Montreal Game Summit - Music Howto

[winifredphillips]

Hi guys,

There's a video on YouTube of a talk I did a few days ago called Assassin's Creed Liberation: The Power of Musical Themes. I talked about the music I composed for that game during the Montreal International Game Summit.

You'll find that video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CS3Nc2qFOo

I hope you enjoy it, and please let me know what you think!

Kind regards,
Winifred Phillips

Author of the book, A COMPOSER'S GUIDE TO GAME MUSIC
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press (The MIT Press)
Available in bookstores and online, February 14th, 2014
To receive updates about this book, subscribe here:
http://www.winifredphillips.com/ComposersGuide/

[camoshark]

Very interesting talk, bummer I didn't hear of it beforehand, since I live right beside where it took place... I guess I'll keep my eyes peeled for next year, more so if you come back!

I don't know if you actually are who you claim to be, but if you are, it's interesting to see that you would take interest in sharing your tips with aspiring composers, and I salute you for doing so, as it is too rare to see this in such a competitive market!

[winifredphillips]

At 11/16/13 06:03 PM, camoshark wrote: Very interesting talk, bummer I didn't hear of it beforehand, since I live right beside where it took place... I guess I'll keep my eyes peeled for next year, more so if you come back!

I don't know if you actually are who you claim to be, but if you are, it's interesting to see that you would take interest in sharing your tips with aspiring composers, and I salute you for doing so, as it is too rare to see this in such a competitive market!

Thanks, Sam! Sorry you missed it this year - would have been great to meet you. Thanks for the kind words about my talk!

And yes, I am who I say I am... though it might be difficult to prove it in an online forum, actually. How about this -- if you follow the Twitter feed (@winphillips), I'll tweet back that NewGrounds rocks. :)

[Breed]

Hey Winifred,

It's great to see that you're reaching out to us here; I thank you for that. We don't ever really get artists of your stature around these parts.

I like the way you talk about the worldizing effect of game audio and the relation to emotions created by the music to truly experience the content. I can definitely relate. Many of the same principles apply in film music which is where I've been gravitating ever since I got into multi-media, but my goals and passions are more aimed towards the game industry. I've run into the hump of trying to break into the AAA world, and I find one of the biggest battles is lack of programming skills (i.e. implementation). These days, seems like everyone needs a do-it-all guy.

So my question to you is, did you find yourself at a similar crossroad or speed bump when making that transition? Did you have to study into audio implementation to get past those need-it-all gigs and onward to the larger more compartmentalized compositions/production gigs?

I only ask because I personally have trouble breaking into implementation, and as a result I end up taking on more and more scores for film/animation, and less games (the direction I'd prefer).

Thank you for your time, I'll be pre-ordering your book. Looks to be a good read.

All the best,

- Mike Breed

[stunkel]

At 11/16/13 05:14 PM, winifredphillips wrote: Hi guys

Wow this is a huge honor to have someone like you around here on newgrounds. I'm sure I speak for everyone when i say we greatly appreciate you being here with us on newgrounds and posting in the audio forums. Like Breed said, it's not very often we get big name artists such as yourself. I am very interested in game audio in composition and sound design along with implementation. What would you say has brought you the furthest and was the most important thing that you use to this very day? Are there some bits of knowledge that you don't think you could have made it through the industry without if you did not have that knowledge? I would still consider myself very inexperienced, so it would be great to know what I strive for next.

Also, I know that your first video game project was your contribution to the God of War series. What was it like breaking through into the game music industry in such a successful game? Was that your first game? Or was it just the first AAA title? Also where do you see your career with music in the video game industry going?

Thanks again for being here!

-Ryan

[winifredphillips]

At 11/17/13 02:12 AM, Breed wrote: Hey Winifred,

It's great to see that you're reaching out to us here; I thank you for that. We don't ever really get artists of your stature around these parts.

I like the way you talk about the worldizing effect of game audio and the relation to emotions created by the music to truly experience the content. I can definitely relate. Many of the same principles apply in film music which is where I've been gravitating ever since I got into multi-media, but my goals and passions are more aimed towards the game industry. I've run into the hump of trying to break into the AAA world, and I find one of the biggest battles is lack of programming skills (i.e. implementation). These days, seems like everyone needs a do-it-all guy.

So my question to you is, did you find yourself at a similar crossroad or speed bump when making that transition? Did you have to study into audio implementation to get past those need-it-all gigs and onward to the larger more compartmentalized compositions/production gigs?

I only ask because I personally have trouble breaking into implementation, and as a result I end up taking on more and more scores for film/animation, and less games (the direction I'd prefer).

Thank you for your time, I'll be pre-ordering your book. Looks to be a good read.

All the best,

- Mike Breed

As game composers, we all have to be pretty familiar with what goes into music implementation for games, and having a familiarity with the middleware (Wwise, FMOD, etc) can help you a lot. Fortunately, this software is free to download and learn, and the companies (Audiokinetic & Firelight) can be -really- helpful to composers trying to learn the software. Really, though, the most important thing is to be openminded about unorthodox methods of music composition and different ways in which music can be pulled apart and used by a game engine. Different techniques for music implementation are being developed by game developers all the time, so as long as we're ready to try new things, we should be okay.

[winifredphillips]

At 11/17/13 02:42 AM, stunkel wrote:

At 11/16/13 05:14 PM, winifredphillips wrote: Hi guys

Wow this is a huge honor to have someone like you around here on newgrounds. I'm sure I speak for everyone when i say we greatly appreciate you being here with us on newgrounds and posting in the audio forums. Like Breed said, it's not very often we get big name artists such as yourself. I am very interested in game audio in composition and sound design along with implementation. What would you say has brought you the furthest and was the most important thing that you use to this very day? Are there some bits of knowledge that you don't think you could have made it through the industry without if you did not have that knowledge? I would still consider myself very inexperienced, so it would be great to know what I strive for next.

Also, I know that your first video game project was your contribution to the God of War series. What was it like breaking through into the game music industry in such a successful game? Was that your first game? Or was it just the first AAA title? Also where do you see your career with music in the video game industry going?

Thanks again for being here!

-Ryan

God of War was my first -released- video game title. I actually worked on a bunch of smaller game projects before that, but none of them were actually released. Composers that are new to the game industry will probably work on at least a few 'vaporware' projects - things that never see the light of day. It's not an entirely bad thing, because it affords experience and allows new game composers to expand their portfolios.

In terms of your question regarding "Are there some bits of knowledge that you don't think you could have made it through the industry without?" --

One of the most important things for me was a strong work ethic. The game industry is intense. Game composers work crunch schedules that are as tough as the schedules worked by the rest of the team (if not more). Deadlines can be very very short. Having a strong work ethic will help a new composer build a reputation for professionalism, and that sort of reputation can take a composer a long way in this industry.

[samulis]

Hi Winifred,

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by NG. I hope you don't mind this thread turning into a Q&A! ;)

I was wondering if you had any advice about charging for services... as in, at what point should a young composer start charging for their work and what sorts of rates should they use when they first start? Should they simply be open to whatever the client can give them at first? There are hundreds of composers around here (myself included) that don't really know what their work is worth and if they should be turning off non-commercial projects or just taking everything they can (short of those god awful GTA clones made by 11-year-olds that fail within the first week of production).

Thanks!

[winifredphillips]

At 11/17/13 01:41 PM, samulis wrote: Hi Winifred,

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by NG. I hope you don't mind this thread turning into a Q&A! ;)

I was wondering if you had any advice about charging for services... as in, at what point should a young composer start charging for their work and what sorts of rates should they use when they first start? Should they simply be open to whatever the client can give them at first? There are hundreds of composers around here (myself included) that don't really know what their work is worth and if they should be turning off non-commercial projects or just taking everything they can (short of those god awful GTA clones made by 11-year-olds that fail within the first week of production).

Thanks!

Charging for services depends a lot on the music budget of the project in question, and how fervently the composer wants to create music for that particular project. When a new game composer is first starting out, naturally the rates will be lower than when that composer has more experience, but in my opinion, all composers should try hard not to work for free. We need to value our work - our contribution to a game has significant value to the project.