'DriveClub' Panel at GDC 2015 Will Dive Deep Into Sound Development

At GDC 2015, Sony’s Senior Audio Manager at SCE Europe, Alan McDermott, and Evolution Studios Senior Sound Designer, Tim Shepherd will host a session titled “DriveClub: Coffee and Skidmarks.” The Game Developers Conference is scheduled from March 2-6 and it will be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, where the two are expected to dive heavily into the making of DriveClub. While the game launched with its fair share of problems, after a multitude of patches, the game is finally delivering on its promise of a fun/fast racer with a robust system that’s both beautiful looking and sounding.

More about DriveClub‘s session after the jump.

GDC is the largest and longest running professionals-only games industry event. This is where game developers from all over the world meet with their peers and learn from each other, from programming to level and art design. Some of the speakers include Mike Acton from Insomniac Games and Corina Bello from High Moon Studios. This year, Sony and Evolution Studios will host a session about the sound design process involved in developing DriveClub, hosted by Alan McDermott and Tim Shepherd.

It’s slated to be a light hearted and accessible overview of the audio production process on DriveClub. Some of the topics of discussion will be tools, tech, recording techniques, and lessons learnt throughout the process of development. No word yet on the actual date of the session, and since this event is not open to the general public, there’s hope that the session will be broadcasted online or be made available at a later that as a VOD. As a big racing fan, I’d be interested to know how the different teams work together to come up with the final product. I’ve also been disappointed in the past by the anemic engine sound assets in the Gran Turismo series (though GT6 was an improvement), and was happily impressed by the higher sound quality in DriveClub. Below I’ve linked an example of a car that appears in both DriveClub and GT6 and a real life counterpart.