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Zipper Profile: Mary Olson


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Our Developer Profile series introduces you to the many faces of Zipper Interactive. From designers to artists to programmers to audio engineers to producers, you’ll meet the creative minds that make Zipper what it is (and maybe learn a few surprises along the way).

This week we talk with Mary Olson, the Audio Manager here at Zipper. She works to make sure that everything that your speakers pump out when you're playing one of our games is music to your ears, so to speak. She has a lot to say, so get reading.

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Job Title: Audio Manager

Years at Zipper: 4.5

Years in the Industry: 14

Favorite Zipper Game: SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 2

Favorite Non-Zipper Game: Well since that’s an impossibly open question, I’ll go for novelty and say the Journey Arcade Game (1983) – but when I just went to look up the year it came out I see that in 2007 Game Informer listed it as number 9 on the ‘Top 10 Worst Licensed Game Ideas (Ever)’ – hmmm. Well, whatever, come on – you go to another planet to find your instruments and then use them as weapons, AND you get to go to a concert at the end. If you want a more current answer, then I have to join with the masses and say Uncharted 2. I totally fell for the story/movie/game thing, and really admire how they blend gameplay mechanics with story and big moments.

Motto: It's OK to be uncomfortable.

What is it that you do specifically, and can you walk us through your typical day?

I manage the audio department here at Zipper. Fortunately, I have an incredible team, and we all love what we do and get to be really creative all day, so we have fun. There are four of us on the audio team here at Zipper, and then we get some great specialized support through Sony as well for things like music, dialog coordination, cinematics and localization.

One thing I spend a lot of my time doing is making sure everyone working on audio, both internally and externally, has what they need to keep working – creatively and technically. This typically means giving creative direction, unblocking a dependency, improving the pipeline and how we work, designing or brainstorming a new audio system/feature, etc. My role is both supporting and managing, so that means making sure everyone has what they need, keeping us working on the right things at the right times (I guess you could call that scheduling, but that’s such a boring word), pushing the quality and process bars of what we can do with audio, and figuring out how we get there.

I also spend a lot of time working with all other disciplines – a huge part of our goal with audio is to support gameplay design, art aesthetic, and the overall experience of any game we’re working on. So I spend time reviewing levels and cinematic sequences, working closely with other teams to make sure we’re supporting the right things, and also pushing for new, cool ways audio can contribute. We’re always looking for ways to make the games we’re working on that much more awesome. I do a lot of advocacy as well, ensuring that we have the resources and time needed to create great-sounding games, and also to keep pushing beyond what we’ve done before and what others are doing. We’ll always be trying to raise the bar with audio, and what can be done creatively. You probably won’t meet anyone in game audio who doesn’t acknowledge advocacy as a big part of what they do, as there is a bit of an industry legacy of audio being thought of last... I’m very fortunate that Zipper is extremely supportive of audio, which means I do less of this than some, and instead get to spend more time being creative.

And I’m saying this last, even though it’s probably the most important – I just try to spend some part of each day listening. Whether it be playing through part of the game, or listening to a specific piece of what we’re working on (a weapon sound, a cinematic sequence, a music cue, overall impact of damage effects, full mix, etc.), I’ve found that anytime I find myself too caught up in the other parts of my job, and forget to listen, bad things happen :) (or, at least, we soon find ourselves working on the wrong things).

So I guess a typical day most always includes working with my team in some form or another, listening to what we’re working on, scheduling and prioritizing, giving creative input, reviewing with other disciplines (levels, sequences, or any number other aspects of what we’re working on), chasing and solving tech problems, working with engineering to decide how we’ll implement a new audio feature or system, prototyping, etc. Then there are those days when I don’t leave my office and just do production work/implementing. Always having fun.

How did you get into the industry?

I showed up to college as a violin player and spent most of my college career studying ‘music composition and technology’ in various forms. At the small liberal arts school I went to in the early '90s this mostly meant a lot of experimental music, lots of time spent with old synths (like a super old giant Buchla, an old ARP, etc..), and recording a whole bunch of crazy sound and music projects. Somewhere in all that I managed to emerge from school with a great knowledge of signal flow and audio fundamentals, a strange music background (violin, singing, early '90s electronic music – scary!) and a huge love and passion for combining tech and creativity to make cool stuff. It turned out that my eclectic education was kind of perfect to take me straight into sound design. In 1996 I started working at Microsoft – with about 10 other people who I had also gone to school with – and started working on PC games of all sorts. I haven’t stopped working with sound in one form or another since. It’s still fun.

What are some other games or projects that you’ve worked on in the past?

Starting out in Microsoft’s consumer division I worked on lots of MS PC games, notably Flight Simulator, Close Combat, My Personal Tutor (a kids educational series), and LOTS of sports games. I then took a few years away from games, creating the audio tours for the Experience Music Project and recording people’s cancer survival stories. Then, returning to Microsoft, I worked on Forza, implementing engine audio for a while, but primarily recording cars (probably about 250 total for Forza, Forza 2, and a handful of recordings for PGR2). I then came to Zipper in early 2006 and have worked on Fireteam Bravo 2, Combined Assault, MAG, and SOCOM 4.

What’s your proudest moment?

That’s a very tough question! I guess I just always think it could be better, whatever it is, and every time I get all proud, I realize how far I have to go. My daughter just read that answer over my shoulder. She says ‘You sound like a saint… or a mom’. I am NOT a saint. I am a mom.

Is there anything you’d like to say to the fans?

Turn up the volume. It will make whatever you’re playing more fun, I promise (well, usually :)).

Don't forget to click this link and leave your questions to Mary for this week's Zipline podcast!

 

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