Mark K

Sound Design

Bio

I've wanted to make sounds for games since I was five. I spent a lot of time as a kid and teenager playing in bands. I worked as a professional DJ for a few years before finally breaking into TV advertising as an audio assistant. From there I worked my way up, and eventually made the jump to games.

Length of time I have been employed in the industry

Two years in games, four years in audio

Game companies I have worked for

Activision, Eidos, Bizarre Creations, Gearbox Software

Titles I have worked on

Tony Hawk's Project 8, Bionicle Heroes, Project Gotham Racing 4, Boom Boom Rocket, The Club, Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway, Aliens and Borderlands

Advice

Resources I would recommend for those interested in getting into game development (books, tutorials, sites, etc)

Game audio is a tough one because there are so few positions out there. Here are a few resources, but at the end of the day it's about knowing your tools, being good at what you do and making friends in the business. And when I say making friends, I mean it... don't meet people just to get a job. Meet them, get to know them, make friends with them and the work will follow in time. Game audio folks are some of the coolest people in this business :)

BOOKS
"Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound" by David Lewis Yewdall
"The Complete Guide To Game Audio" by Aaron Marks

SITES
Game Audio Forum
My Audio Resources Page

TOOLS
FMOD
Microsoft XNA/XACT

Learn your DAW of choice inside out. Then get your hands on FMOD or XNA (which contains XACT, the audio authoring tool) and learn how to create sound events and wire things up. Half of good game sound design is implementation.

Once you've done all that... go work on a mod :)

Favorites

First game I remember playing

Gyromite. I had ROB too, but I think my parents threw it away at some point :(

All-time favorite game

Metal Gear Solid (PS1). It elevated the medium in all areas. The Silent Hill games were a huge influence on me as well.

Non-video gaming hobbies

I spend a lot of time with my far cuter half and our dogs, I'm a pretty good cook, I'm writing a book and occasionally I write music and do remixes for friends' bands

Favorite bands/music

Electronic, Peter Gabriel, Anything Box, DNTEL, Imogen Heap, The Alpha Conspiracy, Kilowatts, Styrofoam

Favorite books/authors

"The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury, "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman, "Dearly Devoted Dexter" by Jeff Lindsay, anything at all by Kurt Vonnegut

Favorite TV shows

Weeds, Dexter, Six Feet Under, Twin Peaks

Favorite movies

Blue Velvet, High Fidelity, Closely Watched Trains, The Shining

Favorite quote

"The unexamined life is not worth living." -Socrates