ALL SYSTEMS GO
Trevor Burke, technical sound designer at Unlock Audio, explains how devs can enhance their games with audio systemization
T
he pursuit of high-fidelity, high-impact games means so much more than delivering the best graphic quality. Even
the best art direction and visual rendering will fall flat if a game’s sound design is treated as an afterthought to its image. As a technical sound designer, it’s my job to
strengthen the link between top-tier visuals and smarter sound performance. Our ability to deliver greater audio variety and quality that amplifies player immersion depends on how audio is implemented on the back end and whether or not audio is systemized.
The grander the scale of a game, the more
important audio systemization becomes to making sight and sound all work their best magic for a rich and immersive front-end game experience. Here are some important ways that developers can embrace a systemized approach to audio implementation for creating better overall games.
SYSTEMIZE AUDIO EARLY IN DEVELOPMENT I cannot emphasize enough how crucial it is to plan your game’s audio systems before too much groundwork is laid. It’s not impossible to introduce or reconfigure these systems later, but hitting rewind on prior implementation throws significant hurdles at engineering teams as well, ultimately slowing the flow of development. By bringing in technical sound designers early,
we can get ahead by understanding the creative vision and then plan for strong audio systems at the game’s core. These early systemic decisions can even help determine the blend of primary assets that sound designers are asked to create. As development progresses, the presence of
strong audio systems makes it easier to pivot should new approaches or applications become
42 | MCV/DEVELOP April/May 2025
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