The Sound Architect recently had the great chance to speak with Tim Rurkowski, Sound Designer/Composer for the up-coming indie game 10 Second Ninja. We asked Tim about his history in audio, the challenges that he’s had and other audio geek questions! Read below:

 

How did your journey into audio begin?

I studied audio at Full Sail University, I went there with an interest in music and games expecting to go on into film audio or game audio. (I do a little bit of film on the side when my friends need help.)

After graduation with a BA in Recording Arts (basically an “all audio for everything ever” degree), I started working as an unpaid intern at Full Sail working on Game Development student’s final projects. This is where I worked with under Chris Marks and got my very own game to do ALLLLLLL of the audio on, Ballistic Fist.

(Ballistic Fist)

http://gameproject.fullsail.com/gpgames/index.php/2012/05/ballistic-fist/

 

What was it like working on Ballistic Fist?

We used Wwise for implementation (so awesome) and Soundforge was our DAW of choice. During this project we even went out, got a good steak and recorded us beating it to pieces, we wanted good punch sounds, as it would be the most frequently played and most impactful on the actual feel of the game.

 

What was your biggest challenge with Ballistic Fist?

I’d say the biggest challenge was probably mixing. Chris took a back seat on the project, only answering questions I had for him and helping me learn the Wwise interface. For the most part, I just needed to EQ my sound effects to work around each other, and make use of Wwise’s ability to duck less important sounds, and music when those sounds weren’t essential.

 

Even though it was your biggest challenge, was it a great opportunity to be left to your own devices so soon in your career?

Absolutely, It let me jump right into the nitty gritty and make my own mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and get feedback on my work. It also let me really get into Wwise, and develop my file organization skills. Over the course of the project I needed to entirely reorganize it twice because of the way we decided to implement the character sound effects. Luckily I had plenty of time to do what I needed to.

 

How long have you worked in the games industry?

Roughly 2 years, but I’ve been interested for quite a bit longer. Saying that I’ve been “working” might be a bit of a stretch though, I’ve been largely unpaid so far.

 

Is there a sound that you have created that has stuck with you?

Yes.

Surface sounds in Six Sided Sanctuary were some of the few sounds I’ve fully recorded and edited myself. The base sound for an empty cube (it sounds like a suction cup) is actually me bending a roughly 1cm thick paperback textbook. I curved it and applied pressure until it snapped out of it’s curvature.

Otherwise the Hover panels in Six Sided Sanctuary are interesting. It’s a completely synthesized sound effect that sounds somewhat like a ghost gasping. One of the livestreamers (HJTenchi) that we had demonstrate the game before release said that it sounded like the cube was afraid to fall when hovering, and it gave the cube personality.

 

How would you advise aspiring sound designers such as myself who want to work in games?

1. Learn your DAW’s find one that you like and do as much with it as you possibly can. You become more desirable when you are fast.  Soundforge is particularly good if you are working purely on sound effects. I use logic for my midi based work (music composition and some synthesizers), and Pro Tools for most of my audio editing personally.

2. Start designing. Find some passion projects, strip some audio from a video you like and start from scratch, work on a few indie games that need audio work.

There is a lot of free work that can be done on indie games that may not pay up front, but you can usually get a percentage of any profits on the back end.

3. MOST IMPORTANTLY: Google is your friend (especially if you aren’t actually trained to work with audio.) If you don’t know what a plugin for your DAW does, look it up. There are plenty of tutorial videos out there for your DAWs

4. MORE MOST IMPORTANTLY: Frequent indie forums, and interact with as many game industry people as possible. Twitter is a good way to get a good handle on what people are doing on a daily basis and game news websites are a good way to keep up with what’s going on in in the industry. I hang out on TIGSource.com to get updates on indie games and devs that I like to pay attention to. This is also a good place to find projects.

BE WARNED: Audio for games is one of the more saturated and competitive job markets, expect a lot of competition…

 

What would be your Top Tip for getting work on indie games?

There really isn’t any one good way to get work on indie games unless you connect and network with the community.

One HUGE no no is cold posting on forums.

This means finding a forum, creating an account only to post your work in the audio section without taking a look around and interacting with others on the forums.

Look at other peoples games in Dev log, creative and idea sections and create a rapport with some of the developers, sound designers and artists. This will show that you aren’t only interested in getting a project for the sake of getting a project. Expect to get an equivalent response to the amount of effort you put in. Twitter is also your friend.

Network Network Network, and don’t cold post. Getting into this industry is a MASSIVE time investment.

 

What’s the best way to initiate contact with someone on the forums if you haven’t interacted before. Especially if you don’t want to come across with too much of a “Hire me!” attitude?

All you can really do, is express interest in the project itself, ask questions about it, and build a rapport for later down the line. After a while of doing this (yes you will need to invest time into the relationship) You can ask if they need any help on the project with audio work, or if you are lucky they will come to you. Asking questions about how they are handling their audio in game (specifics of what they intend to do) might get them thinking about bringing you in. It shows that you have knowledge on the subject rather than just an interest in working on sound.

Of course some people wills till write you off. Just keep working on building relationships. Be careful, if you only build a relationship for the work,  it will be apparent. If your end game is only to work on the project, you might want to change the way you think about work.

 

How did you get involved with 10 Second Ninja?

One of the questions I actually had to ask Dan Pearce (@GameDesignDan) who is doing everything else for 10 Second Ninja.

Basically we had a few twitter interactions before he was ready for audio. After a little while he mentioned needing some sound work done, and I got a recommendation from Joshua Davidson (one of the sound designers working at Gearbox and  lvl 97 Synthesizer Wizard) on top of that.

I love Josh.

How did you get to know Joshua Davidson?

Josh mentioned that he was visiting my school on twitter about a month or so before his visit. I engaged him and decided to write an in depth audio review on Borderlands (which he worked on towards the end of it’s development). I pretty much walked through the entire game, taking notes on everything. Environment changes, reverb zones, triggers, foley, dialogue… you name it, I listened. When he came in, we had a brief conversation and I handed him a copy of the review. After that we pretty much actively conversed via social network sites, and attempted to play Carcassonne together. (The online apps for playing aren’t very good, it was a slightly frustrating endeavor.)

After a while Josh invited me to shadow him at Gearbox Software, and we planned the trip for March, 2013. He even invited me to stay with him to cut down on my costs. He was incredibly hospitable.

 

Wow, what a fantastic opportunity, do you still speak regularly?

We still have a few online interactions, I still go to him with any questions I may have about the games they are working on (mostly Borderlands 2 at this point). Of course I’m considerate enough to realize that he can’t tell me certain things.

 

Who would you say is your most inspiring role model for sound design?

I don’t have any one specific role model, I tend to like the people who are more accessible, and willing communicate with me.

I do like specific projects though. Just to name a few:

Most Pixar films have excellent audio in general.

Dead Space sounds amazing, they used dynamic range incredibly well.

Mass Effect does a great job of using their effects to drive story at crucial moments.

The Zelda series does a great job of avoiding full voice work (and proves that it isn’t necessary to drive story).

I pretty much take inspiration from anywhere I can find it. There are so many excellent Sound Designers out there.

 

What was the first step in creating the audio for 10 Second Ninja?

I got a basic list of Sound Effects from Dan, and I played through the game and filled in what I thought was needed on top of what he gave me.

I started with the more important sounds, ninja movement, shurikens, sword slashes… The stuff that would be heard the most.

 

Are you creating the music as well?

Yes, yes and yes. I love composing for games (and sometimes just on my own time), so I pretty much take any opportunity I can to do both Sound Design and Music Composition.

 

Would you rather compose or sound design?

I don’t think I’d be able to choose… I guess it would depend on the project though.

When music is planned to be over the top, ridiculous, and weird, I’d definitely prefer composing. When it’s a generic genre with no room for creativity, no thanks.

If I were to work at a studio however,  Sound Design would be my preference. Also, going out into the field and capturing audio is a LOT of  fun, and there’s plenty  you can do after the audio is captured to make it unrecognizable. I even like the organization part, finding the best possible way to organize your audio is a good puzzle, (I’m a huge fan of puzzles). Being in a room with a voice actor, or doing it yourself is also a great deal of fun, especially with your more “interesting” characters.

Being part of a team, contributing directly to it, and building relationships with my teammates is incredibly important to me. I don’t like being kept at arms length on a project, ordered to finish this list and left alone with no chance of any other communication.

Ideally I’ll be doing both for the rest of my life, but I know the saying, “Jack of all Trades, Master of None” So right now I’m just delaying the inevitable.

Worst case, I become a weekend warrior with one of them.

 

Are there any other audio instances in 10SN such as voice etc?

Robo Hitler is pretty much going to be the only voice in the game. We’re also doing a few cutscenes where his minions speak with him, but they will be mostly robotic noises.

 

What Software/Plugins are you using?

My DAW choices for sound design are Pro Tools and SoundForge (even though I don’t own SoundForge at the point)

For my music and any synthesizers I may need to add in to my sound effects, I use Logic Pro 9. I also use a free synthesizer that’s great for minimalist chip type sounds called Bfxr.

The plugins I use are: Absynth4/5, Kontakt5 (for some sample based instruments, sounds), Logic’s packaged synthesizers, Pro Tools packaged Audio Suite plugins, and a few of the plugins from Sound Toys. I also use EWQL Gold Symphonic Orchestra. There are quite a few others but those are the most important ones.

 

How are you implementing the audio?

Since 10 Second Ninja is actually made in Game Maker, I’ve given Dan all of the assets and instructed him on how I want them to work in game. He also built me a nice little mixing tool in game where I can control audio levels for each Sound Effect independently.

All of the SFX were implemented in a standard way, basically playing whenever specific events happen.

However, with the Music we did something somewhat interesting. Each piece of music has two layers, the first layer is the basic music with the more important instrumentation, this plays chord structure and minimal melodies. Then I have my second layer which adds extra instrumentation on top of the base layer and generally makes the music more intense.

The first layer plays on the world/level select and when you start playing a level the second layer unmutes.

 

Are there any challenges that have arisen already?

Not really on my end, I think most of the challenges were to be had by Dan. For the most part I had most of the assets I needed and simply needed to tweak and layer them (as well as record some fresh foley).

Working on the first music track may have been the most difficult part (and I’m not saying it was difficult). Simply because I didn’t know what we needed past very vague descriptions from Dan. I knew it needed to be fast paced and ninja-like.

 

Thanks for the questions and hopefully these were satisfying answers!

 

Tim Rurkowski is currently working alongside Dan Pearce on 10 Second Ninja,  an up-coming indie game where you have 10 seconds in each level to fight robot Adolf Hitler and his army. Oh yeah, and you’re a ninja! The Sound Architect is also receiving a press release copy to review so keep an eye out for the audio review soon! More information here http://10secondninja.com/

 

For  music by Tim Rurkowski:

https://soundcloud.com/trurkowski

http://timrurkowski.bandcamp.com/

 

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/Trurkowski

 

You can also directly contact him with any questions via email:

timrurkowski@yahoo.com

 

Interview by Sam Hughes

Uploaded 31/08/13

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