‘Working with Sound’ – Rob Bridgett takes you behind the excellent new game audio book (+ gives you the chance to win it!)

Q: What is Working with Sound about?

The main theme running through the book is how we work with and think about sound in video game development, specifically when it comes to listening and creating within our teams in the post-pandemic remote & hybrid worlds.

We are dealing with massive dynamic change, and there is now a new collaborative environment for us to navigate as audio designers – one filled with traps, pitfalls and opportunities – but it is not entirely unfamiliar

While audio departments may have fared relatively well in terms of changes to the surroundings in which they work, for the rest of our teams, the development location has now shifted, heavily in some cases, to a hybrid remote world. And, while every team is different and has a distinct gravity centre when it comes to how they want to work together, it is still fair to say that we are dealing with massive dynamic change, and there is now a new collaborative environment for us to navigate as audio designers – one filled with traps, pitfalls and opportunities – but it is not entirely unfamiliar!

One thing, it seems, that has armed us well as audio folks, is that over the last 20 years we have had to learn to leave our safe cocooned audio spaces and set foot on the team floor – in the process somewhat leaving behind our ‘audio’ identity and embracing more fully a ‘game developer’ identity. This strong collaborative and communicative element has been critical to getting audio more deeply embedded into the way a dev-team thinks and collaborates, embracing sound in early concepts, prototyping, and sketching as well as standing up all the tech pipelines as early as possible – all the way through production to the final stages of post and mixing.

Today, in the post-pandemic hybrid world, the amount of proactivity and presence needed for audio is more important than ever. It is this collaborative aspect that I argue has saved us from falling (back) into an ‘audio centric’ silo during the pandemic, one in which we sit and wait to work on things that are ready for us to work on, or that we are told to work on. Instead, we’re able to fully participate and lead in remote team settings because of what we have learned about the importance of being a game developer first and an audio person second – and we’re able to use that to navigate this new, and continually evolving, landscape of development. Audio teams still need to be integrated into the overall dev process, in fact there are arguably even more opportunities now to be able to do this, to be present and involved, and to work proactively.

We’re able to fully participate and lead in remote team settings because of what we have learned about the importance of being a game developer first and an audio person second – and we’re able to use that to navigate this new, and continually evolving, landscape of development

Technology also plays a key role here, and the poor audio quality on most of the video calling tools we use together has presented some specific challenges to showcasing and reviewing our work with our teams. However, being able to work around these and leverage a whole array of other audio-centric collaboration tools, like Audiomovers and OBS mean that when it comes to critical listening and reviews, it is something that can still be achieved and can still feel special and impactful for a team.
 

So, the opening of the book is about discussing that new world of working in sound on a multi-discipline team. I was very surprised by how well we were able to adapt to this new reality, and it jogged a lot of old ideas that I had about the future of audio work – one in particular – I always had in my mind, about 20 years ago, was the image of a sound studio out in the woods, somewhere on a remote island, and inside, someone is focused on doing the work, occasionally stepping outside to listen to nature around them while taking a break, then returning and collaborating with a team over video call in very high quality. The funny thing is, in any sound studio, especially one with no windows, you could really be anywhere, and the only real difference is what is on the other side of the door when you open it! So, there’s been this wonderful embracing and flourishing of these diverse work environments now, and suddenly, these things are achievable, and we know this because we’ve all been forced to retreat into our own spaces and figure it out, and for the most part we’ve thrived and been able to focus and work more efficiently. I still believe we need to find ways of being together with our teams, but that is something I strongly believe needs to be a conversation between an employee and their team.

The funny thing is, in any sound studio, especially one with no windows, you could really be anywhere, and the only real difference is what is on the other side of the door when you open it!

The post-pandemic remote world is even more exciting, or perhaps daunting depending on the individual situation, for many of us, as we can negotiate new ways of working between remote studios and the spaces inside development teams – and even to redesign what those physical spaces inside dev teams need to do. What this should all be about is supporting people so that they can do their best work, in the best place for that work. There is an opportunity to do that now. This is also a continuation of the move to audio becoming more integral to the development process of making games, seeing how we can get better at including and talking about sound – without it feeling too Sisyphean – and being able to completely re-invent and re-think what audio work actually is, when it is most effective, where we might do it best, and most importantly… how we might be happier and have more energy doing that work.
 

Q: The book has a similar look, feel and cover design to Leading with Sound, is there a relationship between the two?

Yes. It’s a continuation of Leading with Sound for sure, and the same wide audience will apply here too. Leading with Sound gave me a good foundation from which to launch into a lot of the ideas in Working with Sound, not having to cover that same ground means we’re able to talk about some new things from new angles and move into more areas. The fundamentals and topics in Leading with Sound have not changed with the advent of hybrid remote work, as it was written during the pandemic itself, so this feels like a good place to go with this new book and to continue discussing these important changes.
 

Q: How long did this book take to write?

The ideation and conversations with the publisher started back in 2021, just as Leading with Sound was published. Once the overall shape of the book was figured out, the writing and editing process took about four months, and it was mostly editorial as I had the rough writing all ready to go. Working with a publisher, once the final draft is submitted, the editorial step becomes an exciting part of the process, kind of like post-production in sound, where lots of polish and reviewing happens and notes come back from Routledge’s editorial team, who were amazing. For me, it is only at this point that it feels like it is something that can be enjoyed by a reader.

Much like sound, the reality is that writing a book, getting it on the shelf, is a team effort

Much like sound, the reality is that writing a book, getting it on the shelf, is a team effort. Once the final draft was submitted in the Fall of 2022, I kind of forgot about it. Then, I had a realization in January 2023 that the book was incomplete without an important chapter (Chapter 15, Creative Life Cycle), I managed to get it added at the last minute, just before the final editorial process began… so, this was a scary moment! But the publishers and editors were great and very accommodating.

Q: Being busy working on games full-time, how do you find time to write a book?

Writing is something I have to do every morning to sort my head out, get ideas and notes down, reflect on things, and boil them down into sentences that make sense. I’ve accidentally fallen into a rhythm with my day so that each morning, after the kids are off to school and I’ve walked the dog, I have about 60-90 minutes before my working day begins. In this time, I sit down, with my dog next to me, and either think or write. Incrementally, the time from each day adds up, and I can get a lot done. It also clears my mind for the day ahead and I can get on with whatever I need to do, and focus on that exclusively, without having the book or any writing ideas popping up in my head for the rest of the day. I feel fortunate to have found a way to do this that works – and that means I am not consumed by thinking about writing all the time; it just has a little daily window of time set aside where it can happen if it wants to.
 

Q: What’s next? Are there more game audio books in the works?

These two books allow me to see some new big topics that have not been written about before from a game audio perspective, and I do need to get those things down onto paper before they evaporate

I feel like Leading with Sound and Working with Sound naturally triangulate into a third book, which isn’t yet fully formed, but which is very much present with me at the moment in terms of ideas.

These two books allow me to see some new big topics that have not been written about before from a game audio perspective, and I do need to get those things down onto paper before they evaporate. I’ve got lots of notes, and plenty of fully formed pieces of writing and images, but I don’t yet have the catalyst to get it into book form. We’ll see if that happens or not.

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