After my interview with Marc Mailand, the Audio Director from Boss Key Productions, I realized I needed to get started on doing the job I’m looking for. He was a really down-to-earth guy with lots of insight. He kindly reminded me that there’s no excuse to not have some kind of portfolio of capabilities given online study materials and “free to design” platforms are out there. There’s lots of middleware out there like Unity, FMOD, WWISE, and Fabric, which I intend to explore and catalog with this blog.
Dani Kogan and Anne Sophie Mongeau have put together helpful comparisons of the big middleware applications out there. Anne also refers to a slide presentation from The School of Video Game Audio which help make sense of the data surrounding audio middleware.
A general conclusion is the majority of game developers are inclined to make their own audio middleware. Big budget games can enjoy the versatility of WWISE but it comes with a considerable price tag once implemented. FMOD is significantly more affordable and turnkey for indie games. It’s peculiar that FABRIC has such a small industry footprint considering it’s broad platform capabilities and comparatively lower cost.
