BlackCatBonifide, LLC

Well, the word’s out so it’s official. I am now on the Steering Committee for IASIG, the Interactive Audio Special Interest Group. I’m looking forward to getting my digital hands dirty with this great collective of game and industry audio experts. Text from the news blast:
“Please welcome our newest Steering Committee member, Bonnie Bogovich! Bonnie is the lead Sound Designer at Schell Games, a company headed by Art of Game Design’s Jesse Schell, focused on entertainment-based and educational video games, interactive experiences, and theme park attractions. Side projects Bonnie has spearheaded include the creation of Evenings in Quarantine: The Zombie Opera, a community supported movie/theater show, and Super Smash Opera, a classical music and video game crossover. She has served on the boards and committees for organizations and acted as a judge for the IGF (Independent Games Fest), Indiecade, and GLFA. For more information about Bonnie see her website https://www.blackcatbonifide.com.”

“Water Bears”, the latest Schell Games creation, is now available as a standalone game through iTunes and a FREE educational version is available through GlassLab!  I worked on sound design and music for this fun project alongside audio intern Tim Rosko. My voice is also featured as the sound of the tardigrades. “A 3D puzzle game for everyone! Challenge your spatial reasoning. Mix colors. Make the most of your limited resources. These water bears are sad and dehydrated. They need YOU…”
team photo– trailer – edu page

So when not working on sounds for games, I’ve been busy… working on sounds for more games. “Hiveswap“, also known as “The Homestuck Adventure Game”, from company What Pumpkin, has been an enjoyable ride so far and working on the soundscape with fellow sound designers Nathaniel Chambers and Alyssa Menes has been awesome. I can’t wait for this game to get finished (expected release Spring 2015) so you can hear what craziness we have crafted for your ears!
(press kit for Hiveswap)

I am excited to announce that we have been asked to perform Super Smash Opera at Confluence, Pittsburgh’s Literary SciFi/Horror/Fantasy Conference on Saturday evening July 25th, 2015. We will be taking the time slot usually reserved for The Parallax Players, on hiatus this year, known for their musical mashups such as SuperMannie, Dune: The Soft Rock Musical, and 20,000 Leagues of Music. Our show is a comedic parody hybrid of Nintendo characters and classical opera tunes,  so I’m sure we’ll fit right in! (read more about our Pittsburgh Premiere…)

What can I say other than “GDC’s Game Audio…. things were amazing this year!” One of the biggest highlights for me personally was being present each morning for the Game Audio Podcast streaming live from Sightglass Coffee Monday through Saturday. I had the pleasure of sitting in on episodes 48 through 53, lots of great open discussions, panel recaps, industry tips, and more. A great podcast run by some really great guys, I highly recommend checking it out:)

Well, its finally that time of the year again. Time to pack up my bags and head off to GDC, the Game Developers Conference in San Fran. Looking forward to seeing what the Audio Track has in store for us this year, catching up with my fellow bleepers and bloopers, as well as checking out the Indie summit on monday.  I’m also excited for the results from this year’s Independent Games Festival, of which I was a judge for the Best Audio category. Best wishes to all the finalists as they reveal the winners this wednesday!

PS: On Monday, Jesse Schell of Schell Games will be doing a talk about things we learned during development on one of our most recent projects with “Lexica” as part of the Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit.

We came, we saw, we premiered Super Smash Opera at MAGFest!!! We had a blast performing and many thanks to the convention crew and to our enthusiastic audience for making it extra amazing.  We were able to regroup a couple weeks after returning home to make a special “thank you” video to express our gratitude to all those who supported our musical adventure.
Weren’t able to make it to MAGfest? Check out footage of our performance, our video interview with Armed Gamer, and more on our video page…

Only six days till we premiere Super Smash Opera, a new video game tribute show with singers, swordfights, puppets, and more at my favorite fest/con of the year… MAGFest. After a year of bouncing around ideas, committing to a final product, lining up the performers, submitting our proposal, actually getting accepted, writing and rehearsing, now we’re in the final crunch as sheet music, supertitles, puppets, props and costumes are getting nailed down in a flurry of excitement.  I am forever blown away by the talent of my team and can’t wait to get this show on the road. I hope those who show up at 4:30pm this coming Friday (January 23rd) to “Panels 1” enjoy what we have in store:)

Schell Games has been on a roll getting some of our newest games “green-lit” by the Steam community this month! An extra special surprise they also finally green-lit InnerCube, a game we submitted 3 years ago (currently available on Ouya, Android, and Chrome). I’m super pleased this addictive puzzler will be finally available through Steam and am sure recent successes like Enemy Mind and the upcoming Orion Trail helped push that along. As for my credits on Innercube, I did the music and sfx and am also the voice of the ‘computer’.

Now that the announcement is posted I can publicly say that I am honored to be on the Audio Jury for the Independent Games Festival Awards at GDC. Lots of great people involved with the juries this year and so far I’ve played some amazing games. Who will win “The Excellence In Audio Award” for 2015? I am looking forward to help find out!
Audio and Design Jury Announcement on Gamasutra