The video game industry is quickly expanding in Montreal. While image is still at the forefront of the video game, the audio track makes the gamer’s experience even more captivating. But how can video game makers find a balance between sound effects and accompanying music? In what way are sound effects and music integrated to the video game? What constitutes the creative process? Should the audio track be thought of before the creation of the game? Contrarily to sports or racing games, interactive/narrative fictions seem to use more sound effects and original music scored for the game, than music from bands. Should music from independent artists take more room in the interactive video game field? 

Moderator:

Samuel Girardin
Game On Audio, Canada
CEO
A passionate audio producer, Samuel is an innovator with over 140 games to his credit. With his exceptional sense of where the industry is going, he constantly pushes his colleagues to raise the standards of gaming. Frequently flying between Montréal and Los Angeles, he ensures that his studios continue to deliver products of the highest quality.
http://www.gameonaudio.com

Panelists:

Alexandre Saba
Funcom Games, Canada
Senior sound designer
Hired as a full-time sound designer after graduating from university, Alex worked at Wave Generation as a sound designer and project manager for five years. He is credited on some of the industry’s most acclaimed video games, including Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age 1 & 2, Crysis, Army of Two, and Civilization IV and V. He is currently working as a senior sound designer at Funcom Games in Montréal.
http://www.funcom.com

 

Josh Kessler
Downtown Music Publishing, United States
A&R – music licensing
Josh Kessler is currently a music publishing executive at Downtown Music Publishing, overseeing the sync licensing company dms.FM. He has independently music supervised documentaries, feature films and video games including Saints Row: The Third (THQ), one of the biggest selling video game titles of 2011. Over the past 15 years he has written or produced original music for hundreds of film, television and advertising projects.
http://www.downtownmusicpub.com

Simon Ashby
Audiokinetic, Canada
CEO
Simon Ashby cofounded Audiokinetic with the objective of bringing a complete and powerful audio solution to game developers. With his team, Simon commercialized Wwise (WaveWorks Interactive Sound Engine) in 2006. Wwise is now used in more than 200 games. Prior to Audiokinetic, Ashby worked for Ubisoft as senior sound designer.
http://www.audiokinetic.com

Steve Szczepkowski
Eidos Montréal, Canada
Audio director
Steve Szczepkowski, has worked in the gaming industry as an audio professional for the last 11 years. A graduate of Trebas Institute in Montréal, he started out as a voice actor in video games. Steve has also been a performing musician for the last 25 years.
http://www.eidosmontreal.com