Friday 13th February

Special Event: Tools, Techniques, and Tech from Treyarch's "Call of Duty: World at War"

Blair Bitonti, Adam Levenson, Activision; Stephen McCaul, Treyarch

This presentation is an overview of the development philosophy, work pipeline and technological developments for sound in "Call of Duty: World at War". This includes in-game editing, mixing, voice management, preemptive filtering to prevent masking, simple interactive music, occlusion, and use of surround. This project was marked by the interdisciplinary outlook of the sound department. There were no pure sound designers and even the programmer contributed directly to creative and aesthetic aspects of the game. We feel strongly that sound designers need to take responsibility of their sounds from conception to final in game implementation for the greatest quality of work. This includes scripting, which is often barred from sound designers. Conversely the engineers need to have deep understanding (not just programming) and concern with the sound of the game.