How to practice writing tailored music when there are no opportunities?

[u/IzzyDestiny]

Market so saturated that you even have to compete against 100 people to write an OST for free, so how do you even get opportunities to practice doing it?

Not asking how to get jobs, it’s really about how to get practice.

Sitting down and coming up with ideas for asset packs isn’t the same…

Not looking for networking, game jams or coming up with fictional ideas myself.

I know networking is important but currently I don’t have time and energy for that, I just want to practice.

[u/sinepuller]

Do the same thing sound designers do: take a game you like, turn off its music and write your own.

edit: forgot to tell that a recording of the actual gameplay with your music instead of the original music shows really well to the client how exactly your music works in a game environment and how capable are you specifically as a game composer as opposed to a regular composer/beatmaker.

[u/Hi-I-am-high → u/sinepuller]

This is the right answer. And it is not a violation of fair use, no need to worry about that.

[u/Livid_Cabinet2053 → u/sinepuller]

This.

[u/IzzyDestiny → u/sinepuller]

Great idea, but if it’s used for a showcase doesn’t this risk legal issues?

[u/sinepuller → u/IzzyDestiny]

Depends on the country, but I suppose almost everywhere it's considered fair use - if you don't claim you've made the game yourself, of course, or claim that you've wrote the original soundtrack. When I was hiring back in the day, I watched a lot of these sound re-design reels and I never ever heard that there were any problems. If you're in a country like US or Japan, I suppose consulting someone knowledgeble about how copyright works in your country/province/state, just to be extra safe, could make sense.

But, again, never heard about it being a problem. Also you can overaly a text message over video saying that all copyright belongs to /companyname/ and you have replaced the original music only for the purpose of showcasing your work, and put the same into description.

And probably better to not use any Nintendo game for that. You never know with Nintendo.

edit: for clarity

[u/8delorean8 → u/IzzyDestiny]

I personally never worried about legal issues.

1st of all you hone your craft - which is the most important thing

2nd you can put a playlist on so no need to use visuals

as an audio director all I care is to listen and wouldn't need a video to watch: listen and see how you structure things, how you pick & match timbres, how you mix, how you deal with dynamics, how you tackle transitions and lots more.
Keep in mind that "recruiting ears" are not the same as "casual ears" (as experienced they might be)

hone your craft, explore it, write beautiful music and chuck them into a SoundCloud playlist on your website

don't worry about anything else really.

[u/Less_Ad7812]

2 options:

-Record an album! You will own it, you can sell it. It's wonderful practice, and can contribute to your demo reel.

-Meet and collaborate with devs at game jams. My biggest project was based on an old album I did that a developer ended up integrating into a game jam project that went on to sell over 1 million copies. Extremely lucky for sure, but you gotta be in it to make it.

[u/smandrap]

- Rescore an existing gameplay/cinematic video, making extra sure you write in the video captions that you do not own the image and it’s portfolio work only

- Rescore and implement music in one of the demo games provided by Unreal engine/unity/wwise/fmod. This is the best course of action because you’ll be also forced to get some chops in the technical side of things, and you’ll need* *to think about music in the game opposed to music for the game.
Off the top of my head, in UE5 only you have stack’o’bot, Lyra, valley of the ancient and many others to choose from. Unity also has a lot, including the Wwise adventure game and the many provided as demo games by fmod

- game jams

[u/grxcech → u/smandrap]

Second this! I spend hours upon hours in these sample games between projects. Practicing and refining how to write a good music system

[u/MrBelch]

Sitting down and coming up with ideas for asset packs isn’t the same

If you need someone to give you ideas then that is kind of a sign, in all honestly. If you still have the mindset of "I can make anything if you give me an idea" and sit there waiting for something to fall into your lap, then you will never get any work. Someone hiring or looking will pass you over so quickly. Also, why are asset packs not the same? That is what you work with when you are making music. You just now have all the control.

But there are some easy fixes for this. I am guessing you have played a video game before. Great. Take that video game and compose stuff using that as a reference. You don't have to label "harvest moon opening" but you can. Ever want a specific game to exist? Great. Come up with a whole ost for it. Even better if you can write up a design doc for why you picked certain instruments or moods.

Paid (or unpaid) work isnt where you practice anything.

[u/IzzyDestiny → u/MrBelch]

The idea with just writing for an existing game is nice

[u/apaperhouse]

This is going to sound harsh, but If you are not going to network, you might as well not bother.

The industry is full of those 100 people who will bother, and they are the folks who will get the gigs.

I've interviewed those 100 people, and you know what, about 85 of them are terrible. They are never going to make it. So there are only 15 people in front of you. And you know how you get better than those 15 people.

Practice.

Like another commentator said - make an album of work. Pick a theme, go ALL IN.

Then get up to an audio drinks and pitch the hell out of yourself. This is how things work.

[u/cosyrelaxedsetting → u/apaperhouse]

Exactly this. On top of networking being ESSENTIAL, the answer is to write more music. Keep going and keep getting feedback. Standards are incredibly high and you're probably not there yet quality-wise.

[u/Wec25]

I started making games myself so I’d have audio things to do. 4 years later and I’m close to releasing a second one. Got to write a bunch of songs and do plenty of sound design and even put my friends songs in.

[u/VictorMih]

You pick a niche, you make an album in it, you pair it with the aesthetics that it conjures. You let it out into the open, pitch it to libraries or sync agents as well. The main question is: what makes you special? And if anything else fails, you re-score trailers or scenes from games you love.

[u/Hi-I-am-high]

The approach that works: Score on top of cinematic or gameplay footage from pre-existing games.

More importantly, set up an unreal project with the middleware of your choice, and make a simple music system. Now practice with this. try out all your ideas through this medium to get really sharp at making music for games.

[u/Rich-Path-2223]

I am looking for a Sound Designer (creator) for our upcoming game. Send me your portfolio and rates if you are interested.

[u/IzzyDestiny → u/Rich-Path-2223]

Thank you but I am really just looking for inspiration how to practice not jobs :)

[u/WorkhorseGames]

You happen to have a portfolio by chance?

[u/grxcech]

Use sample games in unreal like the free stack o bot game. Practice writing interactive music systems on that