Table of Contents
To start out, here are the various ways I’ve used to find work and make money in game audio. I have ordered them from best to worst and in terms of frequency/likelihood and enjoyability in my experience.
- Repeat Clients (developers you have already worked for and have an existing relationship with)
- In person friendships or networking (making friends at a meetup or game jam and eventually working with them)
- Cold Calling (personally reaching out to a developer that you really appreciate and asking if they need audio help)
- Clients that found you through your website or past work (“I really liked the music for this game, are you available?”)
- Referrals (someone you know or have worked with refers you to a developer)
- Other audio people needing help or having too much work (“Hey I have a friend working on a cool game but I don’t have time etc”)
- Random tweets or develog musings (“This game is coming together, I should really start thinking about audio soon…”)
- Want ads (developers posting ads on forums)
- Audio for hire posts (you post your information on various sites and forums looking for work)
- Stock Music or SFX (sites where you write general music or sfx to be licensed)
- Freelance sites (sites were you place a bid for posted work like Freelancer or UpWork etc.)
- Dark Horse? – Selling music or SFX on the Unity Asset store or other asset stores. I have no experience with this but did message the designer of the top selling sound pack on there. He said its is easier selling code or art than sound but it can be done.
Personally I think numbers 8, 9, 10, and 11 suck! But realistically, what I did (and what a lot of people do) was start from the bottom few and work my way up.
