In Your Head: Audio-driven Everything in 'Alan Wake 2' and its Mind Place

I was chosen to talk at GDC 2024 on the Audio Track about some of my work on Alan Wake 2. It is unfortanately locked behind the GDC Vault paywall. If you don't have access, you can find the presentation slides and detailed notes here.

"We Sing" Creative Audio Effects Treatment

In Alan Wake 2's "We Sing" Musical section, I was responsible for realising a lot of creative audio effects that were intimately tied to the gameplay to further sell the epic spectacle of this chapter. This is probably the most fun and rewarding thing I've worked on in my career so far.

Mind Place Sound Design

The Mind Place is an immersive and diegetic in-game interface inside of Saga's head that functions as an interactive record of the story so far. I worked on the sound design for the entire Mind Place, and its Profiling feature. I go into depth on the profiling feature in my GDC 2024 Talk here. If you don't have GDC Vault Access, you can find the presentation with detailed notes here.

Level, Gameplay and UI Sound Design

While my primary work on Alan Wake 2 was the Mind Place, Writer's Room and otherwise mostly Technical Audio Design, I did manage to take on a few more typical level, gameplay and UI tasks for a change of pace. This is a compilation of that work.

The Last of Us: Part 2

Gameplay Sound Redesign

A sound redesign of a fight with the infected in The Last of Us Part 2. I wanted to try to do justice to one of my favourite sounding games of all time.

Halo 2: Anniversary

Cinematic Sound Redesign

A sound redesign of an excerpt from a Halo 2: Anniversary in-game cinematic.

Battlefield V

Cinematic Sound Redesign

A sound redesign of an excerpt from the Battlefield V Pacific trailer.

Ghost of Tsushima

Gameplay Sound Redesign

A sound redesign of Sucker Punch Productions' Ghost of Tsushima.

Metro Exodus

Gameplay Sound Redesign

A sound redesign of 4A Games' Metro Exodus.

Mass Effect 3: Legendary Edition

Cinematic Sound Redesign

A sound redesign of the beginning of the final fleet battle in Mass Effect 3: Legendary Edition.

Citizencon: Shipsounds Presentation

At CitizenCon, Cloud Imperium Games' annual convention, audio programmer Yogi Klatt and I were very lucky to be given the chance to give a presentation on our work on the technical tricks and creative processes that go into crafting the sound of Star Citizen's ships. Unfortunately, the audio on the various clips in the video is the sound captured from the mics in the auditorium, so doesn't represent how our work sounds in-game. Some of the clips in the video can be heard properly in the video on the right.

Spaceship Sound Design

On Star Citizen, I was responsible for most of the sound design and implementation for the game's spaceships. This included the thruster and cockpit audio for the ships, their fly-by sounds, vibration and strain sounds when the ship is under duress, and additional sweetener layers for atmospheric flight.

Weapon Sound Design

In my time at Cloud Imperium I worked on some FPS and spaceship weapons. You can see these in the video above. I was responsible for the sound design and implementation of all firing sounds, weapon tails and reload/handling sounds.

Ambient Audio Design

This is some footage of my work on the ambient audio of Star Citizen's Persistent Universe. GrimHex is a space station nestled deep in the icy moon Yela's asteroid belt. Originally built to house workers, it has now fallen under the control of criminals.