Quote: Original post by VectorWarrior
I was discussing this issue at work today, and the general consensus is that games will go the way of film, tv and advertising where each project will have a number of composers 'pitching' for it (for free). Only one of them will get the job and all the others will have wasted their time... although the pay the 'winner' gets is high in proportion the amount of hours worked. This is already happening now. The scarey part is where the company with the project will already HAVE a track they want to use but they'll hand it out to composers just on the off chance that one of them will come up with something better... because it doesn't cost them anything. Which is shocking treatment, but does happen :( When working up against this, even if you do get the occasional job, the money you make will have to soak up all the wasted time/work you do... although i guess you can reuse stuff so it's not all bad.

To continue my horrendous downer ;) I doubt it'll get much better in the future... look at the decline of professional studios. Ten, twenty, thirty years ago there were thousands of professional studios, once everyone started getting personal studios, computers with software and doing it at home they started dying off and it's never got better. Of course there are many of the super studios left, but a lot of people lost their livelyhoods and the ones that remain have to find alternative ways of making money (such as game audio!). Now, anyone with a standard PC and a cracked version of some audio software can make pretty much anything and THAT is the reason for the increase in composers i think, it's no longer out of the reach of the average guy on the street. Once people get interested in computer music the universities will then happily tutor them in a course...

I really think i'm risking becoming the grumpy old bastard on here, but lets just say i'm playing devil's advocate for the sake of balancing the discussion :D

Sounds like more of a communication problem. There's a gap there and it "seems" like the only way to close it is the large "hollywood" cattle calls. Personally I'm leery whenever games venture into a Hollywood template of any kind. Just because it works for them doesn't mean it should work for us. But since no one is going to do anything about that what else is there to do, what other model could we follow?

It seems more education is needed on both sides here. Composers need to learn more game development and game dev's need to appreciate composers more.

Just because you write music that "sounds like it's from a video game" doesn't mean you are cut out to write game music. Just because you "like music, like video games, why not combine them both" doesn't mean you're gonna get the chance...at least on the scale you're thinking of. There are tons of more games to write for than those needing an "epic, cinematic score". You're already setting yourself up for heartache by settling in that crowded, competetive genre.

Dev's need to know that there are a lot more musical choices than "epic, cinematic score". I know it seems like you're more likely to impress with a full orchestral soundtrack, but what games truly need that? The games that are developed and presented with a cinematic style. They also need to recognize that at the heart of this magnificent music they just bought is a soul of an artist and that they shouldn't be interchangeable to the lowest price tag. Don't patronize them, but don't underestimate them either.

Once this communication barrier has been brought down, I think there will be great advances in both game development and music for games.

Maybe there isn't a better way yet, but there should be.

Tony

I must admit, it does drive me crazy when people constantly compare film and games. They are separate media and have fundemental differences, obviously there are similarities but everyone seems to have already decided that the film way is the "best" way. I for one am not looking forward to the days when EVERY ONE of the people in game development are working on per-game contracts. One of the reasons i got out of film was because i don't like that way of working.

I also agree that not every games needs an 'epic' score. People have been complaining about that for years and it is something that i've noticed here. Many people seem to specialise in RPG sytle orchestral music and that is obviously only a tiny part of the whole.

Quote: Original post by VectorWarrior
I was discussing this issue at work today, and the general consensus is that games will go the way of film, tv and advertising where each project will have a number of composers 'pitching' for it (for free). Only one of them will get the job and all the others will have wasted their time... although the pay the 'winner' gets is high in proportion the amount of hours worked. This is already happening now.

I feel I should jump in here and temper this comment a little. It's not really true that most films and TV are done this way. It's more common on lower-budget projects and advertising. Most in-demand composers I've known will laugh if someone asks them to do a demo for free as a competitive thing, and most of their agents won't put them in a situation like that.

I usually find that in the game industry the "cattle call" (love that term, Sean) for multiple demos comes from a few origins...
1. A team doesn't know what they want and is trolling the waters for someone who will give them an idea.
2. A team is inexperienced or just unsophisticated in dealing with music and thinks "This is how its done." This is usually predicated on the fact that they get bombarded with demos from aspiring composers even when they don't ask.
3. There is no decent budget for music so they have to go with somebody cheap, but they still want all the service of somebody expensive. They sift through no-name demos looking for a diamond hidden in the slop. The belief is that if they listen to enough demos, they will eventually find that unknown composer who's just as good as the expensive guys but just needs a break. Then they can hire that person to do a big-budget soundtrack for a fraction of the cost. This usually never works out as well as hoped.

Most people who know what they are doing know that asking for tons of free demos isn't they way you get the best person for the job. The best way is usually a combination of referrals, familiarity with a composer's previous work, and one or more meetings.