MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Ross Tregenza, audio designer, Sumo Digital
In your own words, what is the All Your Bass festival and how did it come about?
All Your Bass is a celebration of music in video games, put together by the National Videogame Arcade (NVA). There’s a fantastic line-up of talks, sessions and workshops with composers from all eras of video game music. Nottingham has always been a hub for video game development, with a number of dev companies based here as well as other great outlets past and present for the industry and history of videos games including Confetti, the National Videogame Arcade and Gamecity.
How important is it to host events that focus on video games music?
Video Game Music has always had passionate followers, and as the popularity of games has grown, so has the number of people who love the music. It’s great to finally give those music lovers a chance to meet the composers, attend talks and workshops and meet other like-minded game music fans.
In what other ways can the industry highlight the importance of video game music and audio design?
I think it’s important and beneficial for studios to be transparent and inclusive in regards to development, and music is an area where that’s particularly true. People love to learn about game development, so providing online videos, tutorials or live talks about the music systems and content is definitely the way forward. Plus, composers love the music they write, so a chance to discuss the music they’re so proud of is a win win!
What are your hopes for All Your Bass? Where do you see it going in the years to come?
Onwards and upwards! I really hope to see this becoming a yearly event and growing in scope. More interactive classes to inspire people to get into games composition and dynamic music design, and even more talks and workshops from composers around the world.
What current music and audio related roles are you hiring for?
We’re currently looking for another audio designer to join our audio team in Nottingham, although this is more of a sound design role as opposed to music based. We have a great audio team at Sumo, with a huge range of different skill sets so it’s exciting to add to that.
What are your feelings about the current skills market when it comes to music composing and sound design?
It’s an amazing time. I’m regularly blown away by the quality bar of the candidates applying for roles. I think it can be put down to the availability of sound design and video game music composition courses (that really didn’t exist when I joined the industry!) and the availability of high quality tools for people to work with. It’s so exciting to see the sound design and game music composition world going from strength to strength.
