Building an Interactive Portfolio

As a student at the 127th AES Convention attending the game audio track lectures, I found the best advice was given by Richard Stevens from Leeds Metropolitan University.

"If you don't have some sort of game or interactive project in your portfolio, you're just not trying hard enough."

This makes perfect sense, and I don't see why more people don't do this. It's all fine and dandy to have your Flash mp3 playlist of your demo reel on your site—potential game developers looking for an audio guy want to know if your music and sound design work is any good with a quick listen. But, how do they know you really know how to make this stuff sound good in an interactive setting?

Read more

Sick Puppies Face Fans In Smackdown Vs. Raw

The EMI/Capitol Music Group band Sick Puppies will be logging in to their Xbox Live user tag SICKPUPPIESband on friday Dec. 18th at 8 PM to face off with fans in WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2010. The first single from Sick Puppies, "You're Going Down" is featured in the games soundtrack and acted as the WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view event in June.

Another example of how artists can leverage interactive media to establish strong ties to their fan base.

Source

Spike Video Game Award Winners

Yesterday Spike TV broadcast its VGA 2009 award show. The music related winners are:

Best Music Game: The Beatles: Rock Band

Best Soundtrack: DJ Hero

Best Original Score: Halo 3 ODST

Best Voice: Jack Black as Eddie Riggs from Brutal Legend

Check out the full list of winners, show highlights and future schedules airings at the VGA 2009 homepage

Prof. Sam's Tweets Of The Week

Associated Press names Rock Band 2 "Game of the Decade"

Wait, Activision's suing No Doubt now in retaliation?

Activision Countersues No Doubt

Earlier in the year No Doubt sued Band Hero publisher Activision over their in game avatars availability for use in all game tracks, not solely their own. This week Activision has filed a counter suit. Activision claims that the bands request for limited avatar usage came only after the programming for the game had been completely. Additionally they claim that the band failed to promote the game, as was required in their contract and are asking for the bands payment back, legal fees and, of course, unspecified damages.

You can check out a hosted .pdf of the counter suit in the Hollywood Reporter article

Prof. Sam's Tweets Of The Week

Royal Navy sailors given PSPs as study aids.

Guitar Hero 6 team exploring Natal possibilities

A more in depth look at the SoundCloud iPhone App

Platform, baby. RBNetwork should be up early next year. Gamasutra: Rock Band Reaches 1,000 Total Songs, 60M Downloads.

The Escapist: Game Storytelling Should Look to Music, Not Film.

Stigmatization Fail

Delaware Online published an article today trying to dispel the notion that playing rhythm action games such as Guitar Hero or Rock Band, dissuades kids from trying out the real thing. The article highlights several kids and a music instructor who all attest the opposite.

While this is just a small step in erasing these negative assumptions, it is most likely the first of many.