I see this question a lot online – game developers are looking for quality music for games, but at a reasonable cost.
Now, as a composer, you might be expecting me to say ‘you get what you pay for’ or ‘you should only ever use a composer’, but this isn’t necessarily true.
How to find the right video game composer for your project is an important question.
Do you just do a Google search and pick the first composer you can afford, or are there slightly more sophisticated methods to selecting one?
Here’s are some suggestions for how you go about selecting the RIGHT person.
If you have no (or limited) budget for your game it may be tempting to see if you can persuade a composer to write free music for your games.
Whilst tempting, in this article I hope to encourage you to look a bit deeper about what the you are getting into and also offer some alternatives to free.
Making a game is a complicated process. There is so much to think about.
It’s no wonder that some things get put on the back burner and not thought of until the last moment.
Music is often one of these things.
So the very idea of a music budget when it comes to an indie game could be thought of as something of a luxury .
Trouble is, if you give it no thought at all until the eleventh hour, you will be at the mercy of whatever price a composer or website wants to charge you.
I hope by the end of this article to convince you that giving at least some thought to the music you might need and your budget in the early stages of development, will put YOU back in the driving seat.
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This is what it all comes down to – price, right? Just how much is an indie game composer actually going to cost you?
In this short article I’ll give you some typical prices (including my own) so you will have a better idea.
How can game developers be expected to negotiate a contract with a game composer when they don’t know what their options are?
Here I explain how some typical composer deals might be structured.
If you are thinking about music for your game, you might be thinking about getting an indie game composer to quote for you.
This can sometimes be a good idea (but not always!), but if you don’t even know what factors could alter the cost, it’s no wonder you might be a bit reluctant to ask one in the first place.
This article will give you a heads up on what you are getting into so you at least know what things will be going through the composer’s mind when he drops the ‘P’ bomb!
Game Devs: Very often, when you are reaching the end of your game, you are under such time pressure to get things finished, any diversions are not welcome. The music needs to get done for sure, but you are still testing, adjusting artwork and tweaking the code just to get the game stable. It’s no wonder that sometimes things get rushed. As I’ve mentioned before, starting early is one way to avoid these last minute panics, but here is a little reminder or what hurdles can trip you up. [Read more…]
Here is a quick tip to allow you to gradually form some ideas on the rough musical direction your game might take. This isn’t a final decision, just a scratch file of ideas and inspirations.
I’ve started to use this idea a lot recently, for various projects and I think it really helps. Hope you like it too. [Read more…]
So you are coming to the end of your game and you decide you need some music for it. In fact, I would recommend not leaving it so late in the day to start thinking about music for your game, but that being said – what to do? [Read more…]