Ben Houge

Ben Houge
Biographical information
Born	1974
Place of birth	York, Nebraska, USA
Title(s)	Composer Sound designer

 

Ben Houge is a composer and sound designer who worked on the PlayStation 2 version of Half-Life and its expansions. He worked on numerous other video games, promotional trailers, prototypes, and miscellaneous projects.

Biography

In 1996, he joined Sierra Entertainment immediately after leaving college where he remained for seven years. During that time, he designed sound effects and recorded and edited dialog for Half-Life: Opposing Force in 1999 and Half-Life: Blue Shift in 2001.

In 2001, he also composed music and designed sound effects for the main menu of the PlayStation 2 version of Half-Life as well as recording and editing additional dialog and composing the music for the promotional trailer. He had been called in at the last minute to complete this work. A loop of only 35 seconds long, the main menu theme was composed with synthesizers.

He also created the Sierra splash screen sound featured in every Sierra game published between 1998 and 2001, familiar to Half-Life players before Steam. The video itself was created by Valve's Jeff Lane.

He left Sierra in 2003 and, after working as a freelance audio contractor for a year, he joined Ubisoft in Shanghai in 2004 before departing at the end of 2008. He has continued to consult on sound design for game companies since then.

Houge has composed many classical/choir music pieces and co-founded "Sound Currents", a group of Seattle composers dedicated to presenting fresh, new, creative music through concerts in Shanghai, where he resides.

Selected gameography

• Half-Life: Opposing Force (1999)
• Half-Life: Blue Shift (2001)
• Half-Life (2001) (PlayStation 2 version)

External links

• Ben Houge's personal website
• Sound Currents