Usually what happens on pro titles is that there's a brief that describes the sort of music required, and it's delivered to the composer when the team starts needing the music to be in place. Then the composer has to work around that. Composers are often outsourced contractors so it's not uncommon for them to not have any access to the game or to the assets, although there will usually be concept art available to them at a minimum.

What goes into the brief can vary massively from company to company and ideally it will form the starting point for a further dialogue about how the track should sound, perhaps with some reference works or artists being discussed.

Hey thanks a lot. That's very informative/.

Anyone else?

How do you start designing sound or composing music for one particular game?

Usually someone will start by:

1. Figuring out the audio direction - style of music, style of sfx.

2. Figure out audio features (ie footstep system, ambiance system.. etc)

3. With both 1 & 2 in hand - go through the game and create a rough spotting list of sounds to generate a rough asset list.

4. Get hold of any material that will help you create the initial assets - ie start with things that don't have specific animations but are core sounds like footsteps and foley - then work up from there - ambiances, weapon sounds, pickups.. etc.

I mean, what resource from the game do you use as a base for the composition or idea?

Do you start composing with just the storyboard, design, sketches, and 3D models; or do you wait until the resource, assets, or scenes getting into shape?

On big AAA game titles, when did the sound team start working? From the beginning? In the middle? Near the end?

thank you

From the beginning. The planning, and documenting of audio and figuring out what audio technical issues are to be dealt with and what audio systems will be needed and rough designs will be created initially. Also figuring out team members, designing workflow, tool support - all the early stuff that technical sound designer / audio lead would be involved with.

External contractors could be engaged at any point in the project, but usually mid-project is when head count needs to expand to deal with development cycle being in full swing.