ARCHA+U: Game music

A three-hour workshop led by producers Ancestral Vision and Oliver Torr on the fundamentals of soundtrack and sound design for interactive environments. The course is divided into two parts and requires no prior knowledge.

The first, theoretical half focuses on listening to and analyzing examples from video games, film, and experimental audio - specifically how music, ambient textures, intentional silence, UI sounds, and foley effects shape emotion, spatial orientation, rhythm, game narrative, and player attention. In the second, practical part, participants will experiment with layering sound, timing, texture work, contrast, and simple editing directly on short game scenes using pre-prepared sound packs.

We recommend arriving with a demo version of Ableton Live installed and sound packs pre-downloaded, which the organizers will send you in advance.

Jan Macháček (Ancestral Vision) is a Prague-based musician, producer, sound artist, DJ, and co-founder of the Unizone label. He works at the intersection of experimental sound design, intimate melodic forms, and contemporary club music, and also serves as a game designer for ČT Déčko, where he works with interactive formats, children's games, and audiovisual storytelling.

Oliver Torr is a multidisciplinary artist, composer, and sound designer working with experimental music, film, performance, instrument design, immersive audio systems, and narrative sound environments.

For the past four years, both have been collaborating on sound for the upcoming cyberpunk hacker roguelike game Netspectre by Martin Ziegler from Warhorse Studios - a project that serves as their laboratory for exploring atmosphere, procedural tension, adaptive audio, and sonic storytelling.