How To Design Your Website (For Game Audio)

7 Mar

Why Do I Need A Website?

Your website essentially is a neatly packaged presentation of why your client/employer should hire you. It not only shows off your work, skills and who you are but also any additional work you’ve done that hasn’t made it into the demo reel. Having a good website makes you come across as professional and gives you a chance to show your potential employers or client how you can benefit their team.

At the end of this topic there’s also a quick guide on how to set up a professional email and how to choose a good name.

But first here is a great article from Ben Gallagher (The Game Audio Pro) summarising why your website is your most valuable asset: https://www.thegameaudiopro.com/post/your-most-valuable-game-audio-asset

Website Goals

The most important thing about the website is that it needs to be as easy as possible for the viewer:

to view your demo reel
to view your work and previous projects (with the option of additional detail)
to get an idea of your experience level
to get a general impression of you as a person.

Don’t forget to let your personality shine and make the website your own. The more you stand out from the crowd with creative ideas and designs the better. But always remember to make sure you’re fulfilling the four requirements above.

Also don’t forget that game jam games, online indie projects, university projects and audio redesigns are all great portfolio pieces to put on your website when starting out.

Here are a couple of examples of great websites: Josh Adam Bell: https://joshadambell.com/

Chris Walasek: https://www.hallowsounds.com/

Cai Jones: https://www.caijonesaudio.com/

Harry Nixon: https://www.harrynixonaudio.co.uk/

Tzvi Sherman: https://www.tzvi.audio/games.html

Jon Kelliher: https://www.jonkellihersound.com/

Website Structure

Your website should contain all of the following pages:

Landing Page - This section should include your name and you also generally want to put your demo reel there as it’s the first thing, people will see when entering your website.

Portfolio - A showcase of all of the projects you’ve worked on (redesigns are valid as well) with more detailed descriptions about what you did and your process. You can even add explainer videos.

About - Brief summary of who you are, your industry experience and your skills and potentially your interests and hobbies.

Contact - For people to get in touch with you.

Social Links - To showcase your online presence.

How To Build Your Website

There are two components you need for your website:

A platform where all of your content lives
A domain that hosts your platform on the internet and makes it accessible to visitors

Instructions

I personally recommend starting by jotting down some notes and drawings on how you want your site to look and what the content should be.
Then select a template on either one of the platforms and re-structure using placeholder content until you’re satisfied with the result. Choosing the style of your site is also very important.
Once you’ve done that you can start to add the actual content (pictures, text, etc.).
Now show it to your friends, peers and/or mentor to get some feedback. Implement the feedback and make necessary changes to improve the site.
Test it with your friends and make sure that all of the buttons and links work, it flows nicely, looks good and is concise.
Launch it and don’t forget to link it to your social accounts so people can find it!

Tools

Domain
For a domain I can recommend Go Daddy where you can easily look up and buy domains:
https://www.godaddy.com/en-uk/domains/domain-name-search

Platform
For the platform, I would recommend either Squarespace or Wix both of which are linked below with some beginner tutorials: Squarespace:
https://uk.squarespace.com/

Squarespace beginner tutorial:
https://youtu.be/GiLDccy34v8

Wix:
https://www.wix.com/

Wix beginner tutorial:
https://youtu.be/9g0X_s-oeNY

Professional Email

Websites often come bundled with either free or heavily discounted professional email addresses. If you have the money then I recommend setting one up as it looks professional. Alternatively, a Gmail address that has your name in it and no numbers or weird letters is also totally sufficient.

Here are some examples of name structures you can use.