EDITORIAL ISSUE 151 JULY 2014 INSIDE THIS ISSUE 15 – 20 > AUDIO SPECIAL: THE SOUND OF QUALITY
Expert sound designers discuss why audio is becoming increasingly important to both triple-A blockbusters and mobile indie hits in our fi ve-page special
24 – 25 > 28 – 29 > 40 – 41 >
DID YOU HEAR THAT?
I’VE RECENTLY BEEN playing Eidos Montreal’s reboot of Thief, one of my all-time favourite franchises. There’s plenty I love about the new game, but unfortunately there’s one area where it undeniably falls short: the sound. Loud conversations suddenly trigger when you enter certain rooms, even though there’s no-one in the vicinity. The banter between guards gets stuck in loops, with dialogue echoing slightly as voice fi les restart a second later. Even the wispy, shadowy noise designed to warn you that you may be detected kicks in when you’re completely alone or concealed, throwing off the atmosphere of an otherwise immersive stealth game. It’s a prime example of why sound design requires so much care and attention in games today. Granted, audio teams are at something of a disadvantage: while people applaud high quality rendering, post-processing, animation, performance capture and all the visual-centric areas where developers are pushing the boundaries, it’s only when sound is handled poorly that people really notice it.
Fortunately, there are plenty of sound designers who are dedicated to this quest for quality, and you can hear from them in our fi ve-page audio special that begins on page 15.
James Batchelor
james.batchelor@
intentmedia.co.uk
DIRECTING GAMES TV & fi lm directors off er tips
BRIGHTON BOUND Develop Conference guide
INFINITY & BEYOND Using procedural generation
REGULARS Develop Diary P07 • #DevelopJobs P31 • Directory – Spotlights P53 • FAQ P58 ALPHA
Investment shifts to UK P04 Cuts hit Quebec and Australia Dare to be Digital
P05
Nick Gibson on Tencent P08 Debbie Bestwick
P09 ‘Team17 nearly lost Worms’ BETA Aural Nirvana P15
Experts ponder audio’s future Sound in Transit
Supergiant talks Transistor The return of MIDI
P19 P20 Behind the technique’s revival BUILD Behind the Lens
Silicon Studio on Yebis 2 Heard About: Ustwo
Geomerics Spotlight P37 P46
Key Release: Morpheme P47 Unreal Diaries
P48 P51
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