any microsounders are familiar with this industry? Any suggestions on how to improve my skills specifically for game audio?
i worked as a C++ programmer for a company making PlayStation2 /Xbox games a number of years ago. the hours are long, the pay is dire, the management is often of the squeeze-you-until-you're-dry type. what's more, sound is all too often overlooked (notable exceptions include the original Half Life.)
your best way to avoid the rat-race, crawling over other people's backs and generally having no fun, is to volunteer to make sound for community-driven projects. there are loads of games out there that are being developed by groups of enthusiasts, sometimes as mods for existing games, sometimes as fresh projects. don't worry about making money, you can do that later. yeah, the rent needs to be paid, and food needs to be got, but there are ways; you're in the UK, which is one of the richest countries on earth and by far the easiest place to earn real money for creative output in the whole world. if you run out of money do some soundtracks for some artist friends and ask for a reasonable fee. just don't do work you don't want to do, it's never a good idea.
what i'm advocating really is a pick-your-own-path life. if you want to do interesting work in games, you don't want to be anywhere near any of the major studios. and you'll find the smaller studios are by and large operated in a way that is heavily reliant on networking, word-of-mouth, and prior effort, and will perhaps not want to talk to you unless they have a reason to. just get out and do what you want to do. if you're doing your own thing, doing something unique, and you're doing it consistently, just keep at it for long enough and keep telling other people about it, and soon enough things good will come.
d http://www.frey.co.nz --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: microsound-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx For additional commands, e-mail: microsound-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxx website: http://www.microsound.org