Michael began coding simple games on his parent’s computer while exploring music. Early in college, he discovered game audio and found a perfect home for his love of game development and his passion for music & sound. He finds the challenges of interactive audio fascinating and loves the architecture of underlying core systems that make the magic happen.
When it comes to implementation and building architecture, Michael finds that building the right tool is more important than bringing the biggest tool. While his journey began with delving through the guts of WWISE and FMOD, he soon found himself coding custom audio tools (C# / C++ / JS / Python) that were more lightweight and modular. His core design philosophy in building audio architecture is to ensure sufficiency and decoupling from other pipelines (core, art, etc). He also enjoyed studying the “design paradigms” of the various different game engines such as Unity, Unreal, Godot, and HTML5. Knowing these limitations and quicks informs his ability to create immersive, compelling sonic experiences.
His largest production was Dream, a live virtual Shakespearian theatre production using motion capture in the Unreal game engine. He was responsible for system design, implementation, and delivery of all character sounds and foley. This project allowed him to synergize his love of sound, technology, and theatre.
In his free time, you’ll find him playing his ukulele and banjo, or enjoying late-night walks. If it makes sense to chat, please reach out below!
