I recently sent out a survey asking people what they wanted to learn about game sound design, and got tons of fantastic responses. So if you were one of the kind souls who filled it out, thank you!
Well over 80% of the answers asked about whether or not it’s a good idea to learn FMOD or Wwise. I think that’s the wrong question to ask. The answer to “should I learn…” is almost always yes. ABC: Always Be Learning.
I get it, though. Game audio isn’t always super clear on what you should or shouldn’t be doing.
Game companies do like seeing people with implementation skills, it’s true. But they generally much prefer hiring a good sound designer who is just okay at implementation, over an amazing implementer who sucks at sound design. Implementation can be learned relatively quickly, while the skills of sound design take much longer to train.
This is, of course, providing you want to create sound design for games, and not become an audio programmer, full-time implementer, or a technical sound designer.
So, this is a quick article to point you toward the right resources to get better at implementation using FMOD or Wwise:
There. Now no one has any excuse not to be at least decent at implementation!
These technical skills are important And along with technical skills, we also need to focus on creative and business skills. Unfortunately, I see so many great sound designers struggling in their careers because of their lack of business skills.
I certainly found it tough to charge for my work, network, and negotiate with developers when I first started. And considering I struggled so much in my early days, I created two free courses to help my fellow game audio freelancers find great, paying work that they love.