Scholastictastic

Here's a novel idea, you want to do audio for games? Go back to school!

After you graduate college, or even if you're in a job and want a career change, go to a trade school that focuses on game design and learn either audio design, programming, or level design. Look into full sail (http://www.fullsail.com/ ) or the Guildhall at SMU (http://www.guildhall.smu.edu/). I attended the guildhall 6 years ago and not only learned level design but as the ONLY audio inclined person there composed music / did sound design for many of the student projects. It was a really great way to buff the old resume a bit with tons of different titles... if you do swing by and get a tour, be sure and say Rich from Cohort 2 sent you... I'm still one of the only audio guys to come out of the program... maybe you'll be next? Seriously, it's a GREAT opportunity to meet contacts and to mingle with game industry professionals if nothing else. They've got tons of connections that are definitely not open to you.. and most of said connections will definitely respond to your communications if they know you're a guildhall student.

The Guildhall has a "show of games" at the end of every term and require you as a student to work as part of a development team to complete a game project.. the first of which is utilizing XNA to build an XBLA title which is pretty damn cool. This is also a very good thing because it forces you to learn a new trade such as coding, level design, or art which ultimately allows you to break into the "back door" of the industry. Come on... as sound people I know you're all creative... you just may have to apply that creativity somewhere else for a while until you can actually get into the industry. Once in, after proving yourself in the trenches with the rest of the team for 6 to 12 months... go and say hey to the Sound Lead and mention you do audio. You just never know what will happen!!

Some peeps have gotten in through testing or localization positions... but in all honesty this isn't really recommended from an audio standpoint as you're just testing and don't really get to show off your creativity.. thus not wooing and wowing producers and/or lead game developers.

I really can't recommend a school like the Guildhall enough. It's a GREAT way to learn terminology you'll hear on a day to day basis in the biz as well as what to expect once you're in with a company... good stuff. Without the Guildhall, I probably wouldn't have found a way in... it's also was where I've met some of my closest friends... a few of which have gotten me full time jobs and paid work...hell, a couple have started their own game companies recruiting me to do audio for them, so don't discount friends as sources either! Everyone you meet has the potential to help find you work in the game industry.

Now, some of you are wondering why I haven't mentioned music schooling in this scholastic bundle of joy, more specifically some of you are thinking... "well, I want to compose.. shouldn't I get a music degree?" or "I have a music degree from the prestigeous X school of music, will I get more work?"

The answer to both is a definite NO! Music degrees may help your music skills, but really and truly mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to anybody in the game biz. I'm 100% self taught and the fact I'm not classically trained has never come up once. Besides, producers want that big hollywood sound (more of the zimmer sound than williams sound... sorry) so be sure and study what current and past film composers are doing instrumentation / orchestration wise... it's a great way to learn applicable music theory.