How can I connect with startup mobile game developers?
December 3, 2011 9:14 AM Subscribe
I'm a composer. How can I connect with startup mobile game developers?
Are there any online groups or collaborative projects where people are working on legitimate games in hopes of getting paid later? In years past I'd seen this with PC games, but they were so bad I wouldn't go near them. With mobile games it seems that more startups will come out of basements, and I want to be the audio guy for those people!
Are there any online groups or collaborative projects where people are working on legitimate games in hopes of getting paid later? In years past I'd seen this with PC games, but they were so bad I wouldn't go near them. With mobile games it seems that more startups will come out of basements, and I want to be the audio guy for those people!
I'm an independent mobile developer. I often work on games for clients. Private message me with some links to your work and I'll put you in the rolodex. No guarantees, but occasionally a project pops up that requires some cool music.
posted by chasing at 9:39 AM on December 3, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by chasing at 9:39 AM on December 3, 2011 [2 favorites]
There are quite a few indie game developers on the TouchArcade forums. They also have a Services for Trade subforum, but I think it might work better to contact the good ones directly.
posted by davar at 10:43 AM on December 3, 2011
posted by davar at 10:43 AM on December 3, 2011
Find mobile games you like from indy/smallish developers and write to the developers offering your services. Every iOS app in the App Store is listed with a contact e-mail address, and all these e-mail addresses have been scraped and are available to you.
I develop iPhone apps, and I regularly get contacted by illustrators, voice artists, and composers/sfx artists. I usually take a minute to scan these e-mails; sometimes I'll click through and look at the portfolios. On two occasions I've hired sound designers / composers who contacted me this way.
It helps if your e-mail shows that you have some familiarity with and appreciation for the company's work, but that's not necessary and I wouldn't let it slow you down.
If you are contacting an established company, even a small one, I'd suggest just having rates and asking to get paid. Working out something where you get paid based on sales of the app or something like that makes it much more complicated. I could see doing that with a buddy who had never shipped an app before, but for if a company is already selling app they should be able to afford a few hundred dollars to pay you.
If you want to post something to a forum where lots of indie developers will see it, you could check out iPhone Dev SDK. If you really are willing to work for free / on spec I'm sure you can find some fresh faces who'd love to have to some music in their currently silent apps.
Feel free to memail me with a link to your portfolio, as well.
posted by alms at 6:37 PM on December 3, 2011
I develop iPhone apps, and I regularly get contacted by illustrators, voice artists, and composers/sfx artists. I usually take a minute to scan these e-mails; sometimes I'll click through and look at the portfolios. On two occasions I've hired sound designers / composers who contacted me this way.
It helps if your e-mail shows that you have some familiarity with and appreciation for the company's work, but that's not necessary and I wouldn't let it slow you down.
If you are contacting an established company, even a small one, I'd suggest just having rates and asking to get paid. Working out something where you get paid based on sales of the app or something like that makes it much more complicated. I could see doing that with a buddy who had never shipped an app before, but for if a company is already selling app they should be able to afford a few hundred dollars to pay you.
If you want to post something to a forum where lots of indie developers will see it, you could check out iPhone Dev SDK. If you really are willing to work for free / on spec I'm sure you can find some fresh faces who'd love to have to some music in their currently silent apps.
Feel free to memail me with a link to your portfolio, as well.
posted by alms at 6:37 PM on December 3, 2011
Response by poster: thanks all for the great tips
posted by John Presley at 8:34 AM on December 4, 2011
posted by John Presley at 8:34 AM on December 4, 2011
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Identifying people who are actually going to produce a good game is still going to be a bit of a challenge. You don't want to work on something just to have it go nowhere.
You could do something like go through some of the top-selling cheap games and ask if they're looking for a composer.
Maybe you could try asking for people in some programming related subreddits like /r/programming, /r/android, you could also check out dev forums I guess.
posted by delmoi at 9:28 AM on December 3, 2011