Post by Chris on Jun 1, 2018 14:24:36 GMT -8
Hi,
So, when I was about 18, after spending years playing in rock and metal bands that never really went anywhere, I decided I had to do something else if I wanted to make a career with music. After yet another failed band practice, with the bassist not showing up, I got in my car and began the somber drive home. It was really dramatic, raining and everything. When I got home, I was venting frustration by playing Street Fighter, and I noticed — a lot of games had really good music, in a lot of different styles. In my area, there wasn't much for film but there were some game designers. Further, I was already kinda on my way out with rock since I'd practice guitar up to 16 hours a day, skipping school, and I had exhausted the guitar lexicon by the time I was 18 and becoming more interested in the orchestra and electronic music. So it occurred to me that composing for games was something I could probably do.
I sent out some demo CDs, did some networking, and had an offer from a company in Singapore, but turned down that deal. About six months went by and I got an email from a guy in Germany who worked for this company called "Ubisoft". He and his colleague (who still worked for the company at the time) were making their own game together, and had spent the last two years working on it. It featured all hand-drawn animation and was a real blast to work on. I got to work on it with another composer, who was muuuch more experienced than I, and he took some of my melodies and reworked them into superior arrangements, so it became a bit of a collaborative process and I learned and improved quite a bit from this experience.
The trailer for said game, released two years after I started work on it, including some of our music:
Since then, I've scored probably around 10 games, many of which I even made some decent money with, but only 3 ever made it to release. I've also worked with production music companies who provided music for companies like Netflix.
Now, for a number of reasons, I've decided to decrease focus on the video game industry and have been taking on more film projects instead.
So, when I was about 18, after spending years playing in rock and metal bands that never really went anywhere, I decided I had to do something else if I wanted to make a career with music. After yet another failed band practice, with the bassist not showing up, I got in my car and began the somber drive home. It was really dramatic, raining and everything. When I got home, I was venting frustration by playing Street Fighter, and I noticed — a lot of games had really good music, in a lot of different styles. In my area, there wasn't much for film but there were some game designers. Further, I was already kinda on my way out with rock since I'd practice guitar up to 16 hours a day, skipping school, and I had exhausted the guitar lexicon by the time I was 18 and becoming more interested in the orchestra and electronic music. So it occurred to me that composing for games was something I could probably do.
I sent out some demo CDs, did some networking, and had an offer from a company in Singapore, but turned down that deal. About six months went by and I got an email from a guy in Germany who worked for this company called "Ubisoft". He and his colleague (who still worked for the company at the time) were making their own game together, and had spent the last two years working on it. It featured all hand-drawn animation and was a real blast to work on. I got to work on it with another composer, who was muuuch more experienced than I, and he took some of my melodies and reworked them into superior arrangements, so it became a bit of a collaborative process and I learned and improved quite a bit from this experience.
The trailer for said game, released two years after I started work on it, including some of our music:
Since then, I've scored probably around 10 games, many of which I even made some decent money with, but only 3 ever made it to release. I've also worked with production music companies who provided music for companies like Netflix.
Now, for a number of reasons, I've decided to decrease focus on the video game industry and have been taking on more film projects instead.