Sound designer Sian Harris (Star Wars, LEGO, Need for Speed) from Fuse Games explains how audio in games has a huge impact on our emotional response as we play. We talk elephants, toucans, and why she’ll never replace humans with robots.

Plus, remember the classic Nokia ringtone? It was heard nearly 2 billion times a day at its peak – but now we keep our phones on mute.

Whether you're accelerating at speed in Grand Theft Auto, collecting coins in Super Mario, or you've just caught a fish in Animal Crossing with a satisfying splosh, the way the sound is designed in gaming has a huge impact on our emotional response as we play. It helps you become immersed in whole new worlds, and alerts you to points won – and lives lost.

Someone who knows all about games audio and the techniques used to heighten our emotions is Sian Harris, Lead Sound Designer at Fuse Games. She's worked on numerous titles in the Star Wars and LEGO franchises, along with racing game Need for Speed and Sea of Solitude, set in a flooded city with big monsters making scary noises!

She tells host Sue Keogh about all the subtle ways she uses sound to get people really tuned into the game...and how she strikes a balance between using AI technology and keeping it old school.

Speaking of which! We’ll also remember the famous Nokia ringtone, a total classic from the early days of mobile phones which at its peak was heard nearly two billion times a day.

About Sian Harris

Sian Harris is an award-winning Lead Sound Designer currently working at Fuse Games. With over a decade of experience in sound design, audio direction, leadership and mentoring. Sian has played a pivotal role in shaping the soundscapes of some of the most innovative games in the industry such as the Need for Speed, Battlefield and Star Wars franchises.

Take a look at her reel to see some of her work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3MXt35X2Ts&t=2s&ab_channel=SianAudio

Useful links

Connect with Sian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sian-harris-b4a13644/

Subscribe to her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SianAudio-pq6tg

Fuse Games: https://fusegames.com/

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Sookio podcast page: https://www.sookio.com/podcast

Produced by Rob Birnie at Made By DBM: https://madebydbm.com

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Chef and food writer Noor Murad joins Sue Keogh to Untangle Recipes. Part of Yottam Ottolenghi’s Test Kitchen team, she’s cooked trackside at Formula 1 and trained at the Culinary Institute of America in New York.

She explains how you how you test and proofread recipes, the difference in writing recipes in Arabic and English, and questions whether social media put us under too much pressure to make our food look glamorous.

We also look at a different kind of recipe – the formulations for beauty products – and the challenge for iconic brands like Chanel in not giving away trade secrets.

Sue Keogh: One of my early copywriting gigs when I first went freelance was to get hundreds of recipes from print – onto a new online portal. It had literally never occurred to me before that point, that there was a consistent structure in the way that recipes were written.

You list the ingredients in order of use, putting the most important ones first…and any the salt and pepper and other seasoning goes at the end. It suddenly seemed so obvious! But I’d just never noticed.

And the way a recipe is written affects how well we cook it too. So in this episode we’re going to untangle recipes and find out how it’s done.

I’m joined by Noor Murad, who is part of Yottam Ottolenghi’s Test Kitchen team. Her recipe books include Shelf Love and Lugma – an ode to the food she grew up eating during her childhood in Bahrain.

She’s cooked trackside at Formula 1, and trained at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. She now lives in London, and invited me over to the very kitchen where she develops her delicious Middle Eastern recipes.

She tells me how you test and proofread recipes, how social media puts us under too much pressure to make our food look glamorous, and the challenges of translating clotted cream into different languages.

We’ll also think about a different kind of recipe – the formulations for beauty products – and the challenge for iconic brands like Chanel who have to list the ingredients by law – but not give away their trade secrets.

About Noor Murad

Bahrain-born, London-based and New York trained, Noor Murad joined the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen in 2018, where she worked as a recipe developer for Falastin and Flavor as well as Ottolenghi's New York Times and Guardian columns.

She became the head of the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen, and wrote the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen books: Shelf Love and Extra Good Things.

Her own recipes have featured in the New York Times and she has cooked on BBC's Saturday Kitchen. Her Middle Eastern roots have a strong influence on her cooking, with Arabic, Indian, and Persian flavours making a prominent appearance in her recipes.

Useful links

Follow Noor on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noorishbynoor

Buy Noor’s book Lugma (which means ‘a bite’ in Arabic, yum!

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/466601/lugma-by-murad-noor/9781837832019

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A ticket is way more than just a slip of paper that gets you into the gig, show, or football match. But with the move to QR codes, barcodes and digitisation, do they still feel special?

In Untangling Tickets, designer Jules Akel draws on his extensive experience in designing beautiful tickets for Lord’s cricket and Wimbledon which helped build a sense of anticipation ahead of the day. Along the way we talk forgeries, buried treasure, and the power of wit in helping brands connect with the audience.

And how does Disney take tickets to a whole other level, with their wearable technology – the MagicBand?

A ticket is more than just a slip of paper. It’s something you gaze at longingly as you look forward to the event, and hold onto afterwards as a keepsake. It’s as much about anticipation – as the basics of gaining entry on the day. In this episode we’re going to Untangle Tickets, with designer Jules Akel.

For 25 years he created beautiful tickets for Marylebone Cricket Club at Lords. And he has designed an abundance of materials for Wimbledon, Ascot, whiskey distilleries and music festivals.

Of course, nowadays – we just flash a QR code or barcode stored on our phone, but as Jules explains, we can still design tickets so they feel special. Giving us a sense of joy and fun about the whole experience.

Along the way we talk forgeries, buried treasure, and the power of wit in helping brands connect with the audience.

We also break off to look at how Disney take tickets to a whole other level, with their wearable technology – the MagicBand.

About Jules Akel

Jules is a graduate of Preston Poly where he was taught about the primacy of the idea over decoration. Of course the art is important, but in the service of communication. He has enjoyed creating all manner of designs to help companies large and small to prosper. These companies have included Marylebone Cricket Club, Wimbledon Tennis Championships, Greenpeace, L’Oreal, Dalwhinnie Distillery, Marlborough College, Wellington College, Skibo Castle and others.

Useful links

Connect with Jules Akel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jules-akel-33028a13

Explore his design work https://www.akel.co.uk

Buy his book, Cricket Tickets. It’s available from Christopher Saunders the publisher.

https://www.cricket-books.com/search_results.php?typeofitem=&author=akel&title=&search=&anyallexact=all&submit=search&pricemin=&pricemax=&sortorder=creationdate&maxrows=30&advancedsearch=advancedsearch

And thank you to Christian Wolmar for kindly allowing us to use your front room to record! Listen to his podcast Calling All Stations: https://cogitamus.co.uk/calling-all-stations

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