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Video Game Career?


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I've toyed with this idea off/on of writing scores for video games for about 3-4 years now, and the biggest reason I didn't jump in with both feet was because I was told more than once that if you had ANY inkling of getting into this industry you would more than likely already be playing video games 4-5 hrs per day. I'm thinking about it slightly again, but I'd like to make a once-and-for-all final decision, 1 way or the other.

 

So, will Lottie, Dottie, and Everybody please chime in with your best advice, as far as what that kind of position is like. Where is the best school to go to for best bang of the $$$. I do have quite a good facility here at my local community college. I just want everyone's brain dump.

 

Thanks,

KC:idea:

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I'd suggest that if you're debating whether you should do this, pick something else. There is money to be made in doing soundtracks and background music for video games, TV, film, etc, but it's being done by extremely hardcore talented people who didn't need to debate whether they should do it. College is expensive and this is not a field with a huge amount of vacancies. Pick a field where the demand exceeds the supply, and make sure it's something you'd enjoy doing.

 

This is one of the biggest problems that young people face today. They think "You know, I think I might kinda like doing XYZ." And XYZ is usually become an actor, or a writer, or songwriter, or rock star, or make video games.

 

If you ARE willing to give it 110%, find a school with good job placement, regardless of where in the USA it is. And make connections, connections, and more connections. Do as much work as you can to get experience, including freebies. Plan on having to write jingles and do whatever it takes to pay your bills, and plan on moving after graduation to an area where there's demand. If you bust your ass and you have mad talent, it can happen.

 

You asked for opinions - that's mine.

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Very sage, and encouraging advice Richard. I'm just in a VERY tight unemployment bind, which I'm obviously not going to fix by becoming a video game composer overnight, I'm just trying to make sure I don't leave any rock unturned. However, you've confirmed, as I wished, the once-and-for-all consideration for this option. I'm much more passionate about writing originals; especially knowing how easy it is these days to get them seen, and published these days.

 

Thanks, and Good Luck in your career,

KC

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I'm a proud video game nerd. I've read several interviews with various people in the video game industry, and evidently, it is ENORMOUSLY difficult to break into music and sound design for video games.

 

It's on par with saying "Hm, I think I'll go and do music for big-budget Hollywood flicks next yet. Sounds like a gas!"

 

Sorry. But good luck!

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When I was coming up a little over a decade ago, I really, really wanted to be a video game music composer. I wanted to be like Yuzo Koshiro, Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu, Hiroki Kikuta, Sound Team JDK, and the guys in the Konami Kukeiha Club. Boy did THAT ever not happen. I've been doing singer songwriter stuff since then, but even now everything I do sounds like video game and anime music. Which I actually find very cool, actually.

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Yeah... went to his site and listened to some of his soundtrack work. You don't just slap that stuff together with a couple chords and an acoustic guitar, that's for sure. People don't know how hard it is to do orchestral arrangements that actually sound good. He's got an interesting mix of classical and electronica. I'm not a gamer (other than Angry Birds) but it's pretty obvious that big money goes into the major games. I can't imagine competing in that field with that guy and guys like him.

 

LOL - I always liked the Super Mario music. I could probably write that stuff. :)

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Check out Jeremy Soule's work. He is a real genius and a fabulous composer and arranger. Legendary in the video game world, but his stuff can stand up to any modern composer anywhere.

 

You can listen to some samples at his Directsongs site.

 

Guys like him set the bar pretty high...

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I like Jeremy Soule. I especially like his Secret of Evermore OST for SNES. My favorite video game composer working today would have to be either Masashi Hamauzu or (Sigma Harmonics, Saga Frontier II, Final Fantasy XIII) or Noriyuki Asakura (Tenchu Series).

 

To be successful, a video game composer has to excel at composing in literally every style - everything from jazz, hip hop, metal, classical, techno, world music, country/western, progressive rock, tango, fado, Rai, dubstep, all types of experimental music, as well as music that doesn't have a category (considering, as in RPG's, that the music will be made for fictitious characters in imaginary environments).

Frankly, most musicians just don't have the necessary range.

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