# How Do you Get Your First Job Working on an Indie Game?



## SyMTiK (Jun 26, 2015)

Now that I'm going into my Senior year of high school, I'm getting closer and closer to having the time to start working on actual projects. However, I have no idea where to look for a first job, who to contact, how everything works etc. I'm obviously not stupid and realize starting out I can't expect to get hired by a massive developer with no prior work experience. Where do you look for small developers looking for music? How much should I charge? Should I charge at all for my first job? 

I really want to follow my dreams and I'm not looking at getting hired any time soon (I need to still finish up high school and still work on my skills as a composer) but I would like to know some of the basics of looking for a job and getting experience. 

Any help is much appreciated 
Chris


----------



## The Darris (Jun 26, 2015)

Like any other job in the music industry, getting gigs takes time and is all about the relationships you make. You need to start forming those relationships with individuals who will need your expertise at some point. How do you do this? Well, searching around your area will do for starters. Find out if any schools nearby have a game design department and get in touch with the department chair. They should be more than willing to help connect you with students who need original music. I don't know of any but I've heard that getting involved with forums that deal with game designing (think the VI-C of the game design community) would be a great place to get a membership with. I'm sure their are posts by young developers that ask, "How do you go about getting a composer to write music for you game?" Now, keep in mind, not many film makers lurk on this forum but nevertheless, that is a question that I am betting young game designers ask. Go to Conventions, typically ones with a lot of indie start ups. Conventions and meet ups are the best networking source. Again, this is more about the relationships that you can make versus whether or not you are talented enough. I listened to your work and you can definitely write music, but can you become good friends with someone? Sounds weird but that is honestly what it takes to get your first gig.

As far as some sources that might help you out. Deniz Hughes has some really awesome (and FREE) videos that go more in depth on this question. Best of luck to you.

-Chris

Deniz Hughes YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Owdy3B9Ct0TI7YD1oo46g


----------



## SyMTiK (Jun 27, 2015)

The Darris said:


> Like any other job in the music industry, getting gigs takes time and is all about the relationships you make. You need to start forming those relationships with individuals who will need your expertise at some point. How do you do this? Well, searching around your area will do for starters. Find out if any schools nearby have a game design department and get in touch with the department chair. They should be more than willing to help connect you with students who need original music. I don't know of any but I've heard that getting involved with forums that deal with game designing (think the VI-C of the game design community) would be a great place to get a membership with. I'm sure their are posts by young developers that ask, "How do you go about getting a composer to write music for you game?" Now, keep in mind, not many film makers lurk on this forum but nevertheless, that is a question that I am betting young game designers ask. Go to Conventions, typically ones with a lot of indie start ups. Conventions and meet ups are the best networking source. Again, this is more about the relationships that you can make versus whether or not you are talented enough. I listened to your work and you can definitely write music, but can you become good friends with someone? Sounds weird but that is honestly what it takes to get your first gig.
> 
> As far as some sources that might help you out. Deniz Hughes has some really awesome (and FREE) videos that go more in depth on this question. Best of luck to you.
> 
> ...



Wow, thanks for that awesome response! My school has a film program, and I have quite a few friends in that program. This year I'm definitely going to start working on a lot of the music for their projects. 

What type of conventions would I typically be looking for? Should I be looking for some smaller, indie game conventions where you can meet developers and such, as apposed to larger game conventions? 

I definitely can form friendships easily, and one reason why im interested in working on video games is because I myself play a ton of video games, ive pretty much grown up playing them and unlike people who play them just to play with friends, I enjoy almost any type of game. I enjoy the creativity behind different kinds of games, and I think my love for video games and my love for music would definitely help me when it comes to finding work, I just need to make those connections like you said 

Thanks again for the response!!
- Chris


----------



## The Darris (Jun 27, 2015)

I would suggest smaller conventions as the opportunities will be a little easier to come by. Now, I wouldn't expect to leave a convention or workshop with a job but rather a few contacts of people I can get in touch with. Facebook and other forms of social media are a great way to stay in touch. They other side to all of this is what you are doing with your music. You need to spend years, yes...YEARS, developing your own sound and style. It is good to be able to write in different genres and mediums but ultimately, your sound will transfer from style to style. Anyway, that is about all I can really say to get you started. I am on the path myself but I keep things in perspective. That to me, is very important.


----------



## Maximvs (Jul 1, 2015)

Hello,

You may find some helpful information in this great video:



All the very best for your music career.

Max


----------



## willbedford (Jul 1, 2015)

TigSource forums are a good place to be. I landed my first game job from there 

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php

Also, try to find game dev meetups in your area and make some friends in the industry. People will be happier hiring someone they know in real life than someone they found on the internet.


----------



## Killiard (Jul 1, 2015)

Anyone here been to the Develop Conference in Brighton? Is it worth going to? Costs £335 for the day (for the audio sessions only) and it's in a couple of weeks.


----------



## SyMTiK (Jul 1, 2015)

Thanks to all for the responses! Does anyone know of any good Game Developer meetups/conferences that happen on the East Coast in the US? Particularly anywhere in the New York or Boston area, since I am right between both of them (Im from Rhode Island)


----------



## Brendon Williams (Jul 1, 2015)

SyMTiK said:


> Thanks to all for the responses! Does anyone know of any good Game Developer meetups/conferences that happen on the East Coast in the US? Particularly anywhere in the New York or Boston area, since I am right between both of them (Im from Rhode Island)



I would also take a look at http://www.meetup.com/ and see if there are any game industry meetups in your area. Where I live there are lots of game industry meetups happening regularly. Also, if there's a local or nearby composer alliance of some sort, those meetups can be a great place to meet local composers with more experience who can give you specific advice relevant to where you live. I've often heard that as a composer for film, networking with other composers won't help you get very far, but it seems to be the opposite for the game industry - meeting other like-minded composers who are active in the industry can and does result in new game composing opportunities.


----------



## composerjc (Aug 6, 2015)

Brendon Williams said:


> I would also take a look at http://www.meetup.com/ and see if there are any game industry meetups in your area. Where I live there are lots of game industry meetups happening regularly. Also, if there's a local or nearby composer alliance of some sort, those meetups can be a great place to meet local composers with more experience who can give you specific advice relevant to where you live. I've often heard that as a composer for film, networking with other composers won't help you get very far, but it seems to be the opposite for the game industry - meeting other like-minded composers who are active in the industry can and does result in new game composing opportunities.



Hi Brendon, I'm in Atlanta, do you know of any composers alliance in my area?


----------



## Brendon Williams (Aug 6, 2015)

composerjc said:


> Hi Brendon, I'm in Atlanta, do you know of any composers alliance in my area?



Sorry, I've never been to Atlanta, so I really don't know. I'm based in the Pacific Northwest. Best of luck to you though!


----------



## Marius Masalar (Aug 10, 2015)

I wrote http://mariusmasalar.me/finding-clients-as-a-media-composer/ (a blog post) to answer this question some time ago, but here are a few thoughts specific to your situation:

Realistically, you're not looking for "a job". Employment is a unicorn that our parents got to ride and we get to read about in snarky anti-millennial blog posts. What you're going to get is a contract, because you're entering a profession that's mostly freelance. This is not a bad thing, I only mention it so that you don't reach out to developers expecting a 401k and dental—our skills are almost never worth having on staff because developers don't think we have constant contributions to make to the development process. They're usually correct, especially if music is your only skill.
For the love of god do not send out form letter email blasts to every developer whose email address you can find. The only thing in the universe that travels faster than light is composer emails heading to the trash bin of developer email accounts. If you're going to send emails, make them deeply personalized to the individual you're sending them to (don't waste your time sending to "[email protected]". Find a human; every development house has at least one). Engage them, be curious, be passionate. Don't sell them on your music, sell them on _you_. They'll listen to your music only if they get a sense that you might be a cool dude(tte) to work with.
Charge a token fee over charging nothing. Your first few gigs are unlikely to be profitable (to be honest, the whole career path is unlikely to be profitable) but establishing a sense of value is crucial. Find a way to be compensated, in whatever manner makes sense for the individual project.
You said "I'm not looking at getting hired any time soon." _What?_ Why? What are you waiting for? Being a composer is a mad dash to keep up with the competition, technology, and evolving mediums we write for. You're already behind. We're all behind. Always. If you can string notes together you're ready to start. No one cares about your degree or your training, they care about the quality of your work and the quality of your service—how pleasant you are to work with, how professional your conduct is, how funny you are, how able you are to carry on a conversation. This isn't a conventional job hunt where you wait for a degree and suddenly it opens doors for you. The doors are all closed. You bash in the window and climb through, and at best a degree is something you wrap around your fists to keep yourself from getting cut along the way.
While you're working on those composing skills, pick a few more skills to add to your resume. Think of everything from the developer's perspective: you write music? Good for you, so do these other five million people who emailed me this week. You write music and know your way around a middleware engine well enough to assist with implementation? Marvelous, now you only have one million competitors. You can do SFX as well? Terrific! What's that? You know some basic programming and can hack around in Unity? Now we're talking.
You live on the east coast of the USA. There are so many gaming conventions, meet-ups, events, hackathons, and parties in your area that you'd be hard-pressed to avoid them. If you're going to attend, prioritize as follows: game jams/hackathons, then meet-ups, then parties, then conventions. Nothing gets you jobs faster than having one weekend to build a game with total strangers. That kind of pressure is ideal for revealing who has a great work ethic and is fun to collaborate with. Be that guy. Even if your music sucks, you're much more likely to get hired by the folks you helped because they already know you're cool and can deliver under pressure.
Good luck out there


----------

