In attendance from the games world were composers Richard Jacques and James Hannigan; Ubisoft Reflection audio director Jon Vincent; Sony’s creative services manager Dan Bardino; and creative manager of Media Mill Jerry Ibbotson. From film, Pinewood Studio’s Brendan Nicholson and Glen Gathard; Reelsound director Mike Wabro and freelance sound designer Alex Joseph. Chairing the event (and responsible for its inception along with Vincent) was Dennis Weinreich, managing director for film and TV post production at Pinewood.
"We’re looking for crossovers that can be used to improve the quality of what we both do," Weinreich began. "Film suffers a little bit because it is an old technology, and we do things the way we do them today because the technology had limitations in the very beginning; we had to find ways to overcome those limitations. The nice thing about the game industry is that it’s starting on a relatively new platform, so the technology doesn’t have to borrow from techniques that came previously - but some of those techniques can be useful."
This invitation to exchange techniques was also extended to the audience - who included audio leads from Sony, Relentless Software, Blitz Games Studios and Zoe Mode - and further highlighted the fact that the event was not about a right way of doing things, or about one industry being superior to the other. The healthy respect for games in evidence here was refreshing and demonstrated the progress that has been made in recent times.
Ibbotson demonstrating how he and his team record engine noises
Despite this encouraging parity, there remained concern over the budgets for sound afforded to games and films by publishers. The panellists agreed in a later interview with us that the percentage is usually 10 per cent, but it very much depends on the format, says Joseph. "We did some DS games for Nikitova Games, and you get £500 for the entire job. I did few of these because Jon Hare was the game designer, and a friend of mine, but after three of these games I had to stop – I was losing money just working on them."
It was clear that sound and music’s less tangible benefits are still not universally appreciated. While licenced soundtracks can add a bullet point to the box, bespoke audio is harder to sell. Moreover, audio designers work with the game design team from the formative stages, but it was agreed that composers are often brought in too late on projects, both Jacques and Hannigan preferring to come on board early and work iteratively alongside the development.
"I think it really depends on how much say composers have or whether they are working for people who understand what’s actually possible," said Hannigan. "I mean if the game is temped with a load of film music, and you’re told to mimic that, then it’s going to happen less and less."