Thought I would post a new topic for this question that relates to a previous post: In regards to finding work doing sound/ music in the VG field I have tossed around several ideas. The obvious approach is to send your demo to as many indie companies as possible. But when you think about how many demos these people get, its a little discouraging! So as most of you probably know, experience is a must... so heres what I'm thinking: I am fortunate enough to live almost walking distance from SMU's Guild Hall (a top VG Developer school). What does that school have? Future game devs who are looking to build their resume too. I figure there is no harm in posting ads around the campus asking for an opportunity to team up with art and dev students and try to produce a game for 'resume boosting' purposes only. I would handle all sound/ music and the project, they do everything else. The only issue here is how to fund the project, but if resume boosting is the only goal, then financial conpensation shouldn't be a huge problem. Bottom Line: Surely there has to a team of students at any dev school who is willing to take on a project and 'partner-up' with a sound/ music guy. Anyone in here have an opinion on this approach? Obviously by doing this you are not working for a professional, therefore not technically 'in' the business, but it seems like a good first step. I could be wrong....

Well, I can only speak on Full Sail, my school about this but they have an internship program that allows graduates to hook up with game dev students to work on their final projects.

You can learn a lot dealing with the team directly...sit in on meetings...going to alpha, beta, and final presntations. Getting involved in the process and learning the lingo is beneficial to someone looking to get in this field. Just pumping out assets isn't going to get you far, and it's not doing anyone any favors.

Having said that, the teams here don't have to go with the interns appointed by the school. They can outsource any assets to anyone they wish and I think it's a great idea to publicly offer your services in this way.

My only complaints is the projects themselves are all about grades and not polish so most of them will have a very not finished, unoptimized look to them even at Final. But if you can take it as a learning tool, and a starting credit to your name then I highly recommending trying this route.

I lucked out with a student project I was on, Balls To The Wall. I'm very proud of it and it got all the programmers jobs so far. I've posted about it here before but it's worth mentioning since it is in fact one of the most polished student project games I've seen come out.

Here's a gameplay trailer I made:

Balls To The Wall Video

And here's the link to download the game, if you're interested.

Balls To The Wall(70MB)

(I designed a level called "From The Top" that even the team couldn't beat!)

Keep in mind this was all 4 students (not including me)and 5 months with no budget. Take it as serious as possible but have fun!

Tony
_________________
Anthem Audio
Music4Games