Games Composers: How To Stand Out In A Saturated Market

chrislines

New member

Thought I'd share a few thoughts on how I've landed a few game composing gigs. May help a few people.

One of the common problems I hear when speaking to composers who are just starting to get into game composing is ‘There’s too many other composers offering to work for free!’. That along with ‘Any game composer advertisement gets hundreds of applicants - what's the point?'.


The problem is that if you are a composer and you are competing with two hundred other applicants online, you’re right, it’s extremely difficult to stand out.

If a developer posts an advert for a composer and has selected say 30 composers based on the fact he likes their music, then he/she could probably narrow that down to 5 or 10 where they wouldn’t be that fussed which they went with. In these cases it will likely come down to cost, not entirely, but it will be a strong factor. No one wants to get into a bidding war with other composers.

What you want to do is play a totally different game to what other composers are doing! I never reply to the very infrequent online adverts asking for composers, not because I don’t need the work, but for the very reason that my chances are severely reduced in actually getting picked.

My advice? Put a lot of effort in, and research game developers up front who you think will be a good fit for you and contact them directly. Tell them what you like about them and their games and offer to help. Dozens will ignore you, most may not need a composer, others will never reply. But occasionally, just occasionally someone will, and then your chances are greatly increased. Even if they don't need you now, you have the start of a relationship. Build a lot of these up and things may start to look a bit more hopeful.

Hope that sparks off some ideas! I'm learning too, but this has certainly helped me.






 
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