Being an athlete, not a lone wolf (Game Dev London Workshop)
In this post, I’d like to write a bit more about the role sound design workshops have played in my own development.
Why I joined the workshop
After a year of intense MA studies in sound design, by March of this year I was feeling burned out. Despite all of the studying, I still wasn’t quite sure what type of sound design I enjoyed. I meanwhile felt cut off from a community of sound designers I knew was out there but I didn’t feel connected to. I wanted something to do which was mainly for fun, unpressured, yet still sound design related. Fortunately, around this time I found out about Game Dev London’s Sound Design Workshop.
‘Workshop-chat’, Game Dev London Discord
How it helped me
Learning and working faster
One hour of a workshop allows you to learn from the group’s work as well as your own. Over time, you therefore enlarge the bank of ideas you can pull from later. Compared to passively watching or reading content about sound design, I find ideas from the workshop stick more in my memory - as an active participant in the learning.
Time limited challenges within workshops introduced me to working fast and making the time vs quality compromises necessary in game audio. Not being afraid to share early versions of work, ‘worts and all’, helped me to plot ways ahead for early and underdeveloped ideas.
Talking about sound
Becoming more fluent in talking about what is, in truth, a pretty niche area (game sound design) came from my chats with fellow workshop’ers. Though I hadn’t planned for this, it then helped me when I needed to talk about sound design in a job interview. As making games is generally a collaborative effort, practicing speaking about game audio has given me confidence in talking with other game professionals.
Getting out of my comfort zone
Designing different types of sounds (ambiences, SFX, UI) in different genres and styles (sci-fi, low-poly, horror, anime) than I am used to, made me less afraid of working in areas where I felt less comfortable. Initially, I associated some styles (unsurprisingly the ones I hadn’t tried!) with being more difficult to approach. Over time, I realised that by learning specific techniques (allied with a bit of grit in pushing through the discomfort) I could overcome the initial trepidation of new areas of sound.
Becoming more aware of my style and approach helped me to identify what unique qualities I can bring to a team or a project. Equally, the workshop has been helpful in spotting the gaps in my technical skills. I find it hard to appraise my own work in isolation, so when my work is set alongside others’ in a workshop, I am better able to analyse it.
More of an athlete than a lone wolf
A sound designer is often portrayed as a solitary figure labouring away in a studio. For me, this image is unhelpful. After all, even elite athletes in individual sports train in teams. I’ve found that the healthy competition, encouragement, and support network the workshop brings helps me to feel like I’m going in the right direction.
Examples
Workshop #13 - Anime
We used Marshall McGee’s reverb + frequency shifter technique (see tutorial video) to create anime-style SFX.
Workshop #23 - Pink Noise
Inspired by Tom Jaine’s video, we limited ourselves to use only pink noise as source to create a spell SFX.
Workshop #19 - metallic magic sounds
We followed the video by Ian (@Mr_Studders) to create shimmering magical textures.
Workshop #19 - follow up
With additional time and feedback, I further developed the redesign. I incorporated the elements which other workshop attendants had in their work.
Game Dev London Sound Design Workshop with Benedict Sanderson, Mondays 7.30pm UK time (join Discord here and head to the ‘workshop-chat’ channel)
