GameSoundCon, the premier conference on video game music and sound design, will be held November 7-8, 2017, at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, featuring expert panels and intensive master class series on topics such as Game Audio Essentials, Game Audio Pro, Audio for Virtual Reality, Wwise Special Training, Speed Mentoring, along with more than 50 additional panels of interest to videogame sound professionals.
This year’s keynote speaker will be Becky Allen, head of Audio at PopCap/EA and the first female game sound professional to deliver the keynote at GameSoundCon.
“Becky has helped push the industry forward her entire two and a half decade career; not just through her work as Audio Director and composer at EA/PopCap, or her work at Microsoft or SounDelux, but as one of the leaders of our industry,” says Brian Schmidt, GameSoundCon’s founder and Executive Director. “I’m honored that she’s willing to deliver the keynote speech at GameSoundCon this year and share her insights and experience with us.”
Becky Allen, keynote speaker
Other presenters and speakers include industry heavyweights like Neal Acree (World of Warcraft, Overwatch, StarCraft, Diablo, TV shows Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis plus over 30 feature films), Paul Lipson (HALO Wars), Gordy Haab (Star Wars: Battlefront).
The dedicated Virtual Reality Track has proven particularly popular, with notable speakers like Sally-Anne Kellaway, named by Variety one of the “10 virtual reality innovators to watch.” Session topics range from Creating Immersive Soundscapes with 3D Audio on Playstation 4, to Composing Interactive Music, to hands-on Wwise-session training and professional advice.
A hot topic of conversation between the sessions will no doubt be the recently released GameSoundCon Audio Industry Survey, which covers both freelance and salaried game music composers and sound designers and provides revealing data on income and educational levels of game audio pros.
For the third consecutive year, the report shows that women in game audio are on the rise. While their overall presence in the industry is still small, it is growing: 12.7% of those reporting are female (up from 10.4% in 2016, and 7% in 2015).
The complete report shows detailed information about average salaries, per project and per minute fees, how many composers also do sound effects, integration and programming work, and how many game audio pros are currently working on a Virtual Reality title.
If you would like to see the full report, it is available at the GameSoundCon website.
