Episode 47

Ep47: BioWare Stories Part 4 - Sound design with Dave Chan

This is part 4 of my series on BioWare. In this episode, I'm lucky to have Dave Chan talking about sound design and more. Dave started working at BioWare before me on games such as MDK2, Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2. We overlapped on games such as Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire.

Dave has had a long career in video games, for a full list please check out his profile on Moby Games.

Episode Highlights

  1. From IT to Audio Director: Dave shares how a chance encounter with BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk at a computer store led him from IT to doing placeholder sound effects for MDK2. Dave eventually became a full-time audio designer.
  2. Scrappy Studio Days: Listen in for a hilarious late-night outtake from MDK2 involving a monkey, a blow-dryer, and K-Y Jelly. Dave also reflects about the sheer passion of BioWare fans .
  3. Behind the Sounds:
  4. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: Dave reveals that none of the sound effects were actually taken directly from the films; they were all meticulously reproduced in-house or by contractors like Paul Gorman.
  5. Lost Outtakes: Dave laments losing unreleased, hilarious outtakes of the iconic character Minsc (and his giant miniature space hamster, Boo) from Baldur’s Gate.
  6. Lost in Translation: A funny anecdote about how the French localization of Baldur’s Gate combat sounds ended up sounding a bit too much like a porn film.
  7. The Philosophy of Sound: Dave explains his approach to audio, such as crafting the desolate, isolated atmosphere for The Long Dark. He also breaks down why user interface (UI) sounds are actually the hardest to design: they must be noticeable, unique, and critically, not annoying after thousands of clicks.

Mentions & Links

  1. Greg Zeschuk: BioWare co-CEO and founder.
  2. Trent Oster: Beamdog CEO and next week’s guest!
  3. Ben Burtt: Legendary film sound designer who crafted iconic Star Wars audio.
  4. Episode 27: BioWare Stories Part 1 - Craig Miller
  5. Episode 28: BioWare Stories Part 2 - Craig Miller
  6. Episode 29: BioWare Stories Part 3 - Georg Zoeller and Emmanuel Lusinchi
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About the Podcast

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Tales under the cat tree: Conversations on Imagination, Tech & Human Adventure
Hosted by tech leader and storyteller Duleepa Wijayawardhana, this podcast explores the intersections of technology, fiction, and human adventure. Words create the worlds we live in—join us for weekly conversations that spark your imagination.

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About your host

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Duleepa Wijayawardhana

It started with late nights, glue sticks, and a university newspaper / radio.

That early obsession with how words reach people took me from student journalism to a career spanning the globe. I’ve gone from designing newspapers and having radio shows to building systems at BioWare (yes, the RPG legends), managing data at MySQL, and now leading tech at Supermetrics in Helsinki.

But at my core, I’m still that geek who believes writing is just code for the human mind.

While a computer chip executes code exactly, your imagination runs stories based on your own unique wiring. Tales under the cat tree is where we run those programs together. Whether we're exploring the fiction that inspires us or the tech that defines us, my goal is to spark your imagination and—most importantly—never make you go "meh."

Words create the worlds we live in. Let's explore them.