As the year comes to a close and with winter break just around the corner, I'm taking some time to reflect on what has been a year full of new experiences, adventures, and just a lot of lucky circumstances. When I decided to abandon my quest to establish a musical career and pursue sound design for games in late 2022, I could not have foreseen where I would be just three years later. From constantly dealing with imposter syndrome to coping with the current state of our industry, I was prepared to spend a long time freelancing while working odd jobs to make ends meet. I just figured that if I pursued this dream of mine with everything I had, it would hopefully yield some professional opportunities in the near future, no matter how small. My wife Sarah has been my greatest supporter in this journey and the main reason I was able to be so dedicated about making it happen.

After 2 years of working with small indie teams and volunteers, 2024 saw my first publisher-affiliated project that myself and Giant Light Studios were working on until it was sadly canceled in late 2024. Right on the heels of the news that we'd been canceled came a job listing that would completely change my career: Audio Implementer wanted at Sucker Punch Productions. It was one of maybe 4 job listings I had even applied to that year, and I made sure that I gave it 200% as it seemed too good of an opportunity to pass up - even if it were to only last for the 3-4 months originally listed in the job description.

I replayed Ghost of Tsushima and the Iki Island expansion in their entirety, learned new tools like Maya, set up personal game engine practice projects to hone my skills in the areas listed in the posting, and took lots and lots of notes. A number of interviews later, their offer arrived on December 22nd - what a way to end the year. For the first time since I left Germany in 2018 and closed the small recording studio I used to run, I was now going back working in audio full-time again.

Sucker Punch Productions

It is no secret then, that Sucker Punch Productions has been where I had been spending most of my time this year. As an audio implementer, my primary responsibility on Ghost of Yōtei has been owning audio implementation for gameplay animation across combat, traversal, interactions, and occasional in-camera cutscenes. The bulk of that work was done using an ingenious set of in-house tools that allowed fellow audio implementer Jessie Chang and myself a great deal of creative freedom and sound shaping possibilities right within the animation tagging workflow. You can find some more info on the tools and pipelines that made this possible in this A Sound Effect Deep Dive!

In the 8 months from me joining the team to the release on October 2nd, I touched somewhere in the neighborhood of 8,000 to 10,000 individual animation clips which include Atsu's own combat move set as well as most enemy types you'll encounter around Ezo. The Foley in Ghost of Yōtei is something that truly sets this game apart from so many others with similar settings and characters and I'm beyond proud to have played a part in realizing some of the incredible sonic details that can be heard all over the game.

To top it off, as of today, Ghost of Yōtei has won awards for Best Audio Design at the 2025 Golden Joystick Awards and the 2025 PlayStation.Blog Awards. and has been nominated for Best Audio Design at The Game Awards as well as numerous non-audio accolades.

Theater Debut

Another first for me this year has been making my debut as a sound designer and composer for theater with the premiere of Ada by playwright Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, directed by Naomi Campbell, realized by a professional team of designers, and brought to life onstage by students and crew from Babson College's Empty Space Theater.

Challenging myself to work in the half-linear-half-interactive nature of stage performance, rekindling my love for Reason (DAW), and learning QLAB during tech week has been an awesome experience that I wouldn't trade for anything, and I truly hope that I'll get to do it again very soon. If you're curious about the piece, the crew, and my process, you should check out this blog post!

We wrote a Book?!

While the work on it mostly happened in 2024, 2025 saw the release of my first "author credit" (to put it in video game terms) with Elevate Your Audio Production with REAPER. This comprehensive guide to the infinitely awesome DAW has been an absolute blast to work on and thoroughly reawakened my passion for technical writing.

While the bulk of the book was written by Marco Galvan, I was asked to contribute chapters on sound design, working with video, and podcasting which I structured to feature both helpful workflow guides as well as industry insights that provide a better perspective on these disciplines within the greater context of the book. Whether you're new to REAPER, switching from another DAW, or would love a readily accessible reference, this book might just be for you!