Sound Designer

Sound Designers pull together everything you can hear as you play a game.

From thunder, rushing water and explosions to background music, button clicks and the bleeps that let you know you’ve levelled up - as Sound Designer you deliver whatever the game needs to build atmosphere and help the player understand what’s happening.

You will bring a strong knowledge of music, recording techniques and audio effects to this role. You will also enjoy the challenge of finding, creating and applying an amazing range of sounds across many aspects of the game.

Audio

Also referred to as:

Audio Designer, Sound Engineer, Music Editor, Cinematic Sound Designer

You’ll love this role if you’re into:

Making Music
Coding
Designing things
Working in a Team

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BUILDING YOUR PORTFOLIO

There are no set routes for becoming an audio designer or music creator for games.

Most people working in the industry have a university degree but that’s not essential. Some of these degrees will be in music, music tech, sound engineering or even computer science - becoming a sound designer is actually a very technical role, and you’ll need to be someone that can focus on the details.

You’ll need to show your music and sound-making skills through your portfolio, which could be a mix of sounds you’ve created, musical compositions and actual gameplay footage using your audio. Don’t wait for a paid role to start making audio for games get started as soon as possible.

Try teaming up with artists and developers in game jams, join a band or start writing electronic music, these will let you develop your team working skills, which are essential for this role.

Try to explore how to create sounds across a range of contexts, from full-scale orbital attacks by alien races to the sound of a player walking in the snow - how are these sounds made, manipulated and presented. Learn how to apply the sounds by making games of your own.

For general advice on the presentation of your portfolio, see our top tips page OR find free audio tools OR build your first game.