Music for Games - Your first steps
Hi,
I received a few questions about making music for games, how to get in etc… I’m not composing music for games, even if music was what got me into the industry, but I do work in the game industry so hopefully I can give you some hint.
There are a few options, getting a job full-time as in-house composer or as audio-engineer, working freelance contract by contract and maybe even working for an outsourcing company if it helps to get some credits on some games.
Not all Game Publishers and Game Developers operate the same way; some developers have in-house audio-engineers that will work on getting outsourced audio into the game; other developers have in-house studios staffed with one or more do-it-all musicians and at times they may commission work outside; some publisher may have a good studio providing music services for developers owned by the publisher or developing games for the publisher.
In trying to get your foot through the door, don’t just stop at contacting the big names. There are smaller publishers, budget publishers and game developers that still need music.
You have the big publishers like Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Take 2, Eidos, Atari, etc… but you also have the smaller ones. For a list of publishers look here:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/directory.php?action=browse&cat=24
You can also specifically target Mobile or Casual Games
For a list of developers look here:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/directory.php?action=browse&cat=23
You could invest time and money by simply sending off demo-cds of your material to everyone… but you will be better off doing some research first.
- Through a developer or publisher website (or interviews in the press online/offline) find a contact number or email and ask who you would need to address your demo to. This gives you a better chance that your demo goes to the right person but more importantly you have a name to contact again in a week or so to ask for feedback or to double check he/she did receive your demo just fine.
- Please… make the effort to have your own website if you do want to show an online presence. No one wants to look at your ugly and messy my-space site with hard on the eyes graphics and pestered with comments and images of people adding comments etc… Even a simple clean black a white site is better then a messy one. If you don’t make an effort in looking professional then don’t give your URL out
- Listen to current in-game music. You can do that through the actual games or through game music dedicated sites, there are game music dedicated radio stations on live365, and EA was going to add music from their games in iTunes I’m not sure if it’s up and running yet.
You are trying to understand the standard of music in games especially for those companies you may be targeting, so at the very least you will know what to improve on
- Research which game score is winning awards
http://www.bafta.org/site/page413.html
(LATEST NOMINATIONS – BAFTA - this year's British Academy Video Games Awards in association with PC World. The winners will be announced at the ceremony on Tuesday 23 October 2007 at Battersea Evolution.)
ORIGINAL SCORE NOMINATIONS
FINAL FANTASY XII (PS2) - Hitoshi Sakimoto, Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy XII Project Team/Square Enix)
GOD OF WAR 2 (PS2) - Clint Bajakian, Jonathan Mayer, Chuck Doud (SCE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe)
LAIR (PS3) - John Debney, Ryan Hamlyn, Clint Bajakian (SCE Foster City Studio & Factor 5/Sony Computer Entertainment America)
OKAMI (PS2) - Atsushi Inaba (Clover (Capcom)/Capcom)
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS (Wii) - Development Team (Nintendo/Nintendo)
VIVA PIÑATA (Xbox 360) - Grant Kirkhope (Rare/Microsoft Game Studio)
Do not send tons of tracks. Only send your best work
If you are versatile and able to compose in several music genres and anything in between then only send one or two tracks per genre. If you only specialise in one genre, then you can send a few tracks showing off a range of musical situations.
Of course if you are versatile and able to provide music in different styles you will have more options/contracts to apply for, but if you only focus and specialise in one genre it is not a bad thing, it simply means you should maybe try to find some game franchise that could really do with your music and propose it.
If you are thinking about trying, you need to be aware of the fact that you may be asked to produce a specific number of tracks in often a small-amount of time! You better be super organised with your workflow. Know your library of sounds very well, know your kit very well… this is not about waiting for the inspiration and it may come next week, this is ‘work’ and you have to deliver. It can be great fun but it can be very intense.
To start with, you would probably try to get some simple contract that is about delivering tracks then the audio coders and engineer will put them into the game. The next level would be about interactive and dynamic audio that changes based on what happens in the game, audio may have to be made of different streams that can be interchanged or small loops that all work together etc… It gets more technical and comes with experience.
Generally gamasutra is a good site for jobs
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/jobs_display.php?category=4
(A bit empty for music right now but keep an eye on it)
But you don’t have to wait for a job ad, hunt your contract down instead waiting for an ad. You can also look at the Indie game market where at times small teams do pay for music instead only giving you a promise of pay for when and if the game comes out.
Also networking can pay off big time.
Good luck and enjoy making music.
I received a few questions about making music for games, how to get in etc… I’m not composing music for games, even if music was what got me into the industry, but I do work in the game industry so hopefully I can give you some hint.
There are a few options, getting a job full-time as in-house composer or as audio-engineer, working freelance contract by contract and maybe even working for an outsourcing company if it helps to get some credits on some games.
Not all Game Publishers and Game Developers operate the same way; some developers have in-house audio-engineers that will work on getting outsourced audio into the game; other developers have in-house studios staffed with one or more do-it-all musicians and at times they may commission work outside; some publisher may have a good studio providing music services for developers owned by the publisher or developing games for the publisher.
In trying to get your foot through the door, don’t just stop at contacting the big names. There are smaller publishers, budget publishers and game developers that still need music.
You have the big publishers like Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Take 2, Eidos, Atari, etc… but you also have the smaller ones. For a list of publishers look here:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/directory.php?action=browse&cat=24
You can also specifically target Mobile or Casual Games
For a list of developers look here:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/directory.php?action=browse&cat=23
You could invest time and money by simply sending off demo-cds of your material to everyone… but you will be better off doing some research first.
- Through a developer or publisher website (or interviews in the press online/offline) find a contact number or email and ask who you would need to address your demo to. This gives you a better chance that your demo goes to the right person but more importantly you have a name to contact again in a week or so to ask for feedback or to double check he/she did receive your demo just fine.
- Please… make the effort to have your own website if you do want to show an online presence. No one wants to look at your ugly and messy my-space site with hard on the eyes graphics and pestered with comments and images of people adding comments etc… Even a simple clean black a white site is better then a messy one. If you don’t make an effort in looking professional then don’t give your URL out
- Listen to current in-game music. You can do that through the actual games or through game music dedicated sites, there are game music dedicated radio stations on live365, and EA was going to add music from their games in iTunes I’m not sure if it’s up and running yet.
You are trying to understand the standard of music in games especially for those companies you may be targeting, so at the very least you will know what to improve on
- Research which game score is winning awards
http://www.bafta.org/site/page413.html
(LATEST NOMINATIONS – BAFTA - this year's British Academy Video Games Awards in association with PC World. The winners will be announced at the ceremony on Tuesday 23 October 2007 at Battersea Evolution.)
ORIGINAL SCORE NOMINATIONS
FINAL FANTASY XII (PS2) - Hitoshi Sakimoto, Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy XII Project Team/Square Enix)
GOD OF WAR 2 (PS2) - Clint Bajakian, Jonathan Mayer, Chuck Doud (SCE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe)
LAIR (PS3) - John Debney, Ryan Hamlyn, Clint Bajakian (SCE Foster City Studio & Factor 5/Sony Computer Entertainment America)
OKAMI (PS2) - Atsushi Inaba (Clover (Capcom)/Capcom)
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS (Wii) - Development Team (Nintendo/Nintendo)
VIVA PIÑATA (Xbox 360) - Grant Kirkhope (Rare/Microsoft Game Studio)
Do not send tons of tracks. Only send your best work
If you are versatile and able to compose in several music genres and anything in between then only send one or two tracks per genre. If you only specialise in one genre, then you can send a few tracks showing off a range of musical situations.
Of course if you are versatile and able to provide music in different styles you will have more options/contracts to apply for, but if you only focus and specialise in one genre it is not a bad thing, it simply means you should maybe try to find some game franchise that could really do with your music and propose it.
If you are thinking about trying, you need to be aware of the fact that you may be asked to produce a specific number of tracks in often a small-amount of time! You better be super organised with your workflow. Know your library of sounds very well, know your kit very well… this is not about waiting for the inspiration and it may come next week, this is ‘work’ and you have to deliver. It can be great fun but it can be very intense.
To start with, you would probably try to get some simple contract that is about delivering tracks then the audio coders and engineer will put them into the game. The next level would be about interactive and dynamic audio that changes based on what happens in the game, audio may have to be made of different streams that can be interchanged or small loops that all work together etc… It gets more technical and comes with experience.
Generally gamasutra is a good site for jobs
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/jobs_display.php?category=4
(A bit empty for music right now but keep an eye on it)
But you don’t have to wait for a job ad, hunt your contract down instead waiting for an ad. You can also look at the Indie game market where at times small teams do pay for music instead only giving you a promise of pay for when and if the game comes out.
Also networking can pay off big time.
Good luck and enjoy making music.
Tags: games, music, music for games, score
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by TCwebtime on
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Who you know always helps no matter which industry you are interested in, but... when a developer/publisher invites composers to pitch for a job, it's not always the established composers that get the job. Especially with games that need the franchise refreshed or brand new IPs, new music talent with original ideas and enthusiasm may shine and get the commission.
Still it will be easier to pitch for smaller game-projects initially because bigger productions may not be willing to risk time on unknown composers (unless your demo is fantastic).
I have worked for Ubisoft in the past (mentioning because the link posted by mistrust is about a ubisoft game but I didn't work for the same game studio from the link, Ubisoft has a lot of game studios worldwide) and yes… when we checked a studio we used in the past for a new game we were producing… we felt like we needed something new and different… So, chances are out there; if you don’t try you don’t get it; yes who you know matters but if you don’t want it you don’t get it.
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Video Games LIve
if you are over 30 it may put a smile on your face :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVHGy9XEF9I
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This fore a more up to date one :)
Metal Gear Solid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfKA4b5SFq4
For more just search for Video Game live on Youtube
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You may also want to keep an eye on competitions where Companies like Microsoft or publishers like Ubisoft (in collaboration with Univeral Music) open the doors to anyone with talent.
This competition is now over but it can give you a good example of what's about
http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/music
Anyone was invited to submit a possible score for Assassin’s Creed trailer!
A pair of University students, Sam Featherstone and Nick Worpole, have been crowned as the UK winners of the Xbox Soundtracks competition
Go to this site to listen to the winning track (Top right) and to hear music for game examples from the likes of Roger Sanchez, Scissor Sisters, etc...
http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/music
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This resource may be very useful to composers no matter what genre of music you make, of course more pertinent to scoring soundtracks and other 'descriptive' types of music
http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=77
This is offered by Garritan (http://www.garritan.com/) and is the free Garritan Interactive PRINCIPLES OF ORCHESTRATION by Rimsky-Korsakov
It is divided in 26 self learn lessons, each in a didicated thread. Of course based on Rimsky-Korsakov book on the subject. I haven't been through it yet but I will as soon as I can get some music instruemnt with orchestral sounds.
Yes it is FREE, just in case you were wondering :)
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Nuendo may be of interest to artists working with video so here it is a presentation of what's new in Nuendo 4
http://www.sonicstate.com/news/shownews.cfm?newsid=5408
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Winner of BAFTA nomination announced
Candidates were:
ORIGINAL SCORE
FINAL FANTASY XII (PS2) - Hitoshi Sakimoto, Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy XII Project Team/Square Enix)
GOD OF WAR 2 (PS2) - Clint Bajakian, Jonathan Mayer, Chuck Doud (SCE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe)
LAIR (PS3) - John Debney, Ryan Hamlyn, Clint Bajakian (SCE Foster City Studio & Factor 5/Sony Computer Entertainment America)
OKAMI (PS2) - Atsushi Inaba (Clover (Capcom)/Capcom)
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS (Wii) - Development Team (Nintendo/Nintendo)
VIVA PIÑATA (Xbox 360) - Grant Kirkhope (Rare/Microsoft Game Studio)
The winner for ORIGINAL SCORE is
OKAMI (PS2) - Atsushi Inaba (Clover (Capcom)/Capcom)
http://www.bafta.org/site/page413.html
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you can listen to 33 tracks from the Okami soundtrack here:
http://www.1up.com/do/club?clubid=109600&cId=3134928
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BAFTA best Use of Audio
Candidates
Crackdown (Xbox 360)
Elite Beat Agents (DS)
Gears of War (Xbox 360)
God of War II (PS2)
Guitar Hero II (PS2)
Skate (PS3)
WINNER
Crackdown (Xbox 360)
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A decent site with a few interviews with composers/producers of music for games and some review
http://www.music4games.net/
Plus some industry news like: Korn to release original song for Ubisoft's Haze video game"
Let me know if you would like to know something more specific about making music for games. I'll do my best to find the answers for you.
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This is a podcast from 2006 with Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall (composers of music for games) of the Video Games Live game concert events.
you could skip the first 9 minutes
Around 15 minutes some info on how to produce dynamic changes of music-layers based on in-game action (some basinc hint)
http://gamasutra.com/features/20060816/podcast_01.shtml
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