Hey, Stephanie Essin here.
I'm chatting with Justin Lassen at GDC,
he's an Intel Software Innovator.
A few months ago, I did a project video
about your project in sound design and sound collection
all across the world for an IDZ weekly episode.
So I wanted to talk a little bit more about that with him.
So Justin, what exactly was that project, for people
who don't know?
So about 10 years ago, I released
a sound library called White Rabbit Asylum,
and it was where I collected sounds
over an eight year period.
And it did really well.
And it was dark crawl spaces, World War II exhibits,
and all kinds of crazy stuff in Europe.
And a lot of the fans were like, Justin,
when are you going to do another sound library?
So then, over the last couple of years
I've been able to travel the world.
Everywhere from China to Thailand,
all over Europe again, Iceland, and take ambisonic and binaural
microphones to get surround and spatial audio that I can then
turn into assets for video game developers and people who
are working in virtual reality and immersive experiences.
So, yeah.
That's awesome.
So what's the benefit?
Having real sound, that's more immersive, right?
Absolutely.
So a lot of games in the past have just
taken from standard libraries, where after a while
you start saying like, wait I've heard that before,
or that's just pulled from this or that.
With this library, it's brand new.
All custom material, it's in caves,
cathedrals, underneath castles, crawl spaces,
underneath the Vatican, even.
Just the really coolest mysterious places
around the world.
So the new library is called Black Box Society,
so it's sort of a sequel to White Rabbit Asylum.
And the theme is secret societies and secret places,
and finding those sonic stories that are hidden
in these places, in the audio.
In the sound.
That's so awesome.
I think that work is really going to lend itself
to more immersive VR.
All right so, aside from that, how is this going to grow?
I mean you have this library all published and ready to go.
But you're expanding this, I understand?
That's right.
So the next phase of this library
is, I'm going to be traveling to other, more mysterious places
in the world in the next year.
And I'm going to take even more interesting
different microphones and technology with me,
and field recorders and things.
And I'm going to capture even more hi-res audio,
basically, and edit it down to usable assets for VR developers
and people working in games.
So, yeah.
Yeah, awesome stuff.
So I wanted to ask a little bit about being an Intel Software
Innovator specifically, and maybe
how that program has helped you further
your professional career and what that looks like.
Oh yeah the Intel Software Innovator
group has been one of my favorite groups
to ever be a part of.
I've met so many friends, so many developers.
I've been invited into so many cool development projects.
In fact, it's the program that got me into virtual reality.
Before that, I was just doing composing and regular music
and stuff.
And then they invited me in and said,
do you want to work with some teams that are doing
some really innovative things?
And of course I was like, yes.
So, many years later, here I am.
And I worked on an Emmy-nominated VR experience
for Spider-Man.
And it's been amazing, all the projects
I've got to work on in the Innovator program.
So, yeah.
That's really, really cool.
So going forward, what's on the horizon for you?
So going forward, I want to get back to the artist of me.
Because there's game developer, virtual reality Justin Lassen,
and then there's always been that songwriter, composer,
performer, singer Justin Lassen.
So I'm working on new tracks, new music,
in rock and electronic genres.
And so it's going to be kind of fun to get back to that,
get back to my roots of just being an artist.
So, yeah.
That's awesome that you can intermix being an artist
and have that duality of also being a developer and a more
technical person.
That's really unique and awesome.
Thank you.
Great.
So if someone wanted to learn more about your projects,
where would you tell them to go?
Oh, absolutely. www.nihilstudios.com,
it's N-I-H-I-L studios.com.
So, yeah.
Awesome.
OK, Nihil Studios.
Make sure you check out the links provided to see
more of Justin's projects.
And Justin, thank you so much for joining.
Yeah, thank you very much.
Awesome.
Thanks for watching.