Have you been in Game Audio Purgatory? I certainly have.
You've know been there if you're in the place where you want more clients - clients that pay. Clients that respect you and don't ask for non stop revisions for basically no money. So, when in this spot, you do what most anyone would do: you tell yourself to get out there and network.
But, it's not so easy, though. Despite desperately not wanting to go to a networking event, being too tired, being busy, and realizing that your demo reel isn't perfect, you know deep down, you've got to meet people. You saddle up and force yourself to show up anyway.
And you start to meet people! Some are even really nice to you, and they tell you that, yes, in fact, they're definitely looking to hire a composer/sound designer right now. They hand you a business card, and you treat it with the reverence of a holy artifact.
You get home, and you reach out to the name on the card, saying it was great to meet them and you'd love to work together. You hit the send button with sweaty palms and high expectations. And then the inbox refreshing begins.
Every day, every hour, you check on your inbox, hoping to see that fated message come in, saying that, yes indeed, here is a fresh new job for you, and we're going to pay you a boatload of money to do it, no questions asked! But... that message never comes. You follow up a few times, and wear the ink off of the CTRL+R keys on your keyboard from refreshing so much.
At this point, maybe you give up, thinking "ahh, well they must think I'm some desperate loser" and write it off as a loss. Turns out, you still need to saddle up and network some more, or maybe finally tweak that reel, or maybe you should learn that new software... maybe then the gigs will come in. Who knows? It's all so unclear.
And so, the purgatory continues.
I was recently chatting with a friend who was in this state for about 10 years before his career really took off. My hope is to make it so that purgatory doesn't continue any longer than it needs to be.
I'm seeing more and more people getting caught up in this sort of situation lately, and aim to help with that in the coming year. So that's what a lot of my content is going to be focused on - making sure you have a great career with a great income.'
Thanks so much for being here! Talk to you soon!