Pyramind Overwatch Shawn Minoux

Shawn Minoux: Sound Designer at Blizzard Entertainment

Name: Shawn Minoux

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA

Specialty/Style: Creative Sound Design, Interactive Audio

Tools of Choice: Pro Tools HD, Reaktor, Sound Miner, Sound Toys, GRM Tools, Sound Forge, Wwise, Fmod


1. What are you currently working on at Blizzart Ent.? 

I work as a sound designer on the company’s audio team. Basically, I design sounds and implement them using commercial audio software and proprietary authoring tools. It’s exciting and challenging work that has proven to be quite rewarding and fun. I learn something new every day and truly love my job, my team, and the culture here at Blizzard.


2. Why did you pursue Sound Design? 

I have always been passionate about audio and found great enjoyment as a child editing music, djing local events, and adding sound to our family home movies. This evolved through college in to a career in radio and theater. After many years working in radio, I decided to pursue a long-time desire to design sounds for video games. It is this goal that ultimately lead me to Pyramind.


3. Any internships worth mentioning? If so how did you get the position? 

I recently completed an internship at Disney Mobile, designing and implementing audio for mobile games. I edited music, Midi, and interactive gameplay elements for their Tap Tap series of games, as well as other Disney games in development. I found out about the opportunity through Pyramind and proved to be the right fit for what Disney was looking for. It was a great opportunity and valuable experience in learning about the game development process in the mobile space.


4. How did Pyramind help you to get where you are today? 

Pyramind provided me a supportive environment to learn and participate with others that share my interest in game audio. Their excellent instructors helped inspire and focus my passion. Their frequent events related to music and games helped me to learn from and network with many important people in the game audio community.

Pyramind is an active studio working on some of the biggest games in development and pass this knowledge and expertise on to their students. That said, just going to school will not guarantee success. Nothing will be given to you, but if you know what you want and work hard to achieve your goals, Pyramind will definitely help you succeed.


5. Any credits you would like to share? 

I had the great opportunity to work with Pyramind as sound designer on Fresh Deck Poker from Idle Games, a fun social casino-style card game on Facebook and soon iOS. I have also finished up sound design for a brand new dance music radio show for Clear Channel, called Jet Set Radio. It takes the listener on a journey form club to club from the perspective of the DJ. Info about these projects will be available on my website.


6. Any advice towards game development and sound design?

Concentrate on developing a strong and focussed demo reel and website. This will be the entry point and frequent failure point for many looking to get into this industry. Often, you will only have one chance to impress an audio director or hiring manager, so insure that what you post represents you the best. Also, make sure your skills and style are well reflected in the material in your demo.

An unfocussed portfolio or toolbox approach may not be the best way to show a developer that you would be a perfect match for their game. Furthermore, your understanding of what sounds “awesome” must directly compare to what is actually awesome in the rest of the world. While all this is going on, you need to get out and network. Again, nothing will be given to you- get out and make it happen for yourself.


 

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