Decorated audio composer calls for better commitment from the industry
One of the most experienced game audio composers in the world has criticised the industry for persistently holding back on game audio investment.
Richard Jacques reckons game audio still takes the crumbs of a typical project budget.
“It is of course one of those things that the audio community are always ‘banging on about’, but perhaps that is because the saying is still very true?” he asked.
“When working on a large-scale title, there are so many aspects to making great audio, and unfortunately we are still faced with someone picking a number out of a hat for the audio budget,” he added.
“Maybe another 10 years of banging on about it will help matters? Time will tell.”
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Speaking in this week’s Develop FAQ, Jacques also criticised the exploitation of hard-working developers,.
Elsewhere, he said his favourite game was Bethesda’s Oblivion, though admitted he doesn't mind watching trash TV, and added that he visits game site UK:Resistance.
I always thought that this was true and that audio seem a little left behind in some cases, but then I took a look at the Develop 'Who Earns What?' section of their salary survey. It shows that role of Lead Audio earns an average salary of £46,750! That's more than Lead Coders, Artists, Designers, QA and Producers!!! If that's true, then it doesn't sound like investment is being held back to me.
Maybe you mean investment in resources and development in audio, if so how about diverting some of those wages onto it?
I didn't even know audio was that expensive to obtain. Isn't it done mostly with instruments and sounds the company already has in a library? Or does the team have to go collect new sounds for every game?
Well every developer has a lead artist and a lead coder. But very few have any audio staff other than maybe a programmer or sound designer.
And audio doesn't have to be expensive, but it does have to be taken seriously and addressed early.
