Game Audio Network Guild

Y'know how TMBG had their regular dial-a-song phone thing, and more recently JoCo pulled off the song-a-week thingamajigger?

Well that is sort of what this is like, except it's not hilarious at all (well maybe a tiny bit sometimes), also it's not a publicity gimmick, also it doesn't have an '-a-' in the middle. 

So, I guess it's completely different short of that it requires regular creativity and dedication. I've dubbed my endeavor "Just for Fun" and it mostly is, but it's also for exploring new composition styles. 

Essentially, I've challenged myself to compose a new song every two weeks. The rules of engagement are as follows:

• It must be composed in less than exactly four hours. 
• It has to be different than my current niche or project. 
• It has to be something fun.
  

 

 

 

 

I have managed to keep at it since January 1st 2010, and I'm working on my 10th at the moment. It's been an awesome exercise for doing some informal personal development while relaxing and thinking a bit outside-the-box. 

Is there anyone else out there with a little personal project outside their regular work day? If there is, I'd love to hear what you're working on.

If you want to see the silly stuff I've generated, you can take a listen here.

From what I can see on the forums, Toronto has a fun group of GANG members. It also has, as you may have read in my last post, a burgeoning and active indie game development community.

Probably one of the most spectacular testaments to the creativity of this community is the annual Toronto Independent Game Development Jam (fondly dubbed TOJam). For those of you in or near the GTA, it's a can't miss.

What is it? Basically it is a public game making event. Local game makers come out for a crazy 3-day, around-the-clock game making binge. Participants have from 3:00pm Friday to 11:00pm Sunday to complete a good, small game.

This year's event brought out 180 jammers, with 25 additional people working remotely. I was one of four audio designers that attended.

It was interesting to see how other local designers approached the trade. We were all very different in our focus. There was one focused only on SFX, a film musician, a techno/hip-hop composer, and I represented the single-stop, full-spectrum game audio design side of things.

 

 

Just to give you a taste of what an Audio Designer can expect there, over the three days my work included sounds/music for six different games:

1. Macabre Mystery Game

• 45s of spooky and suspenseful intro music.
• 90s of chilling ambient game-play music
• 30s of excited revelation music as the mystery unwinds.
• 60s of hilarious 80s sitcom music, muffled through the headphones of a serial killer - and once again in full clarity for the end credits.
• 25 Gory and spooky sounds.

2. Scrolling Shooter Puzzle Game

• 120s of high-energy racing rock music
• 16 Sci-Fi explosive sounds.

3. Psychedelic Deterioration of Your Senses Game

or "The Particle of Infinite Wonder"

• 120s of hippie trance music
• 20s of intro tripping-out ambient soundscape

4. Redneck Missing Fish in a Barrel Game

• 80s Banjo music, deliverance style
• 90s Hillbilly ‘check out my gun' music

5. Hungry Hungry Cats, Nomnomnomnom

• VO endless terrible cat noises

6. Film Noir Game

• 40s Dark and stormy jazz music
• 90s Suspenseful detective jazz music
• 60s Ambient background jazz-fusion drums

 A total of ~15 minutes of music, 40+ SFX and a handful of voice recordings.

As you can see, not only is it a great exercise in speed-audio-design, but it's a chance to work in a wide variety of styles all in one weekend.

This is my first GANG blog, but I’ve been trying my hand at blogging elsewhere for a few years now. I’ll be short on my introduction, but if you’re interested in checking out the blogspace that I use to share news about my games and other career-related things, you can check it out here.

My name is Harry Mack and I love indie game culture. That is not to disparage the bigger, shinier, 3Der mission of the mainstream industry. However, I definitely belong where the hands-on passion, interesting games, and unique industry visionaries are.

I have been in the industry for about ten years, a fifty-fifty split between in-house and out-house (or freelance if that’s too lavatoryesque). I’ve been a pianist for twice that time, with a formal background in music and a little game design education for bonus marks. 

This year’s GDC brought me a fun blast from the past. I’d like to take a moment to use it to highlight some of the stepping stones that originally led me into the indie game world.

Those of you in attendance at the GDC this year may have caught a great little panel titled “What you Need to Know About Casual Games 2010 .” Speakers Nick Fortugno and Juan Gril did an excellent job rapidly reviewing some of the innovative and dominant trends in casual game space over the last year.

Just to clarify, from Nick and Juan’s perspective ‘casual’ game really means ‘super-awesome indie’ game. They shared a lot of insight and perspective into experimental design choices, and it was also a source for leads on some new games to try out.

I enjoyed it so much, that I decided to do some looking back into their presentations at past GDCs. I got quite the surprise when I found out that examples chosen for two of four of the 2009 categories were games that I worked on. Corpse Craft was selected to highlight new themes and mechanics in multiplayer games. To show a trend in the evolution of arcade games they recognized Braid ’s innovation and brilliant level design. 

Even if it took place a year ago, it was nice to see these very creative games getting recognition. If you’re interested in checking  out the session transcript, it is still posted on Gamasutra. 

For me it was a chance to reflect on some of the excellent memories that began my serious love affair with indie games. I mean we flirted before, but those games were the moment where it became really serious. Now that I am completely immersed, I look constantly forward to being one of a sea of participants playing a role in creatively shaping the indie community, both locally and globally.

It would be great to hear from any other game audio designers out there with a similar focus.

...Of diligently trying to purchase EWQL Symphonic Choirs, only to have to put it aside for a more immediate money problem, I finally bought it (and at a price that I can afford)! Thank you NAMM deal! Only half a month in, and this year's already looking up!

 

 ~Bryan J

Game Audio Survey's 2009 Game Audio Marketplace Survey is Launched
 
http://www.gameaudiosurvey.com/
 
Game Audio Survey is a not-for-profit organization run by Dan Reynolds which intends to inform our Industry with analyses of data collected through surveys.
 
As professionals in an industry driven by an unregulated freelance marketplace, it is in our best interest to inform ourselves about our own industry.
Market power is about having control of that marketplace and the people who have the control have it because they have the most information when making a decision.
You can help us all take back that market power by participating in this 5 minute survey.
There are many surveys conducted by organizations which collect data on compensation for in-house employees.  These invaluable reports offer insight into the financial side of the games industry.  However, freelance audio services are thoroughly and unfortunately neglected.
The freelance marketplace is a diversified and volatile market that can, at times, seem impossible to understand.  Most of our dealings are done in private emails and rates are rarely publicized.
However, when we have an objective perspective of the marketplace as a whole, we can begin to see where we, as contractors, stand in the marketplace.  This is important as a litmus test for the pure economics of our industry, of course, but it is also important as an index or reference for beginning and intermediate professionals who lack the resources to even understand what could be considered fair pricing in our industry.
My preliminary research has already suggested that intermediate and beginning professionals with fewer than 3 years experience have no clue how much they should and can be charging.  Many think they are even over-charging for their services when their rates suggest that they sit on the low-end of the spectrum.
This survey is simple and anonymous.
This survey is meant for the following Game Audio Professionals:
In-House Audio
Freelance Composer
Freelance Sound-Designer
Freelance Music-Sequencer
 
It is also meant for people who provide audio services for free or paid, credited or uncredited.
 
The data will be subjected to cross-sectional analyses which will be published in a report and made public later this year.  This report will discuss the various angles of pricing and experience in our industry and how those prices change depending on the profile of the project and the profile of the audio professional.
The report will also explore suppositions conclusions and aberrations in the data and encourage an informed discussion on this most important topic.
Again, the survey is completely anonymous.
If you have already taken the survey, thank you for your support, but please do not take it again.
The survey can be found here:
http://www.gameaudiosurvey.com/
 
Inquiries are welcome.
 
Finally, thanks for helping us help ourselves.
 
Sincerely,
- Dan Reynolds
 
PS: Since it's been asked, data will be handled by myself and Anthony Hannagan who has a Bachelors in Economics from the University of Colorado, additionally, outside consultants will occasionally be employed for discussion of the data set.

Hey everyone! It's been a busy busy week for me - I've been finishing up the soundtrack to the independent game "The Spirit Engine 2," by Mark Pay. (Check it out at www.thespiritengine.com). I've been working on this project for over four and a half years! (Excuse any following spelling or gramatically errors, I'm flying to NYC in a few hours to celebrate with my girlfriend and have a nice dinner with some great champagne that I've been saving)

 I'm just writing to let everyone know that I just FINALLY finished and uploaded my standalone soundtrack CDs, and I wanted to share a bit of my experience.

 The soundtrack itself is massive - over 3 hours of music spanning 101 tracks.  I bet that you're probably thinking, well, it can't have been very GOOD music to be that long.  Perhaps thats the case, but I like to think otherwise (obviously).  I put together the CDs in a few weeks time - it turns out that mastering audio CDs is much different than mastering the actual game music, so I really had to do production on everything twice!  Now, I'm certainly no guru at this... I am but a student, but I tried my best and put my whole heart into it, and I think it shows.

Back in April I advertised a "Cancer Donation" drive to the indie-scene at Tigsource.com and in other places.  The idea was that anyone who donated $5 would receive the full soundtrack to TSE2 for free (as a digital download).  Turned out pretty well, I think, because we raised over $825.  That may seem small to some of your pros (;D), but for a small community it was astonishing!

 Anyway, with the CDs done and everything ready to go I thought the last thing to do would be to put a post up here.

For those curious, you can check out the albums (there is a full album and a shorter "best of" album) here:

www.jwmusic.org