Hi Sam, what’s Play Expo Manchester all about?
Play Expo Manchester is the biggest gaming expo in the North of England which has drawn thousands of attendees over the years and continues to grow every year. There’s something there for everyone: retro games, modern releases, indie exhibitors, the cosplay masquerade, traders and for the first time ever a game audio stage!
Play Expo Manchester will have a big Game Audio element to it – can you share some details on that, and how you’re involved with it?
Definitely, I am curating the whole of the game audio content, which I am really excited about. “The Sound Architect presents Game Audio at Play Expo Manchester”, which is awesome!
This is a great opportunity to bring game audio to such a varied audience and we have some fantastic talks, panels, guests and performances lined up for attendees.
This is a great opportunity to bring game audio to such a varied audience
I’ve worked with Replay Events previously and they’ve always held game audio in high regard, which as we know is quite special, so it’s fantastic to be able to collaborate on such a unique experience.
What are you doing to make game audio interesting at a consumer-facing event – and why is that important?
Well, obviously this is a challenge as we want to be able to cater for audiophiles such as myself, as well as the general consumer, dev or student. The content is going to be well-balanced throughout the weekend. So we’re going to go into enough detail for the audio folk among us to enjoy, as well as not making it overly technical for people outside the audio realm.
We’re going to have sound designers, composers and voice actors for talks, panels and presentations. We also have Jon Hare and Ben Daglish doing a set of music from Sensible Software and other titles from the 8-bit era, so it’s going to be fantastic!
Who are some of the speakers, and what panels do you have planned?
I’m only going to tease a couple at this time, as we want to do some more special announcements soon.
Ash Read from CCP will be coming to talk about working on the VR audio for EVE: Valkyre. We also have Matt Griffin from the recent indie release Unbox from Prospect Games talking about the music and sound design.
We’ll have Nathan McCree, composer of the first three Tomb Raider titles, appearing on both our stage and the main stage over the weekend
There’s a big 20th Anniversary Tomb Raider theme over the weekend, too, and we’ll have Nathan McCree, composer of the first three Tomb Raider titles, appearing on both our stage and the main stage over the weekend. Jay Britton, award-winning voice artist, most recently in The Turing Test, will also be there talking about character voices and discussing VO in general.
Aside from that, more exciting guests and times will be announced very soon!
What are you most excited about in relation to game audio at Play Expo Manchester?
I’m excited about the whole thing really, I know that sounds cliché! It’s a fantastic opportunity for The Sound Architect, where we’ve always been passionate about game audio and the community. Not only that, but it’s also a great chance for everyone involved to be able to present to a new type of crowd and really get stuck in with a one of a kind event that we hope to continue in further years.
How can people take part in the Expo? And how can they prepare to make the most of the game audio aspects of it?
If you want more information on the event and what’s going on there (which is a lot), then you can check out this link. Also, there are various ticket options available and you can purchase them right here. Follow that for a special discount code for our audio comrades, which will deduct 10% off of ALL of the ticket options. The code is literally: thesoundarchitect :)
We’ll also be holding a competition very soon to give away 2 free tickets for the Sunday of the expo, so keep an eye on our social media channels for more info!