Portfolio Review + Questions

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Original post by taelmx Hey all, I'm wondering if there are any other sites that I can look for jobs as a sound designer / composer on.

I don't review portfolios, but someone else probably will. As for audio and music jobs, for the most part you're going to have to freelance. "View Forum FAQ" (see link above) and read up on the Audio, Freelancing, and Networking FAQs.

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Original post by taelmx So, if there's anybody here that has some more advice or if you are that special person that has that "in" I need, please tell me! Thanks!

I'm not qualified for audio portfolios, but I can tell you about the importance of their statement.

Consider that each studio only has a few sound guys. Perhaps they have only one, maybe four or five. I'd estimate about 1 audio person for each 50 artists&programmers. The number is very small.

From what I've seen, there is not much turnover on audio people. So maybe you'll see a single job opening every 2-3 years at a studio.


Unless you know (from your inside contacts) that they need an audio person, you are very unlikely to even discover a job opening. Once it hits the public market you will be competing with many people, including those laid off and those who want to jump to a different company.

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Original post by Tom Sloper Quote: Original post by taelmx Hey all, I'm wondering if there are any other sites that I can look for jobs as a sound designer / composer on. I don't review portfolios, but someone else probably will. As for audio and music jobs, for the most part you're going to have to freelance. "View Forum FAQ" (see link above) and read up on the Audio, Freelancing, and Networking FAQs.

Those links all come up with 404s for me...D:

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Original post by taelmx Those links all come up with 404s for me...D:

Sorry about that. They should be fixed now. Please try again.

That guy is one sarcastic demotivating....you get the point...


sad thing is that it's all true, hahaha. So I guess my question is...


Not how do I get into the industry(get a job in the industry of course!), but where do I start looking, emailing, etc. I don't have too many local contacts here, so I take it I'd be working over the net and stuff, but where are some good places to look for those contacts that are high up there in the industry?

I think it's fair to assume that in almost any job, having an inside contact is a key part of getting in. I've done a lot of game work already on indie projects, and I've been wanting to get in for quite a while. It's not a matter of "preparing" anymore.

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Original post by taelmx That guy is one sarcastic demotivating....you get the point... sad thing is that it's all true, hahaha. So I guess my question is... Not how do I get into the industry(get a job in the industry of course!), but where do I start looking, emailing, etc. I don't have too many local contacts here, so I take it I'd be working over the net and stuff, but where are some good places to look for those contacts that are high up there in the industry?

So I'm sarcastic and demotivating, am I? Well, your biting comment is demotivating ME! (-_-) <-- That's me looking sad and demotivated.
Read my FAQ 27 (Barrier-Busting Tips). That too is listed in "View Forum FAQs" above.

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Original post by taelmx where are some good places to look for those contacts that are high up there in the industry?

You apparently did not read the article on Networking. Yet.

OMG No! Not like that! In a funny way! Like the question:

I want to compose music for games. So what do I need to do differently for game music than for, say, TV music?
It's too bad you asked me that question. It means you don't have a hope in hell of ever getting a gig making game music. You know what people do when they actually do have a hope in hell? They don't ask, they just listen. They get some games, they listen to the music. They read reviews, they talk to fellow gamers. They figure it out for themselves and form their own ideas.


Ok, so maybe it IS demotivating, but like...to the right group of people...


No offense meant to you! I swear! D:

EDIT:

I tried loading the networking one again, and some of them are still 404ing and taking back to...GameDev.net...

Thanks for the audio article btw!

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Original post by taelmx 1. OMG No! Not like that! In a funny way! 2. I tried loading the networking one again, 3. and some of them are still 404ing 4. and taking back to...GameDev.net...

1. Oh. Well. Then I was just being sad in a funny way.
2. Dude, the networking link works fine for me. Maybe you need to hit REFRESH before you click it.
3. Could you be more specific? First, refresh the FAQs page before clicking a link. Then if you get a 404, tell me which one you 404'd on. Please! I can't fix it if you don't give me a solid bug report. That's Quality Assurance 101, doncha know.
4. Lots of the links are SUPPOSED to take you to other parts of GameDev. If you click a link that doesn't say it's supposed to take you to some part of GD, and it takes you to some part of GD, then please tell me which one it is, and which part of GD it sends you to. I need to fix problems, but as far as I can tell, you're the only person in the world to whom some strange undefined (and unknowable, unresolvable) Twilight Zone problem is happening to. If you get my drift.

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Original post by Tom Sloper Quote: Original post by taelmx 1. OMG No! Not like that! In a funny way! 2. I tried loading the networking one again, 3. and some of them are still 404ing 4. and taking back to...GameDev.net... 1. Oh. Well. Then I was just being sad in a funny way. 2. Dude, the networking link works fine for me. Maybe you need to hit REFRESH before you click it. 3. Could you be more specific? First, refresh the FAQs page before clicking a link. Then if you get a 404, tell me which one you 404'd on. Please! I can't fix it if you don't give me a solid bug report. That's Quality Assurance 101, doncha know. 4. Lots of the links are SUPPOSED to take you to other parts of GameDev. If you click a link that doesn't say it's supposed to take you to some part of GD, and it takes you to some part of GD, then please tell me which one it is, and which part of GD it sends you to. I need to fix problems, but as far as I can tell, you're the only person in the world to whom some strange undefined (and unknowable, unresolvable) Twilight Zone problem is happening to. If you get my drift.

...whatever I did, I'm sorry alright, you don't have to treat me like I know nothing about how websites work(hey look at the first post, I made one!).

So as it turned out, it was something with my wifi, so it looks like all the ones I've looked at are working fine.

Oh, and I'm a girl, not a dude...in case you were thinking that. :P

So yeah, I mean, I know it's text, and you can't really tell what people are thinking, but it seems like my sarcastic/demoticationl comment kinda got to you, so, sorry about that, I didn't mean it like that. Ok, so I've read the networking guide, and I guess I should rephrase my question again.

So let's suppose I want to find these people outside of a GDC. What websites would they be on? (Programming forums? Audio forums?)

I mean nothing bad about gamedev.net when I say this, but a lot of the people come here to learn(of course), so more or less of the people here are undergrads and students and probably aren't going to be in a position to pay me money to help them out on a project.

I love gamedev.net, it's a fantastic resource and all, but it's probably not where all the people are looking to hire sound designers and composers. Is there any site that you know of that is more specific about music? That could probably help me a lot. I'm not the greatest googler, but from what I've found, searching for "game", "composer", "sound designer", "forums", or any variations of those generally brings up just stuff on using sound libraries and SDKs for DX, OpenAL, and XACT etc. As you have said yourself in one of the FAQs, that "asking if game music is different from regular music" is a dumb question. I totally agree with that too. I'm not looking for anything like that, I'm looking for the place where people in the industry hang out for sound design and music. If there is no site like that and gameDev.net is the most advanced community I'm going to find on game audio and music, then I'm gonna be a little lost until I can go to one of the GDCs near(200miles) where I live, and financially that's probably not happening soon. I don't want to find myself looking that the "Am I screwed" FAQ, because I know I have what it takes to be in the industry(as far as experience).

If I'm still being a bit vague with my question, take this example:

1. I already have a couple friends that are in the industry(RARE, Capcom, Nintendo, Dreamworks, Weta, etc.)
2. They are all visual artists and are putting in some words for me at the company(yay!)
3. They are still visual artists, not audio artists.
4. Is there such a place I might be able to find a person that does sound in the Industry?


Hopefully that makes my question a lot clearer, sorry if it's a bit lengthy, I'm just a bit at a loss of words on how to ask without giving the impression that I'm a total newbie, thanks to some previous posts...

Okay, Dude Girl, so you want to do networking without actually doing the travel stuff or going to local IGDA events or any actual, um, networking.

The producers you want to reach do not hang out on forums, at least not when they're looking to hire freelancers. You can get yourself posted on Gamasutra, post your resume on game job sites. You should subscribe to CreativeHeads.net, CoolGameJobs, stuff like that, so you can increase your chances of hearing about openings that do come up.

If you haven't yet read the Freelancing article, you should read it. Since I'm such a terrible mindreader, I can't tell how many of the applicable articles you've read.

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Original post by Tom Sloper Okay, Dude Girl, so you want to do networking without actually doing the travel stuff or going to local IGDA events or any actual, um, networking. The producers you want to reach do not hang out on forums, at least not when they're looking to hire freelancers. You can get yourself posted on Gamasutra, post your resume on game job sites. You should subscribe to CreativeHeads.net, CoolGameJobs, stuff like that, so you can increase your chances of hearing about openings that do come up. If you haven't yet read the Freelancing article, you should read it. Since I'm such a terrible mindreader, I can't tell how many of the applicable articles you've read.

Thanks! I'm not looking to get hired right off the bat or anything, I just generally wonder where they hang out, besides the GDCs. I've already done a lot of networking online, so don't totally discount that as a way of networking. All those people I've met that work at Dreamworks, Rare, etc. are all people I've met online, and they are more than just "chat once a month" people. I'll take a look at those sites you mentioned!

Thanks again!