Questions about Audio in Video Games for a College Student Project - Looking for answers!

I am a college student from the United States in a Game Design and Development program. I am currently working on a required out-of-class project on a subject of my choice.

My project is called "Audio in Video Games", and I am focusing on sound design, the relationship of audio to the video game industry, and how audio can be added to video games. Answering some of my more specific questions requires talking with industry professionals and reaching out to the community.

The following is a list of questions I am looking for answers and opinions on. Please answer as little or as many questions as you like, focusing primarily on video game sound. If you feel a question needs to be answered with the entire sound industry in mind, please do so. Put the question number(s) you are answering in your response. I would also like to request that you put your profession in your reply, so that I know which perspective your opinion is coming from.

Finally, an intellectual property request: I came up with this list of questions as part of my project, specifically for my project. If you want to use my questions or ideas--or any of the opinions presented in the replies--for something of your own, please cite or provide a link to this thread!

Thank you so much!



Job Responsibilities:

1. What is an audio engineer? What is a sound designer? Are there differences in what a game audio engineer and a game sound designer do? Or are they two job titles for the same thing?
2. Who are the different people involved who work on a game's sound?
3. What is the overall process for working on game audio?
4. How does a game company decide how the work on audio will be completed?
5. What types of companies have specific people in charge of sound?
6. What types of companies don't need specific people in charge of sound?
7. If you work on audio/sound for a company, what is your philosophy behind the sound design of a game?​

Obtaining Audio:

8. What portion of game companies actually create their own sounds/music or hire a specialist for new games, rather than using pre-created sounds?
9. Is the industry leaning toward one option over the other? Or does it mostly depend on the company and its budget?​

Programs - Creating and Adding Sounds to Games:

10. What programs are most useful for solely sound design purposes, like creating sounds from scratch, editing sounds, mixing sounds, or creating sounds from other pre-made sounds?
11. What programs are most useful when adding sounds to games, whether they are user-created or pre-loaded in the program?
12. How complex of a program do game sound design people need?​

Industry:

13. What types of companies are the majority of audio people employed at?
14. Where are audio people still needed?
15. Is sound design and the audio work for games an expanding job field, or is it stationary?
16. How important is having someone on a game team that is educated in sound design?​

History:

17. How has the role of sound in games changed?
18. When did people start taking a true notice in game audio?
19. What schools have started teaching video game sound design?​

 

Maybe this should be in the audio forum? http://forum.unity3d.com/forums/audio.74/

For #11, you can use plugins such as our (Master Audio), Fabric, FMod, or several others to make it easier in Unity. They have something of a learning curve of course.

 

I thought about starting a thread in the audio forum as well, but since my questions aren't about audio support for Unity, I wasn't sure if it would be appropriate.

Thanks for the answer though!