Meet a Molecule
Lisa Devon is part of our fantastic Audio team here at Media Molecule! If you've been at EGX Rezzed or Insomnia64 this month, you will have spotted Lisa along with other Molecules creating in Dreams and showcasing the audio tools, so now's the perfect time for you to get to know her a bit better!
What do you do on Dreams?
I make bleeps and bloops (sound and music) for Dreams! Before starting at Mm, I worked at a post-production studio doing sound for film. I use a combination of techniques I developed there and the super powerful audio engine in Dreams to create instruments, sound effects, music tracks and sound design moments for our games.
For sound design, a typical day might involve me recording some objects rolling around on a fridge door (yes, we have a disembodied fridge door in the studio), pitching them down in my audio editor, adding some effects and importing it into Dreams for a Roll-a-Ball game!
If I’m making music for a collection, I would familiarise myself with the style first, maybe listen to a few examples in that genre, and then start putting together a draft with instruments in our collection. If I feel like it needs something special (like a kazoo, of course) I can record a specific sound and create a new instrument. If the rest of the audio team love it, we add that instrument to our collection for everyone to use. I love experimenting with Foley sounds as percussion elements, so sometimes you might find me banging on a cardboard box and making a weird drum kit from that!
What're you looking forward to the CoMmunity doing in Dreams?
I can’t wait to see experimental music videos. Dreams is capable of some really unique abstract sonic and visual art, and would make an excellent visualizer at events, parties, installations, etc. I love the fact that it’s so easy to hook up rhythmic pulses from sound gadgets into sculpt tweaks and keyframes. I’m also really excited to see epic collaborations. I think the ability to combine skills and passions is what makes this game so cool.
What do you like to do in Dreams? Do you have a favourite creation?
I am pretty obsessed with the music creation tools and haven’t ventured outside of those too much, although I really want to start! Watching our artists and animators work has been really inspiring, so I’m keen to try making a rhythm game with fun visual aspects. It’s so hard to pick a favourite creation. I tend to love experimental things, so Flipyap’s monochrome sculptures tickled my fancy. I also really enjoyed j_plusb’s music!
Favourite food, movie and song, in that order. GO!
I must preface this by saying it’s impossible to pick a favourite in any of these three categories. If someone put a squirt gun to my head, I would say: Indian, Fifth Element, and then I would take the squirt gun bullet :D
Finally, what’s your favourite game?
I recently played Playdead’s Inside for the first time, and it completely blew me away. The sound design is masterful - those sonic booms
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