[Isn't the mix the hardest aspect of game audio?] In a movie you know where your audience is at all times, but in a game you never know where the player is going to be, and there are multiple players.
TL;DRGraham agrees games lack a director to focus the mix, and says a system to judge what matters most by game context is being worked on, but it is a long way down the line.
You make a really good point there, Jared, as well. Because in games, we don't have a director. A director can sit there and look at a scene and say, I want to hear that, that, and that. I want the focus to be on that. And I don't want to hear anything else. You'll notice that when you're watching a movie, there are so many things that are seen but not heard. So one of the systems we're working on, which is way down the line, is a system to kind of understand what the most important things in a scene are, depending on the game context. So a particular scene will sound very different if you're chasing someone on foot and trying to get a bounty reward or something, compared with if you're ambiently idling through the same area. Hopefully, we'll be able to make a system where you can get a very different mix in very similar circumstances.