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Articles

2015 to Present

Adam Ritchie

"In this live recording from Sonic Days 2023, Adam Ritchie discusses the art and craft of voice design for game audio. He explores how voice work shapes immersive gaming experiences, from creating unique character voices to building atmospheric soundscapes. Adam shares his insights into the creative and technical processes that bring game worlds to life, enhancing storytelling and gameplay through the power of voice." - Sonic Days Podcast 2024/09/08

Bianca Salinas, Damian O'Sullivan

An interview with the Sony Creative Arts team about the audio for Helldivers II including Senior Dialogue Designer Bianca Salinas and Dialogue Designer Damian O'Sullican. - MPSE Wavelength 2024/08/23

Maria Bantin

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (developed by Massive Entertainment/distributed by Ubisoft) is an immersive open-world action-adventure game that lets you discover the world of the Avatar film franchise in a whole new way. And in this, our biggest-ever game audio story, Audio Director Alex Riviere, Voice Lead Maria Bantin, Audio Lead Mattia Cellotto, Audio Lead David Osternacher, and Technical Sound Designer Franz Bierschwale discuss their approach to building reactive environments, creating bespoke systems for foley and breaths, emitter management, acoustics, and many more. - A Sound Effect 2024/05/22

Adam Ritchie

"A guide to attending recording sessions remotely. This guide was developed and refined between 2016-2024 with the help and support of many amazing people. It is one of many possible approaches to the challenges of working with actors and recording dialogue for games at distance. Please use this guide to develop your own workflows and tools. It is a guide, not a rulebook." - Adam Ritchie 2024/04/15

April Tucker

"In-depth “course” on the basics of dialog editing" - apriltucker.com

John Broomhall

Game sound now arguably exceeds film’s potential for sophistication, artistry and story-telling. Some of the best in the business explain the ‘state of the art’. - audiotechnology.com 2024/02/15

Isaline Marquaire, Valentin Sezeur

In Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Mirage, the player takes on the role of a Baghdad street thief named Basim (who was introduced in Assassin's Creed Valhalla). Here, the game audio team at Ubisoft Bordeaux Studio – led by Audio Director Étienne Marque – talk about the differences in their approaches to Valhalla and Mirage, how they created the sound of ninth-century Baghdad (including building believable crowds), what went into designing their ambience and foley systems, how they created the sound of the new ability 'Assassin Focus,' what went into their UI sounds, and so much more! - A Sound Effect 2023/12/14

Taneli Suoranta

Gamers are thrilled with Remedy Entertainment's Alan Wake 2. This long-anticipated sequel to Alan Wake (2010) deviates from the original action-adventure game by leaning into the darker aspects as a survival horror game. In this massive interview, the Alan Wake 2 sound team discusses their aesthetic inspirations for the game, how they created new vocals for the 'Taken' and 'Fade Outs,' how they designed Washington State and the Dark Place like two different games, how they used music to support gameplay and misdirect the player, how they designed immersive environments, how they handled the sound for teleporting, and much, much more! - A Sound Effect 2023/11/15

Nicholas Friedemann

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts – is the highly anticipated sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019), and picks up five years later with young Jedi Knight Cal Kestis continuing the fight against the Galactic Empire. Here, the sound team (led by Audio Director Nick von Kaenel at Respawn Entertainment) talks about how they built upon the foundation of Fallen Order while still creating something fun and fresh for Star Wars games fans. - A Sound Effect 2023/07/20

Alex Riviere

What exactly does game audio mixing entail? In the guide below, Audio Director Alex Riviere explores what mixing means and requires in a game audio content, the unique possibilities and challenges it offers - and he outlines the key areas and processes to focus on to make your game sound its best. - asoundeffect.com 2023/07/17

Charles Pateman

An overview of Voice Design as a discipline in game audio; its growth over the years, the range of tasks we undertake and the creative opportunities in the field. - Audiokinetic Blog 2023/01/26

Maize Wallin

The third and final part of Maize Wallin's article on the VO pipeline forWayward Strand. - Audiokinetic 2022/10/28

Maize Wallin

The second part of Maize Wallin's article on the VO pipeline for Wayward Strand. - Audiokinetic 2022/10/21

Alyx Jones

What it says on the tin! - Guildford Game Audio 2022/10/06

Maize Wallin

With a cast of 14 actors, and 3 in-game days, while a single playthrough takes around 4 hours, the content is equivalent to over 18 feature films, with over 18,000 lines of fully voiced dialogue. - Audiokinetic Blog 2022/09/29

Adele Cutting

Supermassive Games branching-narrative horror game The Quarry lets players decide the fate of nine camp counselors who overstay their seasonal employment only to find a supernatural threat has been unleashed and is seeking their demise. Here, Soundcuts Audio Director Adele Cutting talks about the all-important dialogue (voiced in 8 different languages), their approach to creating cinematic sound that nods to classic horror films, crafting responsive ambiences using open-world game techniques, scoring interactive music and working with licensend music, designing the werewolf sounds, and so much more! - A Sound Effect 2022/08/22

James Stant

James Stant, Dialogue Manager at Frontier Developments talks about how he approached the audio for Planet Coaster and creating a global language that reflects the spirit of the game. - Behind The Glass 2022/04/13

Huang Chao

Huang Chao describes how to create temporary VO assets automatically with WAAPI and TTS. - Audiokinetic Blog 2022/03/04

Fred Proud, James Stant, Robert Mann, Rhys Young

Behind The Glass speaks to Dialogue Designers about the challenges of creating dialogue for games (page 4). - Behind The Glass 2021/09/01

Jake Gamelin

This week, Jake implements dialogue centered around narration using Wwise and Unreal Engine! - Audiokinetic 2021/09/01

Jake Gamelin

Join Jake as he creates a functioning dynamic dialogue system in Wwise and Unity! - Audiokinetic 2021/08/27

Robert Mann

A note of transferable skills; post production sound and game audio (page 39). - Behind The Glass 2021/07/01

Mathieu Fiorentini

Dev diary for Tell Me Why from Dont Nod, covering their approach to mixing, including voice and dialogue - Audiokinetic 2021/06/10

Louis Martin

Dev diary for Tell Me Why from Dont Nod, covering their approach to voice and dialogue - Audiokinetic 2021/06/10

Idyll Sounds

"When editing dialog, I have found that a few key concepts are at the forefront of my decision-making process. I’m 100% certain I will miss some things, as I’ve never actually codified my thought process until now. Furthermore, this isn’t a checklist I go through on each decision. A lot of editing becomes rote. But when I have a difficult decision, or a major one that will impact the way I work on an entire scene, this is how I will proceed." - idyllsounds.com 2020/03/12

Maged Khalil Ragab, Mike Hourihan, Grayson Stone

Naughty Dog's highly-anticipated The Last of Us Part II (available now for PS4) sold over 4 million copies in just 3 days, and the reviews are phenomenal. Here, we talk with the Naughty Dog sound team about building reactive environments, designing the Infected, the crucial role of Foley, developing better accessibility features, and much (much!) more in this huge interview. - A Sound Effect 2020/06/30

Harrison Deutsch

Entering into the realm of Star Wars entertainment takes courage. Fans are notoriously exacting, scrutinizing every aspect of the project. But that high standard sets this IP apart. Respawn Entertainment nailed their first Star Wars title: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which has garnered acclaim from critics and gamers alike. Their sound team — led by Audio Director Nick Laviers — shares an in-depth look at how they designed this game’s stellar sound. - A Sound Effect 2020/01/16

Obsidian Audio Team

Part 1 of this behind the scenes with the Obsidian audio team includes a section covering AI barks systems and runtime FX. - Audiokinetic 2019/10/29

Nikola Lukić

Current accomplishments in AI have had a positive influence on game development, including game audio. I want to share with you an example of how developments in AI have helped our team save time and effort in voice over production for our latest project. - Audiokinetic 2019/08/06

Joshua Nelson, Victor Durling

Apex Legends - the recently-launched free-to-play battle royale game from EA/Respawn Entertainment - is a gigantic success, reaching a player count of a staggering 50 million within its first month and showing no signs of stopping.


Here, they talk about their approach to creating sound for an ever-evolving game, share details on the sound design of each Legend character, discuss the strategic use of sound to help players work as a team + lots (and lots!) more. - A Sound Effect 2019/04/17

Jaime Cross

Blazing Griffin's Jaime Cross talks about the dialogue and conversation design in Murderous Pursuits (Part 2). - Audiokinetic 2018/10/30

Jaime Cross

Blazing Griffin's Jaime Cross talks about the dialogue and conversation design in Murderous Pursuits (Part 1). - Audiokinetic 2018/10/16

Will Tidman

"On the surface the dialogue in games can tell a story. The voiceover or dialogue on a cut scene, in-game conversation or the internal monologue of a character is all enforcing the narrative of the game. But the role of dialogue goes much further than telling stories and this is what stands game dialogue apart from other mediums." - Audio Media International 2018/03/12

Frontier Audio Team

An in depth look at Planet Coaster's crowd system (part 3/3). - Audiokinetic 2017/07/18

James Stant

James Stant, Dialogue Manager at Frontier Developments, discusses creating the Planco constructed language for Planet Coaster. - Game Developer 2017/07/13

Frontier Audio Team

An in depth look at Planet Coaster's crowd system (part 2/3). - Audiokinetic 2017/07/11

Frontier Audio Team

An in depth look at Planet Coaster's crowd system (part 1/3). - Audiokinetic 2017/06/27

CD Projekt Red Audio Team

A multi part talk about the audio of The Witcher 3, with this part covering crowds/walla. - Audiokinetic 2016/11/29

Scott Lawlor & Tomas Neumann

During Audiokinetic's Wwise Tour, Project Audio Director Scott Lawlor, and Senior Software Engineer 2 Tomas Neumann, presented their work. The considerations, successes and lessons learnt are demonstrated in a series of very educational Wwise Tour videos from the event. (Part 2) - Audiokinetic 2016/09/13

Scott Lawlor & Tomas Neumann

During Audiokinetic's Wwise Tour, Project Audio Director Scott Lawlor, and Senior Software Engineer 2 Tomas Neumann, presented their work. The considerations, successes and lessons learnt are demonstrated in a series of very educational Wwise Tour videos from the event. (Part 1) - Audiokinetic 2016/09/13

Alexander Murauski

In this article, we will share some tips on how to interact with recording studios and localization services, how to optimize and accelerate the process, and how to reduce the risks as well as the costs of audio localization. - Game Developer 2016/03/04

2003 to 2014

Khris Brown

Gamasutra speaks to voice director, consultant and game industry veteran Khris Brown to better understand how high-quality voicework in games comes together from a developer perspective. - Game Developer 2014/07/16

Anna Kipnis

The Double Fine senior gameplay programmer and experienced public speaker explains her inspiration for pitching an indie-focused talk about dialog system design at GDC Europe 2014. - GDC 2014/07/02

George Sutherland Howard

An article about the narrative of Spec Ops: The Line; has some interesting use of progression oriented contextual barks to support the narrative. - Game Developer 2014/04/08

Julian Kwasneski & Darragh O'Farrell

In this reprint from the November 2011 issue of Game Developer magazine, Jesse Harlin speaks with voice directors from LucasArts and Telltale for some industry insights. - Game Developer 2013/10/15

Mark Estdale

These are my views as a casting and voice director working with video games. This is for actors, to help better equip them for not blowing their foot off. - Game Developer 2013/08/10

Mark Estdale

Voice Casting for Video Games - Part 1: Follow The Brief. Casting characters for video games brings to light many wrong assumptions about work in the medium from both the agents and the hopeful 'talent'. - Game Developer 2013/07/23

Ariel Gross

Voice is often considered the most important audio in a video game. In some cases it absolutely must be heard, but in other cases, not so much. How do we draw the line? - Game Developer 2011/08/27

Rob Bridgett

How do you organize and structure the creation of dialogue for video games, "perhaps the single most important aspect of video game audio"? Game audio veteran Rob Bridgett examines the key issues and possible solutions. - Game Developer 2009/10/29

Brent Ellison

In an in-depth Gamasutra analysis piece, Ellison looks at the universe and history of player-NPC dialogue interaction in games, analyzing titles from Mass Effect through Facade to The Sims and beyond. - Game Developer 2008/07/08

Greg deBeer

Voice acting is a surprisingly vital part of character-based game creation - and Gamasutra talks to Sony dialog manager deBeer on his work aiding titles from the God of War series to Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. - Game Developer 2008/05/28

Le Dour

Screen/Play is a regular feature that discusses best practices for storytelling in games. This article, the first in the series, discusses how to properly document voice assets in a flexible, intuitive spreadsheet, with an example extract from the fictional game King Arthur Up In This Piece. - Game Developer 2007/02/15

Rafael Chandler

Screen/Play is a regular feature that discusses best practices for storytelling in games. This article, the first in the series, discusses how to properly document voice assets in a flexible, intuitive spreadsheet, with an example extract from the fictional game King Arthur Up In This Piece. - Game Developer 2006/06/08

Rafael Chandler

Red Storm writer/designer Rafael Chandler (Rainbow Six: Lockdown) discusses processes and systems that will help a game writer minimize dialogue change during production, and analyzes some of the dependencies that a writer can account for along the way. - Game Developer 2005/11/18

Matt Case

This article focuses on the latest Hollywood production methods being adopted by game producers to create better voice-over assets. From getting the right start by ensuring that you have a well-polished script (because paring the world's best actor with a poorly written script leaves you with nothing more than bad entertainment), to securing the ideal actors at below-market rates, dealing with the unions without dealing with the unions, directing professional actors to capture your characters' personalities, all the way through to systematically managing the dialogue files. - Game Developer 2003/03/07

Wikipedia

"The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling..."

"In humans, vocal cords, also known as vocal folds or voice reeds, are folds of tissue in the throat that are key in creating sounds through vocalization..."

"The field of articulatory phonetics is a subfield of phonetics that studies articulation and ways that humans produce speech..."

"The cocktail party effect is the phenomenon of the brain's ability to focus one's auditory attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli, such as when a partygoer can focus on a single conversation in a noisy room."

"In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation."

"In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract..."

"Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together..."

"The precedence effect or law of the first wavefront is a binaural psychoacoustical effect. When a sound is followed by another sound separated by a sufficiently short time delay (below the listener's echo threshold), listeners perceive a single auditory event; its perceived spatial location is dominated by the location of the first-arriving sound (the first wave front)."

"An idiolect is the variety of language unique to an individual. This differs from a dialect, a common set of linguistic characteristics shared among a group of people."

"Isochrony is the postulated rhythmic division of time into equal portions by a language. Rhythm is an aspect of prosody, others being intonation, stress, and tempo of speech..."

"In speech communication, intelligibility is a measure of how comprehensible speech is in given conditions..."

"The Lombard effect or Lombard reflex is the involuntary tendency of speakers to increase their vocal effort when speaking in loud noise to enhance the audibility of their voice..."

"In articulatory phonetics, the manner of articulation is the configuration and interaction of the articulators (speech organs such as the tongue, lips, and palate) when making a speech sound..."

"The McGurk effect is a perceptual phenomenon that demonstrates an interaction between hearing and vision in speech perception..."

"The motor theory of speech perception is the hypothesis that people perceive spoken words by identifying the vocal tract gestures with which they are pronounced rather than by identifying the sound patterns that speech generates..."

"In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose.

"In phonetics and linguistics, a phone is any distinct speech sound or gesture, regardless of whether the exact sound is critical to the meanings of words..."

"Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign...

"Phonology is a branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds (or constituent parts of signs, in sign languages)..."

"In linguistics, prosody (/ˈprɒsədi, ˈprɒzədi/)[1][2] is concerned with those elements of speech that are not individual phonetic segments (vowels and consonants) but are properties of syllables and larger units of speech, including linguistic functions such as intonation, stress, and rhythm..."

"A vocal register is a range of tones in the human voice produced by a particular vibratory pattern of the vocal folds. These registers include modal voice (or normal voice), vocal fry, falsetto, and the whistle register."

"Speech perception is the process by which the sounds of language are heard, interpreted, and understood..."

"In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence..."

"A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. It is typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants)..."

"A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract.

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