Last week on the 31st of August I flew from Austin to Seattle! It's my second time going to PAX West and being on the panel "Let's Make a Video Game: Live on Stage" however, this time I wasn't only Composer but I was also the Sound Designer! It was challenging to say the least managing both aspects of audio in a chaotic but extremely fun 1 hour game jam! Surprisingly the game turned out pretty well this year, we actually finished creating the game on time and I enjoyed recording the sound effects for the game as well as the music.
Our game was called 'Cornado' it involves cows, corn, tornados, and... a rhinoceros! We had some very entertaining auditions throughout the panel to see who in the audience could do the best rhino impression, we recorded it and slapped the audio into the game! I also had the idea to split the audience into two sections and record half of them saying "GAME" and the other half "OVER" so we got a great sounding "GAME OVER!" for when you lose the game which involved the entire crowd! I recorded all the sound effects on my phone to show just how easy and accessible recording sounds can be, you don't always need expensive recording equipment to call yourself a sound designer! It was also very efficient and easy transferring the audio files onto my laptop and quickly editing them. The room was totally full and we had another very successful but always chaotic panel of live game development on stage! Thank you everyone who joined in and cheered for us!
Panelists:
Alisa Bishop (she/her) [Senior UI/UX Artist]
Kieran Lampert (he/him) [Senior Artist, Polyarc]
Eric Mazer (he/him) [Platform Engineer, PlayEveryWare]
Will Overgard (he/him) [Broadcaster, Viking Blonde]
Sam Winkler (he/him) [Narrative Director, Gearbox]
Virginia Leo (she/her) [Composer and Sound Designer]
Watch the Panel Livestream:
Play the Game: https://www.livegame.dev/West2024/
Listen to the Soundtrack: https://soundcloud.com/virginialeo/cornado-pax-west-2024
Sat, Aug 31, 2024
9:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Frog Theatre
Ever wanted to know what it's like to make a game? How about seeing it done live on stage in under an hour? Join a group of award-winning developers from across the industry involved with over 30 games from Indie to AAA as they attempt the impossible. Will they succeed with no time and no budget or will chaos get the best of them?
Someone drew fan art for us! Kernel Todd Cobb from Cornado!
I also met Billy Basso the developer for Animal Well on the expo floor and hang out with all of my game audio buddies! I can't wait to come back to PAX West 2025 💛
