Here’s why we think Scott is swell
Jim Bonney, Audio Director: Scott is hardcore about pretty much everything. Whether it’s sound design, game development, ping-pong… you name it, he hits it hard. As the Audio Lead, Scott is both enforcer and advocate – making sure we get the job done, on time, and then representing our department to the rest of the dev team. Since we’re a small team, Scott is also constantly getting his hands dirty: doing field recordings, creating sound effects (like the zeppelin rocket barrage in the E3 demo), and authoring our most complicated technical audio systems. Besides being an accomplished musician and sound designer, Scott is an experienced programmer, and we all rely on his advanced technical expertise on an hourly basis.
Scott is also responsible for enlightening us with most of the “inside jokes” we continue to sling at each other day after day in the sound department – so in that way, he brings a lot of “depth” and “culture” to the group.
Your title is Audio Lead. What does that mean?
Scott Haraldsen: I actually wear quite a few hats as the Audio Lead at Irrational. Aside from the regular managerial tasks that every lead has to perform, one of my main duties is to work with the tech team to make sure we have all of the audio technology we need to make the game sound amazing. On top of that, you’ll typically find me creating sounds, implementing audio into levels, field recording or doing post-production on voice-overs.
At the end of the day though, my main duty is making sure that the work the audio department does is of high quality and delivered on time. I’m kind of like Patton going through Africa. Hell or high water, it’s going to get done.
What games have you worked on?
SH: Bully: Scholarship Edition, Empire Earth, Empires: Dawn of the Modern World, Star Trek: Legacy, Rise & Fall and Natural Selection.
Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.
SH: Un-f%@*ing-believable.
What is your favorite game of all time?
SH: I was going to say Team Fortress 2 but in the end I’d have to say Diablo II. It has everything, an amazing story, addictive gameplay, great music and it’s a game that never gets old. It’s as fun today as it was when it was released over a decade ago.
Name a game everyone should play once in their life.
SH: E.T. for the 2600. Anyone who plays that game more than once needs their head examined.
Seriously though, the one game that I recommend to everyone is Beyond Good and Evil. I don’t think many people played it on release, which is a shame because it has some of the best characters ever created in a video game. They recently re-released it in HD for the 360 so if you haven’t, play it. NOW!
What is your favorite movie?
SH: I’d have to go with Blue Velvet since it’s the one movie that has influenced my career as a sound designer the most.
What are your hobbies outside of work?
SH: Music and Mixology. The nice thing about those two hobbies is they go great together.
Music and Mixology? What do you play? Are there any concoctions you have made that goes well with the music you’re playing?
SH: I mainly play organ but I also play guitar and bass from time to time. Also, I’ve found that certain drinks better suit the different styles of playing. For example, if I’m playing blues, I like to go with a whiskey based drink like a Manhattan or Sazerac. For jazz it’s Martinis all the way. For funk I prefer a cognac drink such as the Sidecar or Vieux Carre. It’s a beautiful thing.
Tell me your favorite story about life at Irrational
SH: The early stages of a project are both the most difficult and the most fun for the audio department. It’s difficult because we have no idea what we’re going to need two or three years down the road when the game is in full production, but also fun because it gives us a lot of time to experiment and try new ideas.
The one thing we knew we would need back when BioShock: Inifinite was conceived was a lot of wind recordings. And not just your typical everyday wind, we needed something that was new and strange since that is what Irrational does. Jim Bonney, our Audio Director, and I had gone out a number of times to different locations trying to get the sound we wanted but at the end of the day the recordings we got just ended up sounding like wind. They were technically great recordings, but they just didn’t have that strange sound we were looking for.
After experimenting a bit, we finally found something that we liked. We had recently purchased some contact mics (microphones that pickup vibrations through solid surfaces), and we wondered what kind of results we would get if we recorded the sound of wind affecting a solid object rather than just recording the wind. So when a gusty day eventually rolled around, we trekked out to different locations and recorded the sound of the wind affecting things such as aluminum framing and high tension wires. The results were amazing and we’ve used those recordings in a number of the sounds that you’ll hear in BioShock: Infinite. It was, by far, one of the most productive field recording trips that I’ve ever been a part of.
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