Jenn Overton
Game Audio and Implementation

Jaoverton21@gmail.com

Reel

Bio

Hi, I'm Jenn (she/her)! I'm a sound designer currently based in Chicago, IL USA. I started off getting a degree in Saxophone Performance and Music Education from Lawrence University. While this was a great experience, it wasn't quite the best fit for me. I ended up doing a deep dive into different areas of sound/music, and game audio was the first thing that truly clicked with me. This eventually led to enrolling in Northwestern University's MA in Sound Arts and Industries Program.At Northwestern I took on as many game audio opportunities as possible. This included game jams, redesigning my own gameplay, building my foley/field recording library, and creating my own levels to design/implement for in Unity and UE5. I also explored opportunities outside of game audio such as creating an instrument with Arduino and Max, designing for audio dramas, and continuing to play saxophone (mainly alto and tenor). At the end of the program I was an intern at The Pardo Brothers LLC working on sound design and implementation for various video game projects!Currently I am freelancing as a sound designer and technical audio designer. I am also looking for an in house position at a game studio or game audio company, and am willing to relocate for a position.

Favourite Games

  • Death's Door

  • Baldur's Gate 3

  • Tunic

  • The Outer Worlds

  • Inscryption

  • Spiritfarer

  • Stardew Valley

  • Darkest Dungeon

Skills

  • Wwise

  • Reaper

  • Pro Tools

  • Unity

  • Unreal Engine 5

  • Max

  • Arduino IDE

  • Foley/Field Recording

  • Music Performance

Other Interests

  • Saxophone

  • Crocheting

  • Hiking

  • My Cats

  • TTRPGs

  • Musical Theatre

Portfolio

Sound Design

Inscryption - Daniel Mullins Games

Sound Redesign

Death's Door - Acid Nerve

Sound Redesign

Have a Nice Death - Magic Design Studios

Sound Redesign

Sound Implementation

Escape Room in UE5

This is a level I built to learn Unreal Engine 5 Blueprints and Unreal audio implementation with Wwise.

Gameplay

Implementation Walkthrough

  • 0:00 - Intro

  • 0:12 - Collider Object Events

  • 1:28 - State Groups

  • 2:44 - Switch groups

Parsnip and Rhubarb's Excellent (and Not at All Destructive) Adventure

This is a personal project I made from scratch in order to learn more about Unity game development and practice Wwise Implementation.

Gameplay

Implementation Walkthrough

  • 0:00 - Introduction

  • 0:30 - Ambience State Groups

  • 1:10 - Footstep Switch Groups

  • 2:04 - Object Collisions

  • 3:09 - Object Interactions (lights/tv/Parsnip/Saxophone)

  • 4:33 - Thank you!

Unity VR Escape Room

This is a level I made to learn VR level design and audio implementation using the tools available in Unity. I love puzzle games so an escape room felt like a great way to learn!

Gameplay

Implementation Walkthrough

  • 0:00 - Intro

  • 0:13 - Puzzle 1 - Word Board

  • 0:54 - Puzzle 2 - Interactive Instruments

  • 1:55 - Puzzle 3 - Keypads

Additional Work

Non-Game Audio Things

Sketch of a Sketch in Harmonic Minors

This is an instrument I built using Arudino IDE and MaxMSP.

There are three SoftPot Membrane Potentiometers and two Ultrasonic Sensors on the clipboard. The SoftPots take readings based on pressure placement along the membrane, while the Ultrasonics read distance (in this case inches) from the sensors. A piece of paper gets clipped on the board and the sensors take readings as the performer draws on top.

These values are sent to a Max patch where there are 2 multichannel synths and a setup for FM synthesis. The Softpots change the tempo of the patch and the domains of the multichannel synths, while the Ultrasonic changes the FM modulation and the controls key changes (all in harmonic minors).

Demo

Auricle Season 2 Episode 5 Anam Cara

I did the sound design and mixing for this episode! You can check it out here or find the entire series on any podcasting platform.

Non-Audio Game Things

NORTHWESTERN GAME JAM 2023
Retrace by team Shrimply Sand-tastic

During the first Northwestern Game Jam I did the visuals for our game. The theme was Sustainability. We made a game about the consequences of climate change in Antarctica, set in a time where all life in the area has gone extinct. I made:

  • Two main maps - past/thriving and current/dead (Unity terrain tools and lighting)

  • Animals with animations (penguins, seals, orcas) and their skeletons (Blender)

  • Computer stations where the player can see research logs from the past (Blender)

  • An aurora borealis that acts as the boundary for each section (Unity Shader Graph)

Cats & Crochet

(you made it this far, enjoy some cute things!)

Rhubarb!

Crochet!

Parsnip!