作者：Rob Bridgett

电子游戏开发是个协作性和重复性工作，美术、设计、想法和技术在这里交融，创造力是整个开发的核心。我发现，有个类比可以用来总结开发的行业化和协作性本质，尽管并非总是准确。将其视为好莱坞电影制作过程，这其中没有导演，只有分管美术、音效、设计和技术的副导演。理想情况下，这些副导演会相互协作。

这些导演和他们的团队相互协作，实现共同的理想和愿景，这可能是电子游戏开发中最具吸引力和令人满足的层面，但在现实情况中却很少出现。原因是什么呢？音频部门和音效工作室的设计和作用是主要因素。目前，多数游戏开发工作室中都会出现形形色色的音效问题。

从书面上看，对开发工作室的要求很简单：拥有不同技能的人在协作性和开放性的环境中配合工作并取得进展。作为开发者，创造、重复和创新是我们的基础。有篇关于设计的文章中说道：“在1年前，1500名首席执行官们才认识到，在这个复杂的全球化市场下，创造力是首要领导能力。”

然而，就音频设计层面而言，我认为我们正处在十字路口上，那些老式和过时的工作室设计和结果让我们很难完成自己的工作职责。

隔音的音频工作室确实是音效设计师工作的必要条件吗？从某种程度上来说，这是对的，至少在真正的资产制作、调试和执行时需要这个必要条件。

但是，我们需要从不同的角度来思考问题，比如可以用透明的隔音玻璃墙或窗户，这样也能够将音频设计师的位置安排在整个团队中，既满足了隔音的需求（游戏邦注：为了使设计师的工作不受打扰），又不至于让设计师与其他团队成员距离过远。使用耳机只是权宜之计，相比使用扬声器来说，前者会让佩戴者更加疲劳，但是在某些环境下可以将其作为灵活使用的工具。

这是种在整个公司中推行“音效文化”的想法，音频设计师不再被隔离在安静独立的空间中，而是融入到整个团队。他们可以将适应音效（游戏邦注：包括偶尔杂音干扰）视为工作中的一部分。

我想要的是音效没有完全被隔离的文化。我希望，这能够让各开发工作室重新认识音频制作，它需要融入整个工作团队。事实上，我认为作为音效设计的一部分，合作性对话和会议也是至关重要的。我想音效工作的概念需要拓宽到制作（游戏邦注：其他团队成员在制作和工作中考虑到音效资产）和想法中。它们都是开发进程的一部分。

结构和文化改变可以应对这些挑战，综合使用这两股力量，我们就能够站在视频游戏开发改革的边缘。让我们探讨所涉的因素，以及如何实现不同的工作态度和环境。

audio designer(from symbolicsound.com)

打开门，拥抱新的工作方法

我个人认为，作为一个行业，与其他技能结合创造行业相比，在试图将不同环境、想法、创造性问题解决和工作方式整合到制作文化中这个方面，我们做得还不够。行业中缺乏诞生新想法的方法，只是在日复一日地重复制作和构建原型，最终推出成功的游戏。

我们借鉴其他游戏，有时借鉴电影，尽管也经历过失败，但多数情况下我们只参考其内容，而没有思考其工作方式。我们忙碌于进行游戏的制作，甚至没有意识到文化的不足之处并寻求改变。失败是反思和提升的机遇，是追寻成功的工具，但是只有当我们接受并认识到时它才会发挥作用。

苹果、Google、Pixar和Ideo等公司中，开放、批判、重复和协作已经深深扎根于公司文化中，还包括良好的工作环境。这些公司的工作过程本身就能够体现出这一点，团队相互协作共同解决设计问题。

音效制作和导演在行业中都被分隔开来（游戏邦注：尤其是在产品末期），但音效的真正问题在于它是制作过程中事后想起的事情。作为音频导演，在许多不同工作室的工作中，我见过许多在因为不受重视而失去的机会。

或许，音效面临的这种事后想到的文化的唯一解决方案是积极参与到设计过程中。实现这种整合并不容易，尤其在这种已经开始分层的制作文化中，行业普遍为这个年轻的加入者感到担心。

包括我自己在内，有些音频设计师成功地在制作过程中的某些时候与团队成员坐在一起，成为设计过程的一份子，但朝这个方向进展的势头仍有待加强。我们需要更能够融入文化的方法。学科间协作应当更自然和稳定地成为音频设计师的工作文化。这是最终要实现的目标。

协作文化

那么，作为音频设计师，我们要如何离开自己的独立工作室，摈弃独自工作的思维方法，融入到团队工作中呢？事实上，我不认为应当将音效工作室文化称为“思维方法”。这是问题的核心所在。这是种脱离音频设计而产生出的工作方法。

作为音频主管，我知道在封闭化环境下独自工作会很容易变得与外界隔离。独立的环境成为鲜有协作精神的文化和创意因子，你在这种环境下待的时间越长，你与团队的隔阂就越大。

想想以下情境：公司有个隔音的舒适工作室可供我使用。我需要完成工作。那么我为什么还要选择相对吵闹的环境呢？

我的观点是，音效工作室空间在设计上体现出的孤立主义以及与团队的隔离源于典型的闭门政策。事实上，问题的本质在于多数情况下其他团队成员会带着嫉妒和鄙视的眼光看待音频设计师。对于这样的空间安排和听觉优待是否是完成高质量工作和资产的关键，我不做评论，但是这种做法确实撼动了协作的根基。

当然，我还应当指出，音效设计师不应当总是待在一个地方，不管是团队成员所处的区域还是音效工作室。音频设计是个灵活、动态和耗费精力的工作。它需要灵活的开放性工作室设计，使这种移动和交叉协作更为便利。

事实上，我们需要彻底重新思考的不只是音效工作室的含义，还包括开发工作室的含义及其对学科间协作的作用。在设计音频工作室的位置时，应当具有前瞻性，摒弃传统的观念，设计更富社交性、协作性和灵活性的空间。既要保证音频设计师与其他团队成员的交流，也要保持其有个能够专注于音效设计的空间。

我甚至还建议在工作室中完全去除音效空间，让整个工作室中布满音效文化元素，比如扬声器、耳机、听觉设备（游戏邦注：灵活且可移动的设备）等。作为一个年轻且富有的行业，我很难理解为何我们还没有设计出能够有效改善工作的空间。

我们需要有个工作区

我认为，尽管行业中有些划时代的工作室领导者做出不懈的努力，但可视、可用且积极参与到团队文化和问题解决过程中的音频部门仍然是电子游戏开发文化中极为缺乏的东西。

Damian Kastbauer近期指出音效设计师Stephen Hodde做的一个令人难以置信的举动，他发明了一系列漂亮的烟盒音频设备来鼓励和简化团队成员倾听游戏音效的过程。

audio_macanudo(from gamasutra)

在每个制作过程中，电子游戏的听觉、视觉、技术、设计和故事元素之间的协作都至关重要。

音频团队应当走出隔离的工作室。他们需要更加活跃地参与到团队开发过程中，融入整个团队的工作和生活。他们应当可移动且灵活，适应学科间合作的背景。

音效想法与工作室甚至电脑的使用可能性并没有关联，我们只是过于恪守这些老想法。协作性对话和想法在任何地点都可以发生，或许你在独立的音效工作区可以构思出某种想法，但最强大的想法往往源于对话。

在较小的团队中，通过交流产生想法或许显得较为简单，但是大型团队同样可以做到而且更应该做到这一点。

解决不同部门合作问题的方法

以下是部分增强音频团队和开发团队间协作性环境的方法。这些可能也是将来设计开发工作室建筑的核心标准，但我相信随着我们在工作中的合作加强，这些空间或许会自然地发展。

1、离开音频工作室，即便每天只有1次，前往团队其他成员所处的位置，参与到讨论中。确立有效的时间方案，当方案无效时及时修改。

2、邀请其他人进入工作室，开放这些空间，用于召开会议、商讨想法或其他目的。无论你是出于创造目标还是单纯分享空间，允许团队成员进入工作室以打破协作障碍。

3、鼓励团队中每个人就游戏音效提出自己的想法。通过邮件、召开想法会议或者在聚会的时候，利用所有有效的方法，想法来源于方方面面，即便最终其他人的想法没有被采纳，或许也将会启发你产生新的想法，或用于将来的设计中。

4、组成多人小组体验和评判竞争者的游戏。评判往往看的比创造更加深刻，这也是种思维方法。不只是音频团队可以对游戏音效提出意见，可以组成不同成员小组。有些东西深受音频制作者厌恶，但或许是游戏玩法的关键所在。发现和讨论各种不同的设计会给多方面的工作人员带来灵感。

在产品循环的压力下，专注并维持这种环境是件很困难的事情。在某些时候，音频资产的制作工作需要及时完成。我相信，建筑学式的解决方案能够让目前的行业发生很大的改变。如果音频制作成员被所有项目重视，那么协作性精神、相互责任、尊重和信任都将影响整个团队。

“无音频”协作将渐渐消失，音效设计师和总监将融入想法的交流中，更大程度地参与到电子游戏开发的协作中。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

A Revolution in Sound: Break Down the Walls!

Rob Bridgett

Video game development is a collaborative and iterative endeavor, where artistry, design, ideas, and technology intersect, with creativity at its core. There is one analogy I have found useful — although not always accurate — in summing up the industrial and collaborative nature of development. Think of it like a Hollywood movie production with no single director; instead, a group of peer directors run each discipline: art, sound, design, and technology. Ideally, they don’t run them independently.

Having these directors, and their teams, work together collaboratively on the push and pull of a shared vision is perhaps one of the most compelling and gratifying aspects of the development of video games, yet it is rarely something that is reflected in the design of the spaces we use. What causes this? The designs and functions of audio department suites and sound studios is a major factor. There are a number of very specific problems that have arisen out of the soundproof box design currently found in most, if not all, game development houses.

On paper, the requirements for a development studio are clear: a collaborative and open environment through which different disciplines can easily move, work, and play. Creativity, iteration, and innovation are the cornerstones of our business as developers. “It was just one year ago that 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the number-one leadership competency in our complex global marketplace,” says this Co.Design article.

Yet, where audio design is concerned, I believe we are at a crossroads where old, outmoded sound studio design and architecture is failing us on an industrial scale in not allowing us to fulfill our collaborative, critical and iterative role.

But, wait a second. Surely soundproofed audio studios are necessary to the work of a sound designer? This is, in one sense, absolutely true, at least of the actual asset creation, tuning and implementation work.

The problem requires different kinds of thinking — for example, one or two transparent glazed walls or windows in iso booths with sight-line access, built in central positions within team spaces, answers the design requirement of isolating sound (in order to do the work without distracting or distraction) without isolating the occupant. Headphones are temporary options, as they are more fatiguing for the wearer than listening through speakers, but they should certainly be used as a flexible tool in a more agile armory.

This is an idea about promoting a “culture of sound” throughout an entire company, so rather than being cloistered in quiet, solemn spaces, audio designers are integrated in the team. They could become more used to sound (and the distraction that comes with it) in the office as a part of everyday life.

I want a culture where sound is not literally invisible. This, I hope, would provide an alternative vision to the common notion that audio production needs to happen in a studio. In fact, I don’t believe this is true of the work of a sound designer; the collaborative conversations and meetings are as crucial, if not more so, as a part of designing sound. I think the notion of sound work needs to be broadened into production (creating and working with sound assets themselves) and ideation (or “design” discussions). Both are equal parts of the process.

With architectural and cultural change answering these challenges — these two forces are invariably intertwined — we could be on the brink of a true renaissance in video game development. That’s a bold statement, I realize. Let’s consider the factors at play and what we can realistically expect to gain from a different working attitude and environment.

Opening the Door to New Ways of Working

I personally believe, as an industry, we are not looking outwards nearly enough at other interdisciplinary crafts and creative businesses in an attempt to see where different environments, thinking, creative problem solving and working practices can be assimilated into our production culture. There isn’t much of a way in for new ideas, especially in terms of the day-to-day process of creating and prototyping features and eventually shipping successful games.

We are overly guilty of looking to other games, and sometimes cinema, which has its own failures — but most often only for examples of content, rather than working practices. We are almost too busy working in and on games to recognize failures in our culture (there are many, and they are well documented: crunch, etc.) and seek change. Failure is an opportunity to iterate and improve, a pathfinding tool to success — but only if we embrace and recognize it.

The likes of Apple, Google, Pixar, and Ideo are places where an open, critical, iterative and collaborative culture is deliberately built into the DNA, and, crucially, the working environment itself. The work process itself, reflects this with open meeting, play and work spaces that evolve and change as the teams work together on solving design problems.

Sound production and direction suffer acutely from being uniquely reactionary (at the end of the dependency and production line) in the industry, yet the real problem is that sound is an afterthought in the creation process itself. As an audio director, in my work across several different studios, I’ve seen too many missed opportunities arrive too late in production.

Perhaps the only real solution to the afterthought culture is for sound to be an active participant in the design process itself. This is not an easy integration to accomplish, particularly in a production culture that’s already beginning to stratify, which is a worrying trend for such a young medium.

Some, myself included, have had reasonable success here, sitting on the team space at certain times during production and operating as part of design and story “cells”, yet the momentum needs to push further in this direction. We need a more culturally embedded approach. Interdisciplinary practice should be a more natural and sustainable feature of the working culture of an audio designer. It is ultimately the work of many years of change.

Culture of Critical Collaboration

How then, do we as audio designers on a team, move forwards out of the bunker studio and silo cell mentality? In actual fact, I don’t think it is fair to call the sound studio culture a “mentality”. Here is the crux of the problem. It is a working practice that has evolved out of, and is perpetuated by, studio design.

Working as a audio director, I know how easy it is to become entrenched in an enclosed bunker, often working alone. The isolated box becomes a cultural, creative, and solitary cell in which there is little collaborative spirit; the longer you spend in there, the more a full-scale retreat from the team becomes inevitable.

Think about it. “There are sound-proofed comfortable studios available to work in. I need to get work done. There is no space on the team floor. Why would I need to be (or even desire to be) in the comparatively boisterous shop floor?”

My point here is that sound studio spaces are isolationist by design, and intimidating to others on the team thanks to a typical closed-door policy. In fact, the truth of the matter is that audio suites are mostly viewed by the rest of the team with a mixture of envy and disdain. While I won’t argue that these spaces, and their acoustic treatments, are essential to producing high quality work and assets, they unfortunately do this while negating the fundamentals of collaboration.

It should also be said that, of course, a sound designer shouldn’t be in one place all the time, be that on the team floor or in a sound studio; audio design is a flexible, dynamic, and energetic endeavor. What is required is a flexible open studio design to facilitate this movement and cross-collaboration.

In fact, we need a radical rethink not only of what a sound studio means, but what a development studio means, and how it functions for interdisciplinary collaboration. One architectural proposition for a forward-looking, fresh video game studio design, would be for an audio studio design and layout that forgoes the traditional hermetic audio studio design in favor of a social, collaborative and flexible space, or a sporadic network of studios that is part of the wider team, yet maintaining the integrity and dedication to a sound friendly space (free of AC hum and hiss, computers hidden away in machine room spaces).

I would even suggest that there be no “non-sound” spaces included in the entire design, and that every space include elements of a sound-savvy culture such as speakers, headphones, acoustic treatment (flexible and mobile), listening stations etc. As a young and wealthy industry, it is difficult to understand why we aren’t already commissioning and working in spaces that positively influence the way we work.

Until These Studios Are Built, We Need to Have a Workaround

Having an audio department be a visible, available, active participant in the team culture and problem solving process is something I believe is all too often missing from the wider culture of video game development, despite valiant efforts on the part of some groundbreaking audio leaders within our industry.

Damian Kastbauer recently pointed out one such incredible design effort on the part of sound designer Stephen Hodde, whereby he devised a series of beautiful cigar-box audio switchers to encourage, and make simpler, the process of team members listening to the sound of the game across different platforms.

Greater collaboration between the sonic, visual, technical, design, and story elements of video game production are essential at every part of the production process.

So I issue this rallying call — though it may fall on, if not deaf, at least tired ears.

Sound teams have to get outside the studio cell. They need to be a more active participant in development on the team floor, in the team space and in team life. They have to be mobile, agile, and comfortable working in an interdisciplinary context.

Sound ideas are not tied to or dependent upon the availability of a studio, or even a computer, although we cling on to these old ideas. Collaborative conversations and ideas can happen anywhere; they may only be capable of realization at the sound workstation (another concept that probably needs reevaluation), but the most powerful part of any idea is the conversation that brings the idea into being as a working part of a larger idea.

These ideas and ideals may be easier for a smaller agile team to achieve, but there is absolutely no reason that larger teams cannot be at the vanguard, and many more reasons why they need to be.

A Path to Interdisciplinary Problem Solving

Below are a few notes for growing a more collaborative environment between the sound team and the wider development team. These are probably also some of the core principles for the design of a future development studio architecture, but I believe that as we start to work more collaboratively, these spaces may evolve naturally.

Leave the sound studio, even if only once a day, to walk around the team space and engage in conversations. Establish a routine that works, changing that routine when it becomes stale.

Invite others into the studio spaces; open up these spaces for meetings, impromptu or otherwise. Whether you are there in a creative capacity or just sharing the space, allowing team members not to be intimidated by the sound studio is a huge step to breaking down any unconscious, or conscious, barriers to collaboration.

Encourage everyone on the team to contribute ideas about the sound of the game. In whatever method works, be it email, open idea sessions, beer nights (a favorite) — ideas can come from anywhere, and even if initially seem not to have an immediate application, can feed further ideas or pop up again later when least expected.

Play and critique competitors’ games together as a multi-discipline group. Critical faculties are often sharper than creative ones, yet are a part of the same thinking. Rather than just the sound team critiquing the sound of a game, having a multidisciplinary group play and dissect together will provide enlightenment to the differing reasons and thinking that is done by say, artists and designers. Something may sound terrible to the audio guys, but may be fulfilling a crucial role for gameplay. Discovering and discussing these differences in perspective holds value on all sides.

Fostering and maintaining this environment among the pressures of a production cycle is difficult. At some point the sound asset creation and mixing work takes over and needs to get done. However, I believe that an architectural solution can provide a sea change in some problematic thinking within the industry, and if sound is present at the inception of any project, the collaborative spirit, mutual accountability, respect and trust will continue to be of influence throughout production itself.

“Non-audio” collaborators (a term I also hope will dissolve eventually) will feel more comfortable expressing ideas and feedback, and sound designers and directors will feel more at ease with the communication of ideas themselves, as well as being a more trusted and prominent collaborative voice in video game development. (Source: Gamasutra)