Game Audio Awards Recognises the Best in Game Sound Design

The Game Audio Awards, held in the Finnish city of Oulu, is an international awards event for game sound designers. Now in its fourth year, the 2018 show hosted over 200 professionals from the global game industry and Genelec was proud to attend as a sponsor and presenter of the awards.

The event is organized by the Finnish chapter of the International Game Developers Association and FINGAP (Finnish Game Audio Professionals). According to the founder and producer of the awards, FINGAP’s Hanna Rauma, the aim of the event is to increase recognition and appreciation of game sound design and to present awards to successful sound designers.

Rauma commented “We have a strong game industry here in Finland, and we also have many internationally recognised game musicians and sound designers. We want to bring these people to the forefront.”

The show presented awards for the best game music, sound design and game music demo of 2017 and additionally the audience also voted for their favorites in the game music and sound design categories.

The jury of the Game Audio Awards consisted of Finnish and international music industry professionals.

The jury, consisting of both Finnish and international professionals, described the competition as being of a very high level. The award for best game music of 2017 was presented to Jonne Valtonen in recognition of his symphonic and skillfully arranged soundtrack for Albion Online, while the prize for best sound design work was awarded to Christopher Denman and Max McCoy’s Star Wars: Jedi Challenges - a work that combined technology, skill and the allure of lightsabers!

The Game Audio Awards also presented a “bubbling under” prize for the best demo, designed to showcase those who haven’t yet had their time in the spotlight - this award went to Antti Haaranen’s stunning Clouds of War.

The audience voted Steve London’s great soundtrack of Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander as their favorite in the category of best game music, while Joonas Turner’s striking Tormentor X Punisher received the audience’s vote for best game sound design.

The works nominated spanned many different genres and moods, with the wide range of game sound design often coming as a surprise to the uninitiated. The works vary from simple sounds made for mobile games to cinematic and epic musical arrangements. New VR and AR technologies widen this range even more, since they demand a unique sound design process.

Genelec was proud to attend as a sponsor and presenter of the awards.

The game industry is multi-faceted and rapidly evolving, and this sets a specific standard for sound design equipment. According to Genelec’s domestic sales manager Janne Lankinen, when it comes to game sound design it’s important that sound designers can trust what they hear in order to create the most realistic sound experience possible. To this end, the winners of the Game Audio Awards were also presented with Genelec 8330A SAM™ studio monitors, which are known in the music industry for their neutral frequency response and reliability.

Main image: The organizers of the Game Audio Awards, the jury, and the winners Jonne Valtonen (third from right) and Antti Haaranen (far right).