What does a Sound Designer (Games and Tech) do?
Working freelance or as part of a larger audio team, sound designers are responsible for creating or compiling high-quality audio assets for interactive media projects like video games, applications, and operating systems. The audio assets that sound designers are responsible for include sound effects, background score, and voice-over. However, this is far from all that sound designers do.
At a Glance
Most sound designers earn a bachelor's degree in audio engineering or a related field. Although this is an entry-level position, it's not an easy one to get, and requires an impressive portfolio.
For sound designers who are just starting out, it's critical to have a way to demonstrate your skills—especially your ability to create and implement sound. Create your own project, work on a small indie project, redo the sound for a video or game level, or contribute sound design to the robust game-modding community, and you become far more likely to get that first job on a major project.
- Sound design
- Audio implementation (Wwise, FMod)
- Audio production
- Audio recording
- Audio editing
- Sound libraries
- Coding (C or C++)
Because they’re part of the video game industry, which requires many individual parts—those created by game designers, character designers, animators, and composers—to be ready around the same time, sound designers must be extremely communicative, collaborative, and deadline-oriented. Finally, a passion for and love of video games is essential.
Sound designers may be in-house employees of a game studio—members of the studio's audio department—or freelancers who make contracts with said studios. Sound design rarely requires extensive travel, though it’s not necessarily all desk work, either.
