Do you think id be able to compose for games?

MainManiac

Obviously not AAA or anything, I have only been composing since May. But like small low budget indie/personal projects? I like contributing and since its not my actual job I can do it alot cheaper than a full time freelance artist.

My brother left his FL studio 10 with me back in April and I didn't start messing around with it until a few weeks later. He's into dubstep and stuff and at first thats what I was messing with until I found some of the classical instruments on there. But now he's going to be taking it back and im wondering if I should throw down the $600 or not to get my own.

https://soundcloud.com/aviru


The last 6 are my most recent doodles/songs, everything after "generic war theme" is my dance/dubstep music I was toying with. The only popular one there was "the life" Oh and also note these aren't in chronological order, "generic war theme" is actually the most recent of the bunch. I just uploaded any I had lying around today.


Dunno, tell me what you think please. I think most indie teams are usually set when it comes to music, but part of me thinks if I had access to all the plugins they used id be able to compete a bit. I have to scrap alot of instruments I simply don't have, I don't even have a very good timpani drum to begin with.


I just never thought id enjoy composing more than I did game art, which is really weird.

Zocky

Well, i'm not very knowleable about music, but i do thing you have some good songs. I especially just love the "Sad song/bloody victory", you really manage to match the mood perflectly. It actually feels emotional.

Again, don't know what are needs for music artists, but i think you for sure have some quality to score some deal with some indie game devs.....but again, i'm not really into this, but i do like some songs a lot!

almighty_gir

Sad song/Bloody victory, i'm listening to right now. the way you switch from 4/4 to 3/4 is really bad. it totally kills the flow of the song.

Quick epic doodle could do with having the entire intro section done stoccato, with a nice deep bassline in the background. in fact, all of those string attacks should be stoccato.

MainManiac

almighty_gir wrote: »

Sad song/Bloody victory, i'm listening to right now. the way you switch from 4/4 to 3/4 is really bad. it totally kills the flow of the song.

Quick epic doodle could do with having the entire intro section done stoccato, with a nice deep bassline in the background. in fact, all of those string attacks should be stoccato.

Hmm, of all the people I've shown that to you're the only one who ever said it kills the flow.

As for the epic I was never happy with the notes themselves in the intro so I didn't even think about changing them to stoccato, that could have probably worked well too. I don't play around with epic music as much as I want to because like I said alot of the backing instruments I want I either don't have or have terrible versions of and I end up getting frustrated.

Frankie

I think there's an abundance of game composers so your success so seems unlikely, I doubt you would stand out enough to make your money back or even be able to give music away for free.

MainManiac

Frankie wrote: »

I think there's an abundance of game composers so your success so seems unlikely, I doubt you would stand out enough to make your money back or even be able to give music away for free.

Well of course that was my thought from the start, I probably wouldn't even have time to catch up to the people who have been making music for a long time. I only started composing 3 months ago and have only been playing piano for two years lol

But then again the same can be said for game art as a whole. The question is, is any of my stuff impressive for only composing for 3 months (really only 2, barely made anything in july) ? Enough that if I kept at it theres a chance I could stand out after I clean up any bad habits and develop more?

I've never taken music classes or any lessons of any sort, and no one in my immediate family does anything related to music at all, so I often ponder how i'd fair if I actually applied/invested in myself

Krypteia

"....so I often ponder how i'd fair if I actually applied/invested in myself."

Then do it.

Even if you fail, you've done more than some people who have "dreams" and never actually attempt to reach them. Make sure you are asking for feedback to grow, not permission to attempt something you want to do.

For full disclosure, I haven't listend to your stuff - so keep in mind my response does not come from knowledge of your work.

Envart

I've had a listen to your work, it's pretty good for only a few months. There's no reason why you couldn't do indie stuff on the side.

Fwap

I used to compose for games before moving over to 3D.
If you like it go for it, sometimes you need a break from 3D.

Put up your songs on freesound.org awesome creative commons sharing site, a few of my sound effects have reached over 10k downloads, its great exposure.
If working for nothing doesn't tickle your nut sack, plenty of places to sell you music you make, like audio jungle and so forth.

As for FL studio, if you wanna drop $600 on a hobby go for it, i would strongly recommend Cubase, but that's my personal preference.

And want decent ensamble VSTI's? http://www.garritan.com/ CHEAP AS SHIEEETTTUHH (compared to other shit) I own it, it is perfect for orchestral stuff.

(edit, i might actually have a spare Cubase floating around, i could fish up the licensing and give it to you? came with some audio interface i bought, i have like 4 copies haha.)


TLDR; do it.

osman

Pretty good for a couple of months. I feel liked the intstruments/sounds ( not sure what the wording should be on this) sound a bit too electronic for my taste.

Oh also 'Team Select' sounds a lot like this :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NDHJDHqtKTw

it brought back some great memories

Torch

Dude you have some good stuff for what is a fairly short time to be doing this. You don't have to ask people here if you can manage it or not, just go for it and see how far you get!

MainManiac

hmm thanks guys

I'll definitely consider it