IASIG at 2015 GDC

March 2 - 6, 2015 San Francisco CA

2015 IASIG Event Sponsors


    

 
        

2015 IASIG Giveaway Sponsors 

IK Multimedia  |  iZotope


GDC Sponsor Videos 

Thank you to our Event Sponsors: Audiokinetic, Berklee College of Music, FMOD, Fabric, and Dolby! Check out some highlights from their Expo floor exhibits on the IASIG YouTube Channel.

IASIG Audio Mixer @ Thirsty Bear

The IASIG's "Audio Mixer" is the premier social event at GDC for game audio    professionals. This year we had over 160 people at the Thirsty Bear hanging out with the biggest names in audio for games and interactive entertainment,and thousands of dollars worth of prizes from IK Multimedia and iZotope. Follow this link to view photos from the event: Photos.

21st Annual IASIG Town Hall Meeting

Our Town Hall Meeting is an annual opportunity for game audio professionals at GDC to discover how IASIG members are helping to improve the tools and platforms for interactive audio, and to propose new projects and topics for discussion. This year the topics raised at the meeting were:

  • Promoting Best Practices: Many issues were discussed, with the idea being to get game audio professionals to collaborate to publish some form of living document (a Wiki was proposed) of industry best practices. Some of the issues:
    • Unity 4 Audio Production License: For audio freelancers, it would be great to have a lower-cost version of Unity 4 licensed specifically to audio professionals with certain features removed (such as being able to make builds). A case study might be helpful, to show the motivation behind this and why it would be beneficial to the industry.
    • Audio Community Liaison: It can be difficult for freelancers to communicate with clients who don't have a dedicated representative that understands and works the audio community. A best practices document could recommend every company have such a person, and define what that person should know to be an effective liaison.
    • Voice-over Profession: The issue of best practices in working with voice actors was also raised. GANG has a section for professional voice actors, so it would make sense to collaborate.
  • IASIG and GANG Collaboration: Some people felt the two "audio community" groups (IASIG and GANG) should be more proactive about sharing information and collaborating to apply the full weight of the industry on important issues. GANG President Brian Schmidt was in attendance and gave a thumbs up to the idea. IASIG's Brennan Anderson offered to discuss this further with Brian and come up with a formal plan.
  • DAW/Middleware Integration: Being able to use typical sound design and editing tools (wave editors and plugins) while working with game audio middleware (Wwise, Fmod, etc.) is very appealing, and some progress has already been made (Nuendo/Wwise). More products could become integrated if the product developers were able to quickly understand what is needed (how do the tools interoperate, what features do game audio developers need, etc.), which could be accomplished sooner if there was a report with recommendations from the game audio community (an IASIG White Paper).
  • Tactile Feedback: This is an aspect of audio that is gaining interest, and could benefit from the clarity and recommendations of an IASIG Guidelines document.
  • Physical Modeling Plug-in Standards: An IASIG working group was announced at GDC. More details are available on the IASIG website's Projects page.
  • IASIG Education Guidelines: We have an open project to take the current Curriculum Guidelines document and update it and/or move it to a WIKI so people can add to it.