Back in October, we launched a little contest as part of our second-ever Game Audio Week. The challenge was to reimagine the audio for a clip from Data Man, a video game developed by one of our very own founders, Per Larsson.
The original Data Man clip.
The response was incredible. We received a record number of entries, almost three times as many as our previous most popular contest. As if that didn’t make our job hard enough, most of the entries were genuinely great.
This was not an easy contest to judge, which explains why you’re only finding out the winners now, a full two weeks later than planned. Sorry about that, but if you’re going to be that amazing there are going to be consequences.
The Day(s) of Judgement
Everyone at Kilohearts HQ got involved. We each downloaded all the videos and watched them one by one, starting with the goal of trimming down the list by removing any that didn’t quite meet the brief.
That was tough, as nearly every submission was solid, but we eventually narrowed things down to a shortlist of thirty.
From there, things got even harder. We had to get really nitpicky, checking whether each sound cue was there, well-designed, and made sense in context. After hours of obsessive judging, we managed to reduce the shortlist to ten finalists.
And that’s when it became impossible. We simply couldn’t agree on a single winner. So, we decided to break our own rules and have four winners instead of one, and runner-up prizes for the other amazing finalists.
Here are the final winners, in alphabetical order:
- Chris R
- Ian Takamoon — SimSelections contributions
- MEGAHERB — Bluesky profile
- Shunei
These talented people have each won the entire Kilohearts Ultimate collection and a copy of the SFX Pro 9000 Game Audio Content Bank.
And these are the runners-up:
- Adam Gillard
- Hugh von Ravenhorst, AKA Pulsing Bulb — new album
- Keith Farnham — YouTube channel
- Joe Schlamme
- Junki Kim — Instagram, LinkedIn
- Philip Glockauer — social links
Runners-up all won a $60 Kilohearts coupon and a copy of the SFX Pro 9000 Game Audio Content Bank.
All winners have been contacted directly using the email addresses provided with their submissions.
There Are No Losers
Although it was tough to judge, that’s exactly why we consider it such a success. The overall quality of the work was outstanding, and even the entries that didn’t make the final list showed huge potential. Many were just a few tweaks away from greatness.
We’re incredibly impressed with everyone who took part. You made this a highlight of the year for us.
Congratulations to everyone!
The Lap of Honor
You can see the winning entries below, along with the runners-up and a quick rundown of all those who made the shortlist.
Watch to the end to see who made the shortlist!
We’d also like to give a special mention to Philip Glockauer, who shared his process on YouTube, and Junki Kim, who posted his breakdown video on LinkedIn. Both using Phase Plant like true sound design pros!
We’re blown away by the creativity, effort, and enthusiasm of everyone who entered. Thanks for making this such an inspiring event. We’re already planning something similar for next year, though next time we’ll definitely give ourselves a bit more time to judge.
