# WANTED- Music Composer for Nintendoish RPG that teaches Japanese



## melonmintgames (Jul 15, 2020)

EDIT: Please see my reply below. Once again, my apologies to everyone.

Hi everyone,

I am looking for a music composer for my Indie Game called "Nihongo Quest."

The game is the first in a series of RPGs that will teach the player how to understand Japanese.

*STYLE:*
I have interested some preliminary screenshots from the game below to give you an idea, but my biggest influences for the game have largely been Nintendo games, so I am hoping to have someone that can compose in that sort of style.

*WHAT I NEED: *
The game is actually quite an ambitious project, so I will need quite a bit of music to accompany the game. I probably need a 30 second- 1 minute song for each of the following:

1 Main theme
~23 town themes
~23 path/route themes
~4 battle themes
~5 character/villain themes
1 Dungeon Theme
1 Racing Mini Game theme

I might be forgetting a few, but in total I believe it should come out to ~60 songs.

*COMPENSATION:*
As this is a budget indie game, compensation will be approximately $3000-4000. That means that it will probably come out to somewhere around $50-$100 per minute of music. Additionally, I would also be open to selling the soundtrack as a DLC/extra to the game and figuring out some sort of revenue share to get you additional profit. If you are really interested in the game but would need to negotiate the compensation, please let me know privately.

*TIMELINE:*
We are aiming for a release of this game during Q1 of next year, so I would be hoping to have all of the work done between now and the end of the year. Ideally, we would have 5-10ish songs done in the next month or so and then 1-2 songs per week until the end of the year so that the songs are developed along with the game.


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## doctoremmet (Jul 15, 2020)

@Haakond Sounds like something that you’d be comfortable with? Given your experience with games...


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## Kent (Jul 15, 2020)

Looks like something between Pokémon and Earthbound. Love it! Best of luck!


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## Bruno Marques (Jul 15, 2020)

Sounds Good , we can talk about it


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## AlexRuger (Jul 15, 2020)

Messaged you!


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## VHCMusic (Jul 16, 2020)

Sent a PM too


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## darkmagi250 (Jul 16, 2020)

*PM sent!*


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## Haakond (Jul 16, 2020)

doctoremmet said:


> @Haakond Sounds like something that you’d be comfortable with? Given your experience with games...


Thanks for the mention 




melonmintgames said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> I am looking for a music composer for my Indie Game called "Nihongo Quest."
> 
> ...



I have sent a PM!


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## gtrwll (Jul 16, 2020)

I think it’s refreshing to see a thought-out wanted ad with a clear budget scope from an indie dev.


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## Kent (Jul 16, 2020)

gtrwll said:


> I think it’s refreshing to see a thought-out wanted ad with a clear budget scope from an indie dev.


truth here


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## melonmintgames (Jul 16, 2020)

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

I apologize if the budget that I proposed was offensive or seems like I am trying to exploit people for their talents. My intent was to be as straightforward and open as possible so that if my offers were ridiculous, the thread would just be ignored. I appreciate others pointing out more realistic fees for what this service is worth, and now I feel quite guilty for posting this here.

I was honestly shocked at the incredible talent that offered to help me on my project. I had heard there were some very talented people here, but you guys are really, really talented!!!

As other people have picked up on, I am mostly making this game on my own with 100% money from my own pocket. Since I really don't want to be part of a problem for underpaid composers or to be known as a dev who tries to exploit people, I am thinking of finding a different route for getting my music, be it a royalty free library or whatever the case may be.

If my game winds up being successful to the point where I can pay someone a fair fee for their time, I will certainly be back because I am seriously impressed by everyone's talents on here. Once again, I apologize for the post, and wish everyone here the best, as you guys really are very talented.


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## Tice (Jul 16, 2020)

melonmintgames said:


> Thanks for the feedback everyone.
> 
> I apologize if the budget that I proposed was offensive or seems like I am trying to exploit people for their talents. My intent was to be as straightforward and open as possible so that if my offers were ridiculous, the thread would just be ignored. I appreciate others pointing out more realistic fees for what this service is worth, and now I feel quite guilty for posting this here.
> 
> ...



Your heart is obviously in the right place, I don't doubt that. May I suggest a more open-ended approach to negotiations:
Tell the composer you're negotiating with what your budget for music is and ask them what they can do for that budget. The composer will often have great ideas for maximizing the amount of music you do have so that you can do more with less.
Rather than having a clear idea of what music you want where in your game, trust their expertise to find out what you can really do with the means you have.


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## melonmintgames (Jul 16, 2020)

Tice said:


> Your heart is obviously in the right place, I don't doubt that. May I suggest a more open-ended approach to negotiations:
> Tell the composer you're negotiating with what your budget for music is and ask them what they can do for that budget. The composer will often have great ideas for maximizing the amount of music you do have so that you can do more with less.
> Rather than having a clear idea of what music you want where in your game, trust their expertise to find out what you can really do with the means you have.



This is actually really great advice. Thank you. I will definitely keep this in mind moving forward.


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## MartinH. (Jul 16, 2020)

Rory said:


> I think that you're basically saying that people shouldn't work on low-budget productions.



It's probably good advice too :-/. 




NoOneKnowsAnything said:


> Whoever created this game you should tell them that their budget is exploitative.



Sadly most indie game devs start by exploiting themselves because they often invest 2+ years of work for a roll of the dice that often enough will earn them less than 10k$, if they even make it to the release. 




melonmintgames said:


> My intent was to be as straightforward and open as possible so that if my offers were ridiculous, the thread would just be ignored. I appreciate others pointing out more realistic fees for what this service is worth, and now I feel quite guilty for posting this here.



No reason to feel guilty, your post was one of the most reasonable and professional job posting I've ever seen on a forum, same goes for your reactions to feedback. 

If you're open to negotiating what exactly the deliverables and conditions are at the budget that you have, you can probably work something out that can be done quick enough to make the money worth the work and allows the composer to potentially monetize the music in some additional way later.


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## MartinH. (Jul 16, 2020)

Rory said:


> You have a pretty narrow understanding of what "low budget production" means.



I think what you and me are thinking of when we hear "low budget" is what the pros call "no budget", which unintuitively doesn't mean zero as far as I know.


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## RonOrchComp (Jul 16, 2020)

My bet is _NoOneKnowsAnything_ pmd the op offering his services, and is trying to ixnay the competition by telling everyone they shouldn't do the job 

100 per min is good for an indie game, bad for a major release. Id say go for it. The money and the addition to the resume is only a good thing.


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## Henu (Jul 16, 2020)

As a game composer (and also sometimes a music supervisor/director) I've been in this situation on the both sides of the table and there are very easy solutions where you don't need to raise the budget.

Simply put, you shouldn't need that much music, period. The average player is only getting confused with that much of different songs, and in the end the effect you're seeking for turns against itself. What you should do is either...

1. Reduce the amount of custom music by x4.
2. Reduce the amount of custom music by x4, but ask for two variations (e.g. different mixes) per song.

The player will be much more happier with the consistency of the music, the composer will get paid accordingly and you won't go bankrupt. Trust me, the amount of music you're asking will be overkill in 95% of the cases.


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## Brian99 (Jul 16, 2020)

NoOneKnowsAnything said:


> I would never work for $500 a minute let alone $50.



Cool, then don't. But how about letting everybody else make their own decision.


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## Jdiggity1 (Jul 16, 2020)

I do hope we don't see _too _many threads "flow" off-topic into advice and tangents.
It's not fair to the OP.


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## pawelmorytko (Jul 16, 2020)

Jdiggity1 said:


> I do hope we don't see _too _many threads "flow" off-topic into advice and tangents.
> It's not fair to the OP.


I feel like this happens a lot in jobs board threads unfortunately...

What happens is something like:

- OP posts job offer
- A member mentions they are willing to work for low rates
- Older, wiser members are ridiculing the lower rates offers
- Thread derails into why we should charge more for music

But hey, at least OP will have some PM's to go through and discuss things privately


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## Kent (Jul 16, 2020)

I still think it is a cute game


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## Mike Greene (Jul 16, 2020)

In fairness to the OP, who seems sincere and should be allowed a clean thread to discuss his job, I'm spinning off the rate critique posts to this new thread.


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## Bruno Marques (Jul 16, 2020)

kmaster said:


> I still think it is a cute game


Agreed


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## tmm (Jul 19, 2020)

PM'd you @melonmintgames


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## bearjoe (Jul 20, 2020)

melonmintgames said:


> EDIT: Please see my reply below. Once again, my apologies to everyone.
> 
> Hi everyone,
> 
> ...


I'd be interested in talking to you about this project.


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## Games Of Music (Aug 2, 2020)

Hi! I sent you a PM. Hope to hear from you soon!


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## élitiparti (Aug 2, 2020)

Glad to see people using games for education; music will be a big part of the experience.
Hope it's a success!


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## paularthur (Oct 6, 2020)

Just curious, have you finished this game? It would help me learn better!


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