Special Episode: The Haunted Piano (Videogame Audio)

At PAX Prime 2014, we got a press email from an enthusiastic individual named Ryan Ike, who appeared to already love us, knowing nothing about what we do and having only our name to go on. We were down with this. Himself, Jacob Pernell, and Akash Thakkar had a panel on Game Audio, and happily agreed to meet with us near the convention center and talk about the same content beforehand. I was woefully unprepared, and was unable to record a podcast at the time. Luckily, they’re all badasses and agreed to record one later on. We ended up spending the allotted meeting time BSing and laying the foundation for an amazing friendship that persists to this day. Seriously you guys, I meet the coolest people doing this. Turns out you can just.. talk to people in indie gamedev. Its awesome.

In this podcast, we start off business-style with introductions and a few questions about music and sound design in games. Then, we go a bit off kilter for a while and talk a lot about nothing, and then we finish strong with some amazing life advice from these well adjusted (if not whimsical) fellows. The podcast also features a piece of music from each of them, so be sure to stay tuned for the whole thing (It’s a marathon, not a sprint)!

Special Episode 003: The Haunted Piano

The Guests:

Akash Thakkar

Education: Berklee College of Music
Worked On: Hyper Light Drifter, Ironclad Tactics, Gnomoria, Freedom Planet, City Quest, The Employer
Role(s): Sound Designer, Composer, Dialogue Director
Other Superpowers: Frequent Public Speaker on Game Audio, Sound Technology, and Business Fundamentals; being superhuman.
Website: akashthakkar.com
Twitter: @akashthakkar

Jacob Pernell

Education: UC Santa Cruz, University of Edinburgh
Worked On: Close Castles, TURBOCATS, Last Life
Role(s): Sound Design, Composition
Other Superpowers: Co-Organizer & Director for Edinburgh Game Symposium; being the nicest person alive.
Website: jacobpernell.com
Twitter: @jacobpernell

Ryan Ike

Education: Gustavus Adolphus, San Francisco State
Worked On: Shadow Lab, Interference, Gunpoint, Frog Fractions 2
Role(s): Sound Design, Composition
Other Superpowers: Teaching mad Piano and Drum skills; being crazy hilarious.
Website: ryanike.com
Twitter: @ryanikecomposer