Music for Games, Films, and other Visuals

learn network inspire

Those are the three words on the GDC pamphlets. Very simple words, but with so much meaning…

It is a lovely day in San Francisco today! Not because it is warm and sunny (it isn’t) but rather…. it is the first day of the Game Developers Conference! I had the chance to sit in on some great conversations about education and games offered as part of the 2 day summit on game education by the IGDA.

The morning sessions started with an impassioned plea to do it right. Our job as educators is not to train our students for a specific job when they leave our school, but rather to build a student’s knowledge base and their critical/independent thinking. In the music world you might think of it as teaching a musician how to approach sight reading as opposed to trying to teach the musician every single piece of music they might ever be called upon to play.

I love the GDC slogan. Learn, Network, Inspire. It is perfect in this day and age. We all can bear to learn more, of course, that means we have to look at exactly where we spend our time. None of us has the ability to learn everything about everything we are interested in. Susan Rogers, from McGill University, compares it to science. Back when Leonardo DaVinci was learning about science there was a small set of known truths. He really was able to master most of what was known at that time. Now things are different. Not only in science where researchers can spend a lifetime on the smallest of details, but also in music. I can’t, as someone who studies drums for instance, be a master of all styles. I can not master the playing styles of Vic Firth on timpani, Evelyn Glennie on percussion AND John Bonham on set. I must choose where to spend my time and energy.

Network. Some might think this is a hard sell for students, but in reality it might be the one thing that separates a great student from a great job. In every industry, networking is a part of the process. You can be the most talented “fill in your own blank here” but if no one knows about you it doesn’t matter. Networking is a part of the modern life. There are so many opportunities that come up through a network of professionals. Being a part of that network will help to put you in the right place at the right time.

Inspire. Great art has to come from somewhere. Great artists are inspired. The videogame industry is one of the few remaining places where great artists are rewarded when they are inspired. It is also a place where creative people inspire other creative people. Teamwork and collaboration are the foundation of great games. That very same teamwork and collaboration helps one artist inspire another.

A wonderful set of three words, meant for the modern world.

learn network inspire

I ran across a couple of great articles earlier in the month, related to working in the video game industry. You know, things have changed drastically in the last few years. In case you haven’t been keeping track, the video game industry now far outpaces the film industry when looking at profits. We all know that usually equates to more work! According to the most recent Mix Magazine Game Audio edition where they quote a study from the Entertainment Software Association, more than 80,000 people were employed by the US entertainment software industry in 2006. Now, that isn’t just music and audio, it also includes legal staff, marketing and all of the other positions needed in a software development company, but oh my goodness, that seems like a lot of jobs!

All of this is to say, if you’ve ever wanted to work in games, this is the perfect time! Ok, ok, calm down… it is not as if game developers are hanging out on street corners begging people to come work for them. Now, more than ever, they are looking for qualified people that are also very creative. They are also really only interested in people that really want to work in the games industry. Being genuinely interested in the industry shows and they can tell if you love games or not. So, perhaps I should change that sentence above slightly…. how about this….

All of this is to say, if you’ve ever wanted to work in games, this is the perfect time to work your darndest to make it happen! I wish I could say I have the ultimate list of ways to prepare for work in the industry, but honestly, there is no one way to get your start. Just like the music or film industry, everyone takes their own path, it can’t be scripted. There is no Harvard Business School education that gets you into the equivalent of the Fortune 500 in the video game industry.

Over the holiday break, a couple of stalwart staples of reporting and discussion on the videogame industry came up with some resolutions for getting a job. Take a look at the CMP article on Game Career Guide and the rebuttal on Gamasutra for an interesting look at what you should do if you want to work on games.

I’ve decided, after reading the two articles, basically the same thing I decide every few months… really, I need to buy “a couple” of new games so that I can research them and really listen and assess how I think the music and sound work in them. It’s all about the research…