作者：Keith Moore

作为声音和音乐专家，我们都清楚游戏开发者总是不知道如何与我们打交道。我们总是在项目的最后才登场，也就是成为游戏（这个几乎不能没有声音的媒体）的最后考虑元素之一。

这与电影制作并不相同。在电影制作中，从拍摄的第一天起声音便是必不可少的元素，甚至作曲家可能在整个创造过程前就规划好了音乐理念。例如作曲家Trent Reznor便在电影导演David Fincher拍摄《龙纹身的女孩》时将自己的作品交给给他。而与之相反的是，我们总是在游戏开发最后才将作品交给开发者。当对方认可了这一音乐资产后我们便会快速转向下一个创作中。

另一方面，音频专家们也不懂得如何与计算机专业人士相处。电影制作人对故事、导演风格、视觉效果等方面都有相同的激情和共同语言，而游戏虽然与电影也有许多相似元素，但是又有多少音频专家想加入关于Unity，C++或盈利的谈话？

游戏音效专家是负责创造出播放音频执行技术的创意人士，而游戏开发者则是培养创意和领导技能并引导项目完工的技术达人。

而他们间的交流问题也因为创意的主观性而变得更加复杂。就像开发者不能理解我们在创造一个必要的第二类声时需要付出多少努力，我们也不清楚他们在赋予一款游戏基本功能时的各种艰辛。也许这种相互理解并不是必须的，但是缺少认知将会导致彼此间大量的时间和金钱浪费。

为了完善相互交流并最终创造出最有效的游戏音频，他们彼此间应该做出哪些努力？我不敢妄称自己经历过所有音频制作/游戏开发过程，但是在此我将分享我在独立开发领域中所吸取的各种经验教训。

怎样才能创作出符合开发者需求的曲子？

我曾经在以色列和一名设计师共同创造一款游戏，他要求我创造出一种玩家因为死亡射线而结冻的声音。经过各种努力我创造出了一个魔法般的声音，但却遭到了拒绝。之后我又进行了多种尝试，但都以失败告终。

设计师的拒绝理由是什么？所有的这些资产“听起来都不像是人类结冻的声音。”

我便问道：“那人类结冻应该发出怎样的声音？”

“我不清楚，但是如果听到后我便能够肯定是不是了。”

见鬼！我并没有额外的时间和金钱去修改这个声音。我需要获得真正的指导！所以我进一步询问了如何着手进行开发，而开发者也提出了创造一些较根本的声音这样的要求。

合成器并不可能创造出任何神秘的魔法声音，最朴实的声音还是源于现实世界！所以我最终创造了一个混合了冬天室外各种声响的声音（包括雪地里的脚步声，滑雪声等等），而开发者也对我所创造的这一声音表示非常满意。

从这一例子中我学到了什么？

1.更加明确声音资产中需要包含哪些具体元素。通常情况下开发者总会提供给我一系列符合要求的声音，以及一般性意见，并等待我在第一次尝试中便能创造出最完美的声音。而在这次的列子中，我误将“冻结的发射性声音”当成是某种魔幻般的声音。即使设计师不清楚自己想要的声音是怎样的，我们也可以通过彼此交谈而快速明确我们想要的声音理念，或者在开始实施前摒弃之前的错误想法。

2.这让我反思了我们在合同上的问题。我只是同意为对方提供特别的资产，但却未声明我必须对声音做出多少次修改。这个棘手的问题足以再作一文详细说明了，开发者并不想收到那些自己不愿使用的声音，声音设计师也不愿意被白白利用——特别是在酬劳不高又得顶住最后期限压力的情况下。但是如果我们均同意在增加额外的费用前最多对同个声音进行两次修改，那么我们彼此间便能够在真正落实工作前更清晰地了解共同的目标。

谈话结束还是开始？

我最近的工作便是为《汤姆病毒》的过场动画创造声音和音乐。在创造了一个疯狂的声音（尽管听起来充满喜悦）并投入了好几个小时编制了管弦乐曲后，我发现自己不得不重新开始创作了。尽管我对此感到非常失望，但是我也发现只有这么做才能创作出比初稿更棒的作品。

紧接着我便投入下一次创作中，并且跟往常一样我也创造出自己更中意的作品，不过开发者也同样要求我能创造出更具有能量的声音。我尝试了一种完全不同的方法，并创造了3个我认为具有能量性的简短样本，希望能够获得开发者的认可。但是我得到的回应却是开发者对这三个样本都不满意。

现在我真正想要退缩了，希望能够将带有白噪声的游戏过场动画退还给开发者。我并不是想要过河拆桥，我只是希望能够真正享受创造游戏音乐的乐趣而已。

尽管我备受挫折，但是在看到游戏中还有其它过场动画需要添加声音时，我建议开发者为这一项目寻找其他作曲家。因为我认为如果我之前所有的草案都无效的话，那便是我的理念不适合这款游戏。

我已经做好接受斥责的准备，但是开发者却表现得非常大度——当然也有一点让我们非常困惑，他认为我们几乎未对音乐展开任何真正的讨论，而我却感觉我们已经结束了这种讨论。

我们开始讨论我之前所面对的一些场景以及我该如何创造出相同的忧郁音调——而这时候我们对于“忧郁”这一词的理解却出现了分歧。他通过列举了一些有名的游戏去传达自己的观点。

虽然我并不敢肯定接下来的创作能否让对方满意，但是这种交流却大大激励了我。我不再害怕是否会再创造出一个不被认可的草案。很快我便完成了最终草案，并且它也成为了当前游戏中最优秀的一个版本。这种开放且和平的理念交换式交流能够帮助我们克服各种障碍并创造出最合适的游戏音频。

这一例子中的经验教训？

1.我并不敢确定是否在任何情况下这都是必要的，但是向开发者寻求音频样本（YouTube上的歌曲等）能够帮助我们更加了解开发者想要呈现出的氛围，并帮助我们明确他所追求的效果。但是我却在这点上屡遭挫折。

不只是因为我们其中一方太过固执，同时还因为对方不希望我被禁锢于它们的想法中，而我则希望他们相信我的专业水平（能够处理任何挑战），并专注于他们自己的其它工作中。

即使对方不希望我被禁锢在任何特定的内容中，我也仍会想办法搞清楚他们想要的游戏音乐到底是什么样的。我曾经便为一名游戏设计师创造了一些错误的盖尔特音乐，只是因为我误解了他的要求。而当他将《加勒比海盗》中的剪辑发给我时我才最终意识到他想要的是好莱坞般的英雄感。

2.通常情况下开发者都不是音乐家，所以为了帮助他们更好地理解你的工作你就需要去阐明某些专业术语。我便遇到许多将“和弦”等同于“歌曲”的人。对方要求一些更戏剧化的音乐，而我所递交的则是“非常悲伤”的乐曲。但是悲伤是否等同于戏剧化？所以对于音频专家来说理解开发团队的意思也是一大压力。请牢记不懂就要问！

3.面向游戏进行创作的作曲家需要向客户明确他们在创作音乐时经历了哪些过程。就像《汤姆病毒》的开发者并不清楚我花了多少时间去编写并创造同一个场景的不同乐曲样本。考虑到他自己所面对的各种工作，我当然理解他毫无理由地否定我的作品的原因。

而我也应该在首个草案被否定时便提出异议，并搞清楚开发者到底希望在音乐中听到哪种乐器。是小提琴还是科技舞曲？有一次我投入了一定时间创造了一些电子旋律以补充其他作曲家的作品，并在之后意识到原来开发者希望我能够创造出更复古的交响乐曲。所以说我等于在一条完全错误的道路上翻滚！

交流破裂

在一个项目中遭遇失败的交流会是怎样的情况？我曾经为一家初创手机游戏公司制作了许多音乐。他们也会提供给我足够的时间进行声音设计。但是当我开始创造一些音效时他们却突然告知我必须在2周内完成所有工作。考虑到项目的规模，一个人根本不可能在如此短的时间内独自完成这些任务。

他们便问我是否还认识其他声音设计师能够加入这个团队，我便推荐了几个优秀的设计师。但是在几天后我又被告知“我们将在这次工作后结束声音的制作。因为我们需要将更多的资金用于图像制作中。”

而当这款游戏在6个月后正式发行时，我们却未看到任何音乐或声音的存在。对此我感到极端困惑，开发者曾付给我丰厚的音乐和声音制作成本，我也毫不犹豫地与他们讨论了各种变化并做出了相应修改。

但是因为一些不可抗拒原因（没有机会进行更详细的解释）他们最终浪费了大量的时间和金钱并且未做出任何解释（也没有对我的工作表示任何不满）便将我从该项目中开除了。或许他们只是想换个方向而重新设置游戏的音频吧。我甚至怀疑一家小小的初创公司怎么承受得起如此昂贵的决定。

在经历类似挫折的时候我的脑子中总是会漂浮着“我本来应该怎样怎样”之之类的场景。

1.因为我是一名为初创企业提供服务的自由职业者，为何我不去雇佣其他声音设计师，让自己成为音频领导者呢？如此我便能够取消最后期限而让自己更加轻松。并且我也可以始终处在消息圈内而不会遭到设计师的排挤。也许我所转包的音效设计师也将在自己的项目中雇佣我也不一定。

2.开发团队为我提供带有音效的游戏动画。一开始我认为这更加有助于我的创作，但是现在的我却认为如果是通过文本分析和指示我也许能够创造出更多更棒的作品。尽管我们就声音进行了快速的讨论并且他们也将自己中意的游戏音频剪辑（在YouTube上）发给我看，但是这些都太普通了，不是他们所需要的独特资产。我们应该更多地讨论资产的复杂性，及其反映角色个性等细节元素的看法，并且开发者也应该提供更多参考示例。如此我才能更专注于创造出能够匹配这些动画的声音。

3.在一些让人难受的类似情况发生时，你将不得不对合同中的条款产生质疑。我与这名开发者所签订的合同中规定道，我所创造的所有声音的所有权都属于他们，但是当我发现对方并未使用这些声音时我便希望能够将所有权要回自己手中，或将其应用于其它游戏上。也许这一点我们可以用另外一篇文章进行更详细的阐述，而更老道的声音设计师没准已经在自己的协议书上明确了这一点，但是我却在思考着是否该列出一个条款以陈述将对方未使用的声音将重归自己的名下，尽管我也不确定我能够用这些声音做什么。

与声音设计师打交道的注意事项

我曾经接触过许多游戏专业人士，而他们也都传达了与作曲家存在交流问题。他们反应许多作曲家在提交了音乐或声音草稿后，总是拒绝做出任何修改（抱着接不接受随你便的态度），尽管他们所提交的作品与开发者的要求截然不同。又或者他们雇佣了一名作曲家以创造瑞格舞曲，但却未能意识到这些艺术家擅长的是制作管弦乐，从而导致双方矛盾加剧而难以有效地进行创作。我认为双方必须在签订合同前明确罗列出对于彼此的期望。并提出以下问题：

*你需要怎样的声音资产？这应该是一份完整的列表。

*你需要什么类型的音乐？作曲家是否有创造这类型音乐的经验？

*在进行额外支付前需要做出多少修改？开发者所提供的音频调整需求量是否足够详细，声音艺术人员是否对此进行了适当的审查，尽量减少需要调整的内容。

*其中有多少音乐提示？每次提示的时间是多长？

*你用于制作音频的游戏预算有多少？换句话说，你的费用中共包含了多少预算？

*声音设计师将花多少时间去完成音频制作（游戏邦注：还需要考虑到修改时间）？

如果能够更深入地讨论这些问题，我们便能够达到更棒且更高效的结果。而如果将作曲家开除出项目能够避免双方不现实的期待，那就应该果断地这么做。尽管我不能在3分钟时间内向独立开发者解释清楚我花费100美元而独立创造的管弦乐曲，但是这总比投入上万元邀请一整个管弦乐队进行演奏划算得多了。（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）

Getting the Most from Your Sound Designer

by Keith Moore

It’s common knowledge among sound and music professionals that game developers generally don’t know what to do with us. We’re usually brought in near the end of a project, one of the last elements considered — this in a medium that has rarely been considered silent.

This differs from filmmaking, where by necessity sound is essential on the first day of shooting and musical ideas are often planned early in the process. For example, composer Trent Reznor sent film director David Fincher music while he was shooting The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. But outside of an in-house job, our services for game developers are usually brought in on the last lap. Get the assets recorded — perfectly — ASAP, then move on to the next gig.

On the other hand, audio experts don’t know how to deal with computer folks, broadly speaking. With filmmakers they likely share a similar passion for other aspects of production: story, directing style, visuals. Though games have similar elements, how many audio pros have a conversational interest for things like Unity, C++, or monetization?

Game sound professionals are creative types who have (hopefully) developed the technical skills of audio implementation, while developers are technical wizards who have fostered the creative and leadership skills that get their projects to completion.

The two face a challenge in communication that’s complicated by the subjectivity of creativity. Developers don’t understand how hard we work to create a needed one-second sound effect anymore than we understand how hard they work to get a game to even basic functionality. Perhaps that understanding isn’t essential, but a lack of recognition for it can create roadblocks that cause time and money to be wasted.

What are some steps each side can take to improve communication and ultimately create more effective game audio? I can’t claim to have experienced every possible audio/developer situation, but for this article I want to share a few of my experiences in the indie universe.

What Does a Freeze Ray Sound Like, Anyway?

I worked on a game with a designer in Israel. I was required me to create the sound of a death ray that freezes the character. I whipped up a cool magic sound in my studio… and got rejected. Tried a variation… fail. Tried more ideas… nope. The designer’s complaint? None of these assets “sound like a human being frozen.”

Huh? “What does a human being frozen sound like?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but I’ll know when I hear it.”

Oh, heck no! I didn’t have the time or financial incentive to indefinitely email variations on one sound. I wanted guidance! So I prodded a little further about where to explore and the developer made a request for something organic sounding.

A-ha! No mystical magic-type sound created with synthesizers. Samples, earthy sounds grounded in the real world! I created a mish-mash of outdoor winter sounds (footsteps in snow, skiing, etc.) and the developer was thrilled with the very next sound I created.

What did I learn from this situation?

1. Get more explicit details of what was needed in the sound asset. I know; it should be obvious. But typically I’m given a list of desired sounds, a few general comments, and then everyone crosses their fingers, hoping I nail everything perfect in the first try. In this case, I wrongly assumed the “freeze ray sound” would be something magical sounding. Even if he didn’t know what he wanted, we could have discussed possible ideas that got us to the organic concept faster or eliminated my initial magic ideas before I’d invested any time into them.

2. It made me reflect on our contract. I’d simply agreed to provide the specific assets on his list, but there were no limitations on how many variations I would create for him. This is a very tricky subject worthy of another article, as the developer doesn’t want to be stuck with sounds they don’t want to use, and the sound designer doesn’t want to be taken advantage of — especially if we’re working for cheap and under deadlines. But if we’d agreed to, say, no more than two revisions of the same sound before additional pay kicks in, there might have been more concern on both sides to make sure our goals were mutually understood before I went to work.

The End of the Conversation… or the Beginning?

My latest project was contributing sound and music to cutscenes in A Virus Named Tom. After putting in an insane — though ultimately blissful — number of hours orchestrating music I was given notes that basically required me to start over. Though disappointed, I’ve learned this sort of request results in an even better draft that overcomes my favoritism of the first.

I dug into the next draft, and true to form created something I liked even better… and got a request for something more energetic. I tried a different approach, creating three abbreviated sketches of what I thought were energetic cues, hoping one would be worth developing further. I got back a brief response saying that none of the examples grabbed the developer’s attention.

Now I was feeling tapped out creatively, dreaming of sending back the cutscene with a soundtrack of white noise and being done with it! I didn’t want to burn a bridge, as I sincerely enjoyed working on this game.

Still, between my frustration and knowing there were several other cutscenes to score, I suggested to the developer he might want the other composer in the project for this cue. I felt if I couldn’t nail it in all the previous drafts then maybe my mojo wasn’t right for it.

I braced for an angry response, perhaps an accusation I was sabotaging his project by playing the Diva Card! But instead he was very cool — actually a bit confused, as he felt we’d barely gotten started in our musical discussion, where I thought we were at the end of it.

We started talking about previous scenes I’d scored and how I need to achieve similar dark tones — clarifying what “dark” meant, as we had different interpretations on the definition. He sent me cues from notable games illustrating his points.

No, I didn’t nail the next take perfectly, but the communication energized me. I didn’t feel the dreaded burnout of having to create yet another draft that may or may not work. The final draft came together quickly, which ultimately turned out to be the best version that’s currently in the game. It was the free exchange of ideas and the open, non-combative manner of our communication that allowed us to maneuver through the roadblock into creating the best audio that served the game.

Lessons learned here?

1. I don’t know if this is essential in every case, but asking the developer for audio examples (songs, YouTube, etc.) that represent the mood he wanted really helped me nail down what he was after. Sadly, it has taken me multiple experiences with other leads to make this sink in. Not so much because either us are stubborn; more often they don’t want to lock me into ripping someone off, and I want them to think I’m professional enough to handle any challenge they throw at me so they can focus on other things.

Even if they don’t want me to rip off anything specific, I can still get an idea of what game music they like. I once went through an insane amount of failed work creating Celtic music for a designer, which I had interpreted as his request. Only when he later sent me a clip from the Pirates of the Caribbean film did I realize he wanted something way more Hollywood and heroic.

2. Developers usually aren’t musicians, so there are times you need to clarify terminology when working to understand what they need from your work. I’ve had folks talk about “chords” when they meant “melodies” — those things you can whistle. They ask for something dramatic and my delivered music is “too sad”. But sad is dramatic, no? The burden of understanding what the dev team wants is usually going to be on the contracted audio expert. Ask questions!

3. Composers working on games need to make clear what sort of work is involved in creating music for a client. The developer of A Virus Named Tom didn’t know the many hours I spent writing and orchestrating different mockups to the same scene. Given all the plates he was spinning, I totally understand that he had no reason to.

I should have spoken up at rejection of the first draft and asked what sort of instrumentation (i.e. sounds) should be heard in the music. Violins? Techno beats? In one instance I spent time developing electronic grooves to complement what the other composer was doing, realizing later that I was really expected to handle the more vintage, orchestral-themed music. I went down the wrong path!

Communication Breakdown

How about an example of failed communication in a project? I did a bunch of music for a startup’s mobile game. They liked it enough to offer me the sound design gig as well. I started working on a batch of effects when they informed me they needed all the sound done in two weeks. This was above and beyond what one guy can accomplish alone, given the scope of the project, a convoy of assets that would likely need multiple drafts.

They asked if I knew other sound designers to join the team, and I offered up a few names I felt confident recommending. A few days later I’m told, “We’re going to stop working on sound after this batch… we need to spend money on art.”

Six months later the game is released with none of my music or sound. I was baffled. These guys paid me very well for both the music and the sounds delivered. I happily discussed variations and offered revisions without hesitation.

But for reasons beyond explanation (and without the opportunity to make it right) they wasted a quality chunk of time and money spinning their wheels and fired me from the project without expressing any sort of dissatisfaction with my work. Or perhaps they simply decided all the audio needed to go in a new direction. It likely ended up being an expensive decision for a small startup I suspect was working under a tight budget.

My brain spins all sorts of “I should have/I could have” scenarios at setbacks like this. Among them…

1. Seeing that I’m a freelancer dealing with a startup, why didn’t I simply take control of the audio and hire other sound designers, basically promoting myself to audio lead? I could have eliminated deadline concerns by taking care it all myself. It would have kept me in the loop (that is, assuming they’d still wanted me there) and possibly prevented me from getting lowballed and squeezed out by the designers I’d recommended. And perhaps the sound designers I’d subcontracted would hire me on a project of their own down the line.

2. The team sent me animations that would accompany all of their sound effects. I thought it was making my job easier (not to mention fun, seeing the visuals with my audio), but now I wonder if it would have been productive talking about the sounds in more detail and getting instructions in writing. Though we had a few quick discussions on the sounds and they sent me a YouTube clip of a game with audio in a style they liked, both were quite general for all the unique assets they needed. More talk about asset complexity, how each one reflects the character personalities, and more reference examples would have been helpful. These things that would have helped me better focus on the appropriate sounds to accompany those animations.

3. Whenever something uncomfortable like this happens, you can’t help wondering about the contracts involved. I gave this developer a contract stating all created sounds would be their property, but seeing how they didn’t use any of them, I would have loved to find them a home elsewhere, be it a sound library or another game. This one could merit a separate article as well, and perhaps more experienced sound designers all ready have this worked out in their own agreements, but I’m pondering a clause stating unused sounds revert back my ownership, though I’m unsure about it.

When Dealing with a Sound Designer, What Should You Do?

I’ve talked to many game professionals who express similar communication issues dealing with composers. They deliver one draft of music or sound, take it or leave it, refusing to do revisions, even though the submission is totally against what was requested. Or perhaps they hire a composer to create a reggae track not realizing this artist lives and dies by orchestral music, causing each side to go crazy when track after track isn’t working. I’ve learned expectations need to be outlined before contracts are signed. Questions need to be asked, such as:

What sound assets do you need? This should be a complete list.

What kind of music is needed? Is the composer experienced in creating that style?

How many variations will be allowed before additional payment is required? If audio requirements are well-detailed and the sound artist properly vetted, this number should be small.

How many music cues? How long is each cue?

How much of your game’s budget is dedicated to audio? In other words, how much of the budget comprises your fee?

How much time will the sound designer have (taking revisions into account) to deliver this audio?

The more these questions are discussed the better and more efficient the results will be. It might even disqualify the composer from the gig, which is for the best if it avoids unrealistic expectations on either side. I’ve lost gigs explaining to indie developers three minutes of epic orchestral music created in my home studio is far too much work for $100, yet my rate is far cheaper than hiring a full orchestra for tens of thousands of dollars!(source:GAMASUTRA)