Funding for Two Conferences: Wwise software training at GameSoundCon and paper delivery at the inaugural North American Conference on Video Game Music

Grant:

Lecturers' Professional Development Fund (LPDF)

Academic Year:

2013 - 2014 (June 1, 2013 through May 31, 2014)

Funding Requested:

$2,000.00

Project Dates:

Fri, 01/18/2013 - Mon, 11/04/2013

Applicant(s):

mattthom

Overview of the Project:

I write to request funding to attend two contrasting conferences on Video Game Music. The first conference, GameSoundCon, is the only conference that focuses solely on video game music creation and audio design. I am a gamer, lover of game music, and researcher, teacher, and writer about game music, but I have no practical experience creating it or practical experience imbedding it into video games. At GameSoundCon, I would receive training in Wwise, one of two ubiquitous software programs used to implement music into video games. This training would not only improve my personal scholarship and research, it would be something I could immediately demonstrate to my game music students in future iterations of a highly successful course I'm currently piloting, MUSPERF 300: Video Game Music. Wwise training would also provide a foundation of knowledge for an upper level course in game audio implementation I'm exploring to offer in 2015. The second conference is the inaugural North American Conference on Video Game Music. This is the first ever purely academic conference on video game music in North America. Continued in Project Objectives....

Final Report Fields

Project Objectives:

Project Overview:

Although many details of the initial event are still being worked out, I've spoken with conference creators about presenting a paper on my groundbreaking course, MUSPERF 300: Video Game Music. They've assured me that my paper topic is exactly the kind they're interested in highlighting and I've already submitted my paper for their review. This groundbreaking conference, the networking possibilities it presents, and, hopefully, my paper presentation, are important chances for UM to establish itself on the cutting edge of game music research and teaching.

Objectives:

to meet other scholars working in the field of game audio at the inaugural video game music conference; to deliver a paper at an academic conference; to meet industry experts at a professional game audio conference; to receive training in game audio middleware.

Project Achievements:

One achievement for the school is that I was a representative for UM at the first video game music conference in the US. This definitely put my work, as well as the University's interest in the area, on the map to the appropriate scholars. Otherwise, I was able to continue to make connections with the game audio industry and lock-in several Skype interview candidates who spoke in my class in the fall semester. Hopefully I can get others to speak in future semesters!

Continuation:

At GameSoundCon, I learned that attendees of the conference were eligible for more training in some of the software that was demonstrated in online classes at a reduced price from the normal rate. I've followed up on that offer and plan to apply for a new grant to get more training.

Dissemination:

As far as the academic conference, I blogged about my experience at it on my blog, videogamemusicnerd.blogspot.com. Otherwise, I also was disseminating information to colleagues during my presentation there with the hope that the would consider using more video game music in their teaching. As far as GameSoundCon, I was able to demonstrate a bit of the software that I learned in MUSPERF 300: Video Game Music. With more training, I'll be able to show even more examples to my students, which is my ultimate goal. I have downloaded the software to my computer and continued to explore it since returning from these conferences.

Advice to your Colleagues:

Advice: book hotels for conferences early! The hotel I booked was just a couple blocks from where the conference took place (the conference hotel was already full!) and then my reservation there got bumped to a hotel by LAX, an hour drive from where the conference was. I wasn't planning on renting a car, paying for parking, etc, and so after spending hours on the phone, ended up moving to a sh*thole hotel a few more blocks in not the best area of downtown LA. I don't know why I thought it would be better to wait to book the hotel, obviously that was a bad move and I won't do that again.

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