Case Study - John Broomhall
John Broomhall is an independent Audio Director and Consultant. Originally a musician and composer, his first role in the videogames industry was writing music. He then moved into sound effects and soon went on to head up audio production, organising and commissioning work from a variety of externally based sound designers and composers.
He gained a wealth of experience working in-house for over 12 years as Head of Audio for MicroProse, Spectrum Holobyte, Hasbro Interactive and Infogames UK (now Atari) - before setting up his own company. He has worked on more than 60 games titles and his varied career also includes a period as a games producer.
Directing and producing audio for games requires a wide range of technical, creative, and business skills. John Broomhall was originally trained in project management, so the business skills he needed came very naturally. 'I've also been on many training courses and picked up a lot of knowledge along the way. Technical knowledge and creativity is the foundation, but personal skills are very necessary when making the transition to running your own company. I felt completely equipped when emerging from the in-house situation and I had good contacts - that's probably why the phone hasn't stopped ringing.'
In some ways his career progression is unusual. 'I was fortunate to get a break writing music in-house back in the early days. The quality and quantity of audio for games increased greatly at that time and even then there was outsourcing of some elements. The job of writing music used to be at least 50% technical because of the constraints both of the game technology and the hardware capabilities. A lot of it was very much to do with technical implementation. This has changed a lot and music can generally be outsourced now.'
One of the many contracts John has undertaken in the last two years was as Executive Audio Producer on the videogames of American Idol and Pop Idol. Working directly for the games developer, he provided audio design and music licensing consultancy, production services, and overall supervision for the project's music, sound and dialogue. 'Unsurprisingly, audio was at the heart of all the discussions on Pop Idol and I was brought in very early to go over all the details. I was involved in the whole game development process from concepts, design of tool-chains and development pipelines, addressing music licensing and contractual issues, budgeting and scheduling, overseeing a huge amount of audio production and then the implementation of that work into the game right through to the final stages.'
'There's a whole job of work just to think through the technical challenges of the design and the tools required to take large amounts of data (eg hundreds of vocals) and import them into the software - all against a tight timeline. There are integral links between game play, audio production and delivery - how the audio is stored and tagged, for example. Then everything has to be synchronised with the animation - both of the lip movement and body dancing of the player's onscreen persona.'
The project also involved specifying and creating sound effects, script writing, dialogue direction, recording and editing. There were many people involved, including vocal producers (1 for every 6 singers) as well as 5 re-record teams creating backing tracks faithful to the originals. 'I brought in some top music producers. The song structures had to be adapted for the game, eg there was no room for long guitar solos because of game play requirements.' John Broomhall assembled the team and was responsible for the entire suite of 40 songs, 12 vocalists, vocal producers, sound effects designers, music producers, and live performers.
John's transferable and in-house skills have stood him in good stead as an independent, but it requires a special effort to keep up with changing platforms and technical developments when no longer employed in-house. 'It's really down to me to be proactive about keeping in touch, attending conferences and networking - who you know is very important. It's tough out there and you have to make sure you stay visible to potential clients.' He also keeps an eye on mail groups and the Internet and would consider doing training courses if necessary. 'You have to use every available resource you can to keep up. And be prepared to invest in yourself.'
Working externally can present other challenges too. 'Sometimes clients aren't always 100% clear about their requirements. You might have to take an active role in shaping what's needed. Sometimes design changes happen at the last minute so even after you've delivered the audio assets it's important to stay in contact with the production, identifying who's responsible for sound in-house and helping to keeping an eye on the audio until the game ships.'
The trend towards outsourcing and the provision of specialist services in the games industry is likely to continue, calling for a special set of skills. 'Work is much more fragmented these days' says John Broomhall. 'You have to discover your strengths and target clients accordingly. You also need to be a good communicator, very organised and dependable. For instance, say you're interested in music - don't just focus on this alone, become multi-skilled because you need a diversity of skills. You also need to be able to produce excellent final quality recordings yourself - or collaborate with someone who does - good studio equipment and production skills are vital.'
'Sound designers tend to work in-house more, but if someone asks me to supply music and sound effects for an entire game I can put together the right team to handle all aspects of the audio - business, technical and creative. In some cases the putting together of teams is akin to film now, and there's a lot of commonality in terms of equipment and technology. But games will always have special requirements and will always need people with a firm grasp of not only audio development, but also games development.'
For more information: www.johnbroomhall.co.uk
He gained a wealth of experience working in-house for over 12 years as Head of Audio for MicroProse, Spectrum Holobyte, Hasbro Interactive and Infogames UK (now Atari) - before setting up his own company. He has worked on more than 60 games titles and his varied career also includes a period as a games producer.
Directing and producing audio for games requires a wide range of technical, creative, and business skills. John Broomhall was originally trained in project management, so the business skills he needed came very naturally. 'I've also been on many training courses and picked up a lot of knowledge along the way. Technical knowledge and creativity is the foundation, but personal skills are very necessary when making the transition to running your own company. I felt completely equipped when emerging from the in-house situation and I had good contacts - that's probably why the phone hasn't stopped ringing.'
In some ways his career progression is unusual. 'I was fortunate to get a break writing music in-house back in the early days. The quality and quantity of audio for games increased greatly at that time and even then there was outsourcing of some elements. The job of writing music used to be at least 50% technical because of the constraints both of the game technology and the hardware capabilities. A lot of it was very much to do with technical implementation. This has changed a lot and music can generally be outsourced now.'
One of the many contracts John has undertaken in the last two years was as Executive Audio Producer on the videogames of American Idol and Pop Idol. Working directly for the games developer, he provided audio design and music licensing consultancy, production services, and overall supervision for the project's music, sound and dialogue. 'Unsurprisingly, audio was at the heart of all the discussions on Pop Idol and I was brought in very early to go over all the details. I was involved in the whole game development process from concepts, design of tool-chains and development pipelines, addressing music licensing and contractual issues, budgeting and scheduling, overseeing a huge amount of audio production and then the implementation of that work into the game right through to the final stages.'
'There's a whole job of work just to think through the technical challenges of the design and the tools required to take large amounts of data (eg hundreds of vocals) and import them into the software - all against a tight timeline. There are integral links between game play, audio production and delivery - how the audio is stored and tagged, for example. Then everything has to be synchronised with the animation - both of the lip movement and body dancing of the player's onscreen persona.'The project also involved specifying and creating sound effects, script writing, dialogue direction, recording and editing. There were many people involved, including vocal producers (1 for every 6 singers) as well as 5 re-record teams creating backing tracks faithful to the originals. 'I brought in some top music producers. The song structures had to be adapted for the game, eg there was no room for long guitar solos because of game play requirements.' John Broomhall assembled the team and was responsible for the entire suite of 40 songs, 12 vocalists, vocal producers, sound effects designers, music producers, and live performers.
John's transferable and in-house skills have stood him in good stead as an independent, but it requires a special effort to keep up with changing platforms and technical developments when no longer employed in-house. 'It's really down to me to be proactive about keeping in touch, attending conferences and networking - who you know is very important. It's tough out there and you have to make sure you stay visible to potential clients.' He also keeps an eye on mail groups and the Internet and would consider doing training courses if necessary. 'You have to use every available resource you can to keep up. And be prepared to invest in yourself.'
Working externally can present other challenges too. 'Sometimes clients aren't always 100% clear about their requirements. You might have to take an active role in shaping what's needed. Sometimes design changes happen at the last minute so even after you've delivered the audio assets it's important to stay in contact with the production, identifying who's responsible for sound in-house and helping to keeping an eye on the audio until the game ships.'
The trend towards outsourcing and the provision of specialist services in the games industry is likely to continue, calling for a special set of skills. 'Work is much more fragmented these days' says John Broomhall. 'You have to discover your strengths and target clients accordingly. You also need to be a good communicator, very organised and dependable. For instance, say you're interested in music - don't just focus on this alone, become multi-skilled because you need a diversity of skills. You also need to be able to produce excellent final quality recordings yourself - or collaborate with someone who does - good studio equipment and production skills are vital.' 'Sound designers tend to work in-house more, but if someone asks me to supply music and sound effects for an entire game I can put together the right team to handle all aspects of the audio - business, technical and creative. In some cases the putting together of teams is akin to film now, and there's a lot of commonality in terms of equipment and technology. But games will always have special requirements and will always need people with a firm grasp of not only audio development, but also games development.'
For more information: www.johnbroomhall.co.uk