Zander's Talks
“Zander has an unrivalled passion for audio in games that translates directly into the quality of his work.”
GCAP 2023: Sure to Please Any Passing Bat
Ultrasound is, by definition, too high-pitched to be heard with the naked ear — but it is far from useless! The ultrasonic details hidden in everyday sounds can be used to create massive, fantastical, organic sound design. However, to record these frequencies that are so high we need the audio equivalent of a microscope. Join Zander for a deep dive into just what ultrasound is, how to capture it, how to use it in sound design, and the strange implications of working at such a minute scale.
High Score 2023: Comparative Problem Solving
Audio experts Mika Cornelius and Zander Hulme compare and contrast how they solve problems when designing game audio - and share the tips and tricks they've learned
GCAP 2021
Zander spoke at Games Connect Asia Pacific conference in 2021, presenting some practical tips for communicating with people who work in different disciplines. Bridging that divide between vastly different fields is a regular requirement of working with clients who are not audio experts, and this talk contains some advice on how to accurately and respectfully give and receive creative direction in this environment.
High Score 2021
At APRA-AMCOS’s 2021 game audio conference High Score, Zander was invited to present Tech Masterclass: Creating Ambience — which covered his approaches to both creating and implementing environmental and ambient sounds in games. He discussed his design philosophy behind environmental sound, as well as specific techniques for achieving reverbs, and technical methods for optimising for CPU performance — focussing on the overlap between environment and player experience, which includes a surprising amount.
GCAP 2020
At Games Connect Asia Pacific 2020, Zander presented a post-mortem exploring how the music and sound design of Windbound was created. This talk was the highest-rated session of the whole conference, going in-depth into the game’s Foley, creature sounds, composing, interactive music systems, dynamic birdsong, and loads more!
GCAP 2019
At Games Connect Asia Pacific conference in 2019, Zander gave a talk on approaching sound design in a way that improves accessibility for players with low or no vision, called Sonar Solutions for Accessible Gaming. This talk focuses on how to approach sound design as a method of both reinforcing visual information and feedback in a game, and how planning with this in mind from the outset can make a game more enjoyable for players with low or no vision.
GCAP 2018
At the Games Connect Asia Pacific conference in 2018, Zander co-presented a talk with Jeff van Dyck: Boom Box – Audio Workflows Inspired by Constraints. They each spoke about various tips and tricks they have figured out in their respective careers, from pre-production and organisation workflows through to mixing and implementation.
GCAP Loading 2017
Leading up to Games Connect Asia Pacific, the organisers run a one-day symposium for students and aspiring game developers called GCAP Loading, at which Zander was invited to speak. He gave a talk entitled Why Does My Game Sound Like Balls? which covers a lot of common audio problems that he has helped various indie developers overcome in the past. Atticus McNaughton supplied the drawings of cute bunnies that help illustrate the talk's points.
Heart Beat 2018
At the inaugural Heart Beat Symposium at Byron Bay, Zander was invited to give a talk about the sound of sex in video games, entitled Intimate Performances – Approaching the Sound Design of Sex & Romance. The presentation looked at how sex and romance sounds in different genres, and how to leverage generic expectations to help elicit the desired emotional response.