Hi guys

I am a second year student studying audio and music technology, the course focus's a lot on recording, editing, and programming. We have a module called music for games (but not available till the third year).

After our second year we can look at taking a year in industry, and I would love to find a placement with a games studio working in the audio team, im sure a junior position will feature small editing roles and i feel i have the right attributes for this. So i spent a lot of time reading up on game sound and making some trailers and show reel material.

The reason i'm posting here is because my university's placement office has no idea about this industry and no similar stories of people who have tried this career path before, so looking on developer websites it seems you can only apply for roles at certain opportunity's, do you guys know when companies start looking for interns for there next year?

I should say I'm a UK student however I will be looking abroad as well. America/Canada, I know its quite a broad question but I will be grateful for any help you can give

Thanks

Hi,
I don't know if it's different with sound design, but as I was looking for an internernship as programmer I just had a look at the game companies around where I lived and e-mailed or called them and asked if they were willing to take me.
As far as I know games companys don't look for people at special times of the year, but when they are about to start a new project (but I could be wrong here, as I haven't got alot of experience in the industry either).
But I would suggest that you just find a few companies where you can imagine to work and apply, even if their not offering internships on their website.

Game development companies do not look for interns as they already receive thousands of unsolicited e-mails concerning junior positions and internships without announcing any particular position openings or doing something as tiresome as actually looking. Many studios have therefore much tougher screening requirements than what the average Joe wanting to enter the industry might expect.

Apply to companies you can see yourself working on and best of luck!

Hello,
I agree with bonus.2113, look for studios. It will probably be hard to find a big studio that focuses on game audio only, though.
I got a paid internship in a small studio that did all sorts of media music (commercials/documentaries/film) just by placing a few calls and sending in demos to prove my usefulness - and that internship also got me my first serious composing jobs and a heap of experience. Definitely recommendable!

Cheers,
Moritz

Regardless of where you look (and I agree--smallish companies may be the way to go), do exhaustive research on the company before you write them a cover letter. Know what games they've done, play those games and reference those games in your cover letter. Tell them how impressed you were with the audio on their such and such a game. Know the game designers and google them to find out what other games they've done.

If it looks like you are passionate about what they make (and ideally if you actually are passionate about it ), your letter will have a far greater impact.

[color="#1C2837"]Brian Schmidt
Executive Director, GameSoundCon

GameSoundCon 2011 San Francisco: November 11-12, 2011
GameSoundCon 2011 San Francisco Early Registration ends 10/14/2011
www.GameSoundCon.com

Thanks for the help and advice all very useful stuff!