Blair Renaud of Technolust on RealSpace 3D Audio
Blair Renaud’s upcoming VR experience, Technolust, is among the most anticipated and promising titles currently in development for the Oculus Rift. Blair adopted RealSpace3D Audio for his demo last month, and we were captivated by the results. We know that many RealSpace3D users have asked for more guidance and suggestions implementing our Plugin, so we asked him to talk a little about his experience using our Unity plugin and how he handled technical decisions.
RealSpace3d:
Everyone here at RealSpace enjoyed your Technolust demo, and we are really pleased with the way that you implemented our 3D sound! Downloading our Unity plugin is as easy as registering on our site, but actually using the plugin gets a bit more complicated. I would like to ask you a few questions about your process using our RealSpace plugin, but first I’d like to give you a chance to tell us a little bit about yourself and about Technolust.
Blair:
Thanks for that 🙂 Really glad people are enjoying it.
RealSpace3D:
You have been in the video game industry for a long time now, and have achieved recognition for your work with the Grand Theft Auto series, but we don’t know too much about your background in general. Please tell us a little about your background in gaming.
Blair:
I’ve actually been OUT of the video game industry for a long time now. I’ve always been interested in technology, from the first time I heard the eerie voice of my Speak and Spell as a child. I really didn’t do very well in school outside of art, science and computer classes. I left high school in grade 10 and began working at a small video game shop called Underground Entertainment at around age 17. The guys from Rockstar Toronto (then GameTek) used to frequent the shop and I would proceed to talk their ears off about games. Eventually, they offered me a job as a tester on a game called RoadWarrior (the sequel to to Quarantine). After the game shipped and my contract was up, I went into the bosses office and told him I wasn’t leaving. I would go for coffee, clean the toilets or whatever was required, so that I could stay on and learn. From there I quickly moved up the ladder. From sound design to level design and beyond. I loved my job. Eventually (sometime after Rockstar bought the company) I fell out of love with it though. The long (seemly endless) hours and stress was a lot for a 23 year old to handle. I had to move on.
From there I moved on to running a web design company (mostly Flash), then Motion Graphics and VFX, I was even a Mascot and a Security Guard briefly. I still enjoyed gaming though, and did some contract work in between (most notably, level design for N+ on the PSP). Fast forward to December 2013, when I got my DK1… and I’m back.