作者：Alexander Brandon

当我们制作音乐的人遇到有趣的工作时，我们会坐在篝火旁边一边弹着Martin Backpacker吉他，一边在笔记本上调试Kyma和Korg Kaoss Pad（声音引擎），一边思考如何把那么多音符压缩成32K。然而，现在我们面临着更严峻的现实：预算。

在现在的游戏开发环境下，如果没有深入了解声音预算，内容创作者和总监等人会面临一些棘手的问题。游戏预算似乎越来越多地遇到成本超支的问题，虽然我不可能用一篇文章就对整个游戏预算做出分析，但我们看看哪些技巧有助于把你的声音预算控制住。

game audio studio(from gameaudiofactory.com)

变量

什么变量使声音预算失控？我使用一些公式帮助我避免预算估计过少或过多（本文详解了其中三个）。

估算声音预算是声音主管、经理和制作人的责任，但内容创作者在创作过程中也应该考虑预算。许多音乐外包创作者的高级初始计划要看发行商的年度收益和费用。但这只是一部分。

音乐

音乐。原创音乐的认可分钟数的行业标准（IS）费用是1000-1200美元每分钟。“认可的”意味着合理的修改量（如果你修改某物超过5次，那么你就是浪费钱）。当计划你的预算时，你必须估计必须游戏内的原创音乐的分钟（MR）的数量。每款游戏都有自己的要求，但幸运的是我们基本上都放弃老传统——每个游戏关卡有一分钟长的循环的原创音乐。

现在标准的MR是每个关卡的音乐时长约为2-3分钟，但总有办法少花钱同时得到0重复率的自适应音乐。

根据游戏类型，游戏会添加配乐（P）。赛车游戏、益智游戏和格斗游戏是对配乐需求较低的游戏类型。角色扮演类游戏通常需要最多配乐，因为它们的游戏时间最长，最需要避免声音重复。以下是我用来估计音乐成本的公式：

ISxMR+P=估计音乐成本

声音效果

SFX。我发现根据声音类型估计是个好办法。发科技司你把音乐材料列表分类，它可以帮助你确定哪些声音容易制作，哪些声音更复杂。

这个公式可以用于绝大部分声音类型，所以我建议估计声音成本的人都应该使用这个公式。赛车游戏通常有大量复杂的声音效果，但那个复杂度因简单的引擎和复杂的引擎而有所不同。

知道必需的声音效果（FXR）的数量和它们的生产率（PR）——从每个5美元（SE，如简单的脚步声）到50美元（CE，复杂的机关枪的声音），有助于把预算控制在比较现实的范围内。

我用来估计声音效果的成本的公式是：

(FXR x PR(SE))+(FXR x PR(CE))=估计的声音效果成本

注：这个（SE）是记号而不是表示乘上SE

旁白

旁白。根据美国演员工会和美国联邦电视电演员联盟，演员录制四小时的旁白的行业标准费用是759美元。

非联盟费用大约是500美元每四小时。是的，游戏可以使用非联盟的方案，但记住，大部分情况下你只能选择联盟的或非联盟的，而不能二者兼用。在优秀的导演的指导下，演员可以完成每小时的对白（LH）大约是80-100句，而ADR（自动对白替换，即视频制作好以后再录制对话的过程）大约是每小时50句或更少。

ADR是你应该避免的，因为有些演员可以解决它，只是需要更多时间。无论是多少时间，都是一个非常痛苦的过程，通常比重新动作捕捉和重新对口型更划算，取决于场景的长度。这时，你就得到了行计数（LC）。

最后，你可以外包（OS）对话的编辑工作吗？你可以外包导演吗？如果可以，编辑费用是每行2-3美元，导演是每行3-6美元。如果可能的话，通常比内部团队自己做来得划算。

计算估计的旁白成本的公式是：

LC/LHxIS(+OS)= 估计的旁白成本

公式语境

这些公式不一定给你完全准确的结果。在整个过程中你都必须使用这些工具、追踪你的花费，同时遵守一些指导方针。

详尽地阅读设计文件。如果你很幸运有一个准确的、经常更新的设计文件，那么认真地阅读它可以帮助你估计必须的声音、旁白、音乐等是否超出基本资产要求。

整合。与美术一样，整合是游戏音乐制作过程的重要环节。如果你是在大公司如EA或Sony工作，那么你会有内部的工作人员帮你做整合工作。但如果你不是，这个任务可能会落在设计师或程序员的头上，那么预算超支的情况就很难避免了。声音设计师的工资成本通常比程序员（和设计师）来得低，但他们的整合工作做得更快更好。我没有关于整合的公式，因为每一款游戏都有不同的整合要求，但随着标准的声音整合工具的全球普及，这个情况已经慢慢地改观了。总之，要保证让可靠的人负责将声音整合到游戏中。

注意授权。授权的危险和好处并存，但请名人给游戏献声是第一件让预算失控的事。通常来说，请知名艺人念游戏的主要旁白的成本，相当于或超过请其他所有配音演员加起来的费用。问问营销部门和制作人：请明星献声真的可以带动销量吗？根据历史，明星并不能提高游戏销量，除非这款游戏本身与这位明星有关，且玩法和授权是主要卖点。

彻底理解目标。大部分开发者都有两个主要目标：一是制作出有趣的游戏；二是花尽可能少的钱。第二个目标比较难实现，但明确这个目标是很重要的，因为它是赢利的有机部分，也就是说，控制成本是开发者和发行商赖以生存和发展的关键。

各个开发者和发行商都有不同的实现目标的方式，但历史告诉我们，要成功，这两个目标的排序应该是“乐趣”第一，“挣钱”第二。举两个简单的例子，《魔兽世界》和《侠盗猎车手3》。当然，也有些人这样排序目标仍然失败了。

游戏的声音

记住以上几点，你就有可能用更少的钱达到更大的目标。如果你在预生产时就开始使用这些公式，你就能更好地估计游戏声音的预算。（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）

Some simple math for figuring out your game’s audio budget

By Alexander Brandon

When we audio folk are engaging in the more fun side of game audio, we’re sitting around the campfire strumming Martin Backpacker guitars, fudging with Kyma and a Korg Kaoss Pad on the laptop, and figuring out how to squeeze a thousand sounds into 32K of memory. Yet, there’s a harsher reality emerging in recent days: our budgets.

Without a keen understanding of what really goes into an audio budget, content creators and directors alike will encounter some nasty pitfalls in today’s game development environment. More and more, game budgets seem to encounter cost overruns, and while I can’t make an analysis of an entire game budget in one column, let’s take a look at some techniques that can help your audio budget stay on target.

Variables

What are the variables that make an audio budget go out of control? There are a few simple formulas I follow to avoid over or under estimating a budget (three of which I detail for you in this column).

Estimating the audio budget is the responsibility of audio leads, managers, and producers, but estimation also plays a role in a content creator’s pitching process. A high-level initial plan of many music contractors (I say music contractors because most of the demos and solicitations I get are from composers) is to look at a publisher’s annual revenue and charge accordingly. But this is only part of the picture.

The Birth of Sound

Music. The industry standard (IS) rate for approved minutes of original music is $1,000–$1,200 per minute. “Approved” means with a reasonable amount of revision (if you revise something more than five times, you’re wasting money). When devising your budget, you need to estimate the number of minutes required (MR) for in-game original music. Each game has its own needs, but fortunately we’re mostly beyond the old tradition of having one minute of looped original music per game level.

The standard MR these days is around 2–3 minutes of music per level, but there are always ways to spend less and get zero repetition with an adaptive soundtrack.

Padding (P) is incidental music that you add depending on the project genre. Racing games, puzzle games, and fighting games have less need for padding than other genres. Role-playing games usually require the most padding because they have the most gameplay time and the greatest need to avoid aural repetition. Here’s the formula I use for figuring the estimated music cost: ISxMR+P=estimated music cost.

Sound Effectiveness

SFX. I find a good way to estimate is based on sound type. If you break your sound asset list into categories, it will help you identify which sounds are easy to produce, and which are more complex.

This equation can be used for as many sound types as you need, and so I urge whoever is estimating costs to use this for every sound the game design will require. A top notch driving game will have a lot of complex sound effects, but that complexity may vary from a single engine loop to a complex engine loop with piston sounds as well as the hum of the engine block, which varies cost.

Knowing the number of sound effects required (FXR) and their production rates (PR) — which range from $5 per sound effect for something like footsteps (simple effect, or SE), to $50 or more per sound effect for a good machine gun sound (complex effect, or CE) — will help boil down a budget to something more realistic.

The formula I use to estimate my sound effects cost looks like this: (FXR x PR(SE))+(FXR x PR(CE))= estimated sound effect cost.

[Note that (SE) is a signifier rather than a multiplicative.]

Intellivoice

Voice over. The industry standard rate for a four-hour session with either a Screen Actors Guild or American Federation of Television and Radio Artists-based union member is $759 as of press time.

Good non-union rates are around $500 for a four-hour session. Yes, there is a place for non-union talent in games, but remember that in most cases you can only use union or non-union, not both.

Count on about 80–100 lines an hour (LH) with a good director, and 50 lines an hour or less for ADR (automated dialogue replacement, which is the process of re-recording dialogue once video has already been created).

ADR is what you really want to avoid since some actors can nail it and some take a lot more time. Regardless of time, it is a very painful process, and often it is more economical to re-mocap and re-lipsync, depending on the length of the scene. At this point, you have your line count (LC).

Finally, will you outsource (OS) the editing of the dialogue? Will you outsource the directing? If so, you’re looking at around $2–$3 per line for editing and $3–$6 per line for directing. It is usually less expensive to do this inhouse when possible.

A useful formula for configuring your estimated voice over cost is: LC/LHxIS(+OS)= estimated voice over cost.

Formula Context

These formulas won’t necessarily get you a completely accurate estimate. You have to use these tools throughout the project, keeping track of what you’re spending, while also following a few more guidelines.

Read the design document thoroughly. If you are lucky enough to have an accurate, regularly updated design document, reading it carefully will allow you to estimate every possible area for sound, voice over, or music that you will need, outside of the developer’s basic asset requirements.

Integration. Just as in art, integrating is an important part of the game audio process. If you’re with a big firm like Electronic Arts or Sony, you have in-house engineers that can do this for you. But if you aren’t, chances are a designer or programmer will be integrating your audio, and you’re entering a potential cost overrun situation. Audio designers are less expensive than programmers (and often designers as well), and they’ll integrate the audio faster and with better quality. I don’t have a formula for integrating because each game has different individual integration requirements, but this climate is changing with a slow but steady global movement towards standardized audio integration tools. Just be sure you have a solid pipeline for getting sounds into your game.

Be careful with licensing. There are many hazards and benefits involved in licensing, but using celebrity talent for a game is the first thing that can balloon an audio budget. Often, using a single star for the lead voice over role will cost as much or more than the rest of the actors’ fees combined. Ask hard questions of the marketing departments and producers: will use of a star really help sell units? Historically, stars have not helped games sell units unless the game is based around that star, and even then, the gameplay and license are the main selling points.

Understand the goals from the top down. Most developers have two primary goals: make a fun game and spend the least possible amount of money. The second goal is a hard one to take in, but understanding it is important because it is an integral part of generating profit, namely the money that developers and publishers use to stay alive and grow.

Each publisher and developer has a different way of doing this, but history tells us that intelligently concentrating on the “fun” goal first and the “money” goal second generates a hit. Two simple examples are World of Warcraft and later iterations of the Grand Theft Auto III franchise, but remember, I said “intelligently.” There have also been a lot of failures using that goal focus.

The Sound of Game

With all of this in mind you’re well on your way to spending less while achieving more with your game audio. If you use this information from the first days of pre-production, you’ll be able to more intelligently estimate and stay on or under budget.(source:gamasutra)