When video game audio teams find themselves with too much to do and not enough people to do it, Alexander Brandon explains that the issues can be isolated and constructively solved.
Going in-depth about the various causes of staff resource mismanagement on audio teams, Brandon notes:
"Take a look at how several companies hire and fire. Speaking fairly, sometimes this just happens even with the best of planning. But identifying long term needs is critical to establishing just how far you will require a service and the ability to budget for it. Most of the time however, Alpha only lasts a few months (even less for PC or single platform titles), VO sessions around the same (far less for projects with fewer than 10,000 lines), and sometimes racing towards a demo can only last a few weeks."
Tasks such as simple VO edits, file processing and batch conversion, and file management and testing can be taught in a single day, Brandon says -- and advises against expending time on areas that would be better served by others:
"Which build needs to have what files? Are they all present? What about the exponentially higher amounts of VO for localized versions? Again, these questions are important, but not critical in actually making the game more fun. If that is your job, you needn’t worry about these questions and they’re best dealt with by someone else."
You can now
read the complete feature, which contains more of Brandon's process breakdown and advice (no reg. required, please feel free to link to this feature from other websites.)
