I’m a director at Cardboard Sword where our contract clients include Epic Games, Playground Games, Coatsink, Rivet Games and Critical Failure Studio. We recently shipped The Siege and The Sandfox, our own-IP 2D stealth metroidvania, and we’re working on multiple other original properties including the forthcoming game Transmission. While skilled in various game engines and pipelines, we specialise in Unreal Engine.
I’ve been with Cardboard Sword since 2017 and my responsibilities include:
I also still have some availability for film and TV location sound recording work and can supply my own kit including: Sound Devices 633 recorder; Zoom backup and drop-bag recorders; SQN mixers; microphones by Neumann, Sennheiser, Audix, Sanken, Oktava, Tram, OST and LOM; 4 channels of radio (PMSE licensed); wired and wireless client listen solutions; timecode; full insurance (PLI and PII) and clean UK driving license
I also offer audio post production for film, TV, commercials, podcasts and radio, as well as on-location Foley and VO recording.
Coming from a family of musicians and continuing a lineage of Irish traditional fiddle playing from a young age, I also learned classical violin and piano before teaching myself various other instruments in my teens and beyond - guitar, bass, flute, English and Anglo concertina, bouzouki and banjo. Since then I’ve been performing, recording and composing professionally as well as producing 8-bit/chiptune music in the demoscene under the name Syphus since the early 1990s. In the 2000s when chipmusic finally became cool enough to perform in public, I gigged around the world as Syphus with my Commodore Amiga and a keytar; particular highlights included two Chiptune Alliance tours of Britain, and Blip Festival in New York. (A complete archive of my chiptune and demoscene music is available at syphus-mods.github.io.)
Back in the studio I’ve been commissioned to produce original musical works for a wide range of clients including BBC Radio 3 Drama, BBC Radio 4 Drama, Sunderland A.F.C., Newcastle United Foundation, The Centre for Process Innovation, We Are Strongness and FME; and for numerous games on PC/Mac, consoles and mobile.
I’ve been composing music for games since the late 00s, and since 2017 I’ve also been working as an audio programmer and sound designer. As Audio Director at Cardboard Sword I spend most of my time coding our in-house DAW and middleware, composing our music, and handling all sound design production and implementation. I also step in as a gameplay programmer and build engineer when required.