# Where to live to work in the game and/or film industry



## Darryl Jackson (Feb 2, 2011)

<Snip. Irrelevant as time has moved on.>


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## StrangeCat (Feb 2, 2011)

for films everyone is going to say LA. and LA is expensive! 

For games your looking at Texas, some places there is a game studio every block.

Good Luck Man! Maybe you want to Join gamasutra.com post up your web page with demo real on there.


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## midphase (Feb 2, 2011)

Well...for Games Austin TX in particular...or alternatively I think Seattle is pretty good too.

Having said that, most game composers that I know live in LA and this city certainly has its good share of gaming companies (Sony, EA, THQ, etc.).

Another place you might consider is my old stomping grounds, Orlando, FL as there are starting to pop up some gaming companies there.


For film, LA is pretty much the main place in the USA...with NY being second.


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## StrangeCat (Feb 2, 2011)

No Prob Man! 

you know first you have to decide if you want to be a contract for hire or an in house composer.

are you going to join like say ASCAP or something?

I would think that since you want to be a game composer that you would look at the Mods and do some work for free to get a feel for creating a game sound track. Like say Oblivion or Dragon Age or something. NeverWinter Nights 2 even. Just some where where it's a thriving community and people can hear your work in a medium.

or say look at the independent game industry like films, it's way way more creative then big budget games. 

They also have a independent game festival like films, short films, shorts.


Also Independent Games still come out with many games that are old school Final Fantasy. A lot of times the composers try to compose like the old sound tracks for the Snes. (midi using SC88 ST Roland Sound Canvas)

The Game industry has really changò a   ÖªS a   Öª« a   Ö¿_ a   Ö¿d a   ÖÀ{ a   ÖÀ™ a   ÖÁX a   ÖÁe a   ÖÂ	 a   ÖÂÃ a   ÖÈ’ a   ÖÈµ a   ÖÌ© a   ÖÌ» a   ÖÏg a   ÖÏi a   ÖÑ3 a   ÖÑD a   Ö×e a   Ö×w a   ÖØô a   ÖÙ
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## Ian Dorsch (Feb 2, 2011)

Games are very different from film and TV. Since a majority of game freelancers work remotely, location is far less of a limiting factor than it is with film and tv, and you are very unlikely to get gigs in the game industry just from moving to the right city, especially without any credits. If you are interested in games, get involved now. Philadelphia has an IGDA chapter. Check it out, introduce yourself to some people. There are a number of small and casual game devs in the Philadelphia area--look for some opportunities to make music, even if it's just for free flash games. Get involved in sites like ModDB and gamedev.net. Even free work for mod developers is better than nothing, and it gets your name out there. Get involved in the Game Audio Network Guild and make some friends. All of those things are way more important for getting into game audio than picking the right city to move to.


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## R. Soul (Feb 5, 2011)

After contacting over 100 games companies with the goal of being a games composer I got absolutely nowhere so I changed my tactics.

It's really one of those industries where it's who you know and getting a foot in the door is big step towards being a full time composer.

What I did - only for about 6 weeks now though - is taking on a basic job with a games company. Now the salary is poor, some of colleagues are straight out of high school etc., and I don't do anything to do with composing, BUT..... in just 6 weeks I've "worked" on 3 AAA titles - I know for sure my name will be on the credits in 2 of them.
Now, I'm not sure doing this will ever land me a job as a games composer, but at least I'm in the industry now. 
I'm based in London so I have quite a few games companies around. Probably more than virtually any other city so I'm quite priviliged.

A good place to look for companies is Gamedevmap. They list 106 for LA and 48 for NY + another couple of thousand around the world.
http://www.gamedevmap.com


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