to convey a general awareness of the emotional quality of real musicians recording through Live Score Berlin, where we invite indie developers to record their soundtrack (or part of it) with the renowned Babelsberg Film Orchestra and be present on-site as we guide them through this experience."

"Also while we try to be always on the side and keep things structured, planning in enough time for audio and also audio testing is often overseen. When you plan a project, audio appears a lot on the last steps - which in some cases, like complex sfx etc. need to be quite tailored to the animations and vfx, which often simply comes in late in the project. So preparing to have a bit more time to give audio designers the chance to test the game and enhance the audio experience even further, would be always a good thing for the overall project. "

"Also sometimes lack of understanding on terms what defines e.g. an Audio Designer, a Composer or Sound Designer, often leads to different perceptions and expectations. In young teams people often try to handle everything, leading to quality pitfalls of wearing to many hats in the production, when not having yet had enough education in each field, or be simply maybe fitting for only one style of music, but the studio requires more dedicated expertises for different projects in development. 'Just good enough', especially having the current game market in mind, won't be a successful route for the development teams on a long run."

You can find out more about AudioCreatures, the Indie-Creatures initiative and why the company was founded in Berlin in 2022 by Markus Zierhofer, Nicolas Heese and Jeremy Froböse in the studio portrait. (GM Plus)

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