How To Find Jobs & Clients In Game Audio
Overview
All of my jobs in the game audio industry have come directly from referrals and introductions from mutual friends so I want to once again use this opportunity to say how unbelievably important your network is.
Despite that, I have done my fair share of job hunting and after sending off my 15th application I realized that it was really important to track all of them.
That’s why I created this template to help you stay organised and keep tabs on where the individual applications are in the process as well as take notes of any outstanding tasks.
Application tracker template: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Z6g4vDAKXKjY0sX9z_abeqivA71BFyEClGPYCLWYk2I/copy
Job Portals
There are tons of different job portals out there but these four I’ve listed below will contain most of the publically listed jobs from the AAA to indie realm.
General
DevBrada:
https://devbrada.com/
Grackle:
https://gracklehq.com/jobs?department=Audio
Games Jobs Direct:
https://www.gamesjobsdirect.com/results?mt=2&ic=False&age=0&sper=4&i=2
Indies
IndieDB:
https://www.indiedb.com/jobs
Work With Indies:
https://www.workwithindies.com/?categories=audio
Social Media
Jobs often get advertised on social media, some companies don’t even make public listings but simply put out an advert on LinkedIn or Twitter. That’s why it’s super important to follow game audio folks on these platforms and keep an eye out.
Finding Clients
Opportunities can arise from anywhere and that’s why the best way to find clients is to be proactive and put yourself out there. That means having a social presence and getting involved in the community on and offline.
As your network and reputation grow over time so will your client base and people will start approaching you. But for that to happen it’s absolutely vital to stay consistent, manage your expectations and play the long game.
Ashton Morris created an incredible guide to help you find work:
https://www.ashtonmorris.com/freelance-game-audio-finding-work/#getting-started
Working For Free
This is a very controversial and loaded topic in the game audio community as our work tends to get undervalued by clients a lot. This means that people often aren’t willing to pay us what we are worth.
Being massively undercut by someone for a job always feels bad as it devalues our work even further. However, when starting out it’s completely normal and okay to work for free on smaller projects that have little to no budget. These are usually passion projects from small teams of people who work on them in their free time next to their jobs.
By working for free you will gain valuable experience that will be crucial in securing your first job. Just remember that once you start taking paid positions it’s important to negotiate a fair price, you have to make a living after all.
Additional Tips And Advice
Marshall McGee works in the AAA world and put out a great video on how he got his job:
https://youtu.be/0nO48Ui5NZY
Akash Thakkar is one of the best educators on business practices in finding clients in the indie realm of game audio. I’ve listed some of his best videos and articles on finding and securing work. They are absolutely worth watching and reading.
Successful freelancing in game audio (GDC Talk):
https://youtu.be/93ggs7hwJeU
How composers find work (very short but sweet article):
https://www.akashthakkar.com/post/visibility-cloak
How to find work in indie games (super short video):
https://youtu.be/PkzxalfX1jQ
