Brandon Higley’s ‘blog

Seth and I playing with our respective gadgets.

Friday, and therefore GDC, is over.  Today was far more relaxed than Wednesday and Thursday, when I spent most of my time talking to potential employers and trying to appear as professional as possible.  Today was “Student Day,” when college students were allowed to attend for only half the price of an Expo pass.  Basically, it meant that if I tried to get hired today, I would likely be viewed as “just another student who wants to make games.”

So, Matthew and I met Seth, a friend of ours from high school, at the expo and we perused the exhibits until lunch, when we decided to drive home to beat rush hour traffic.  Pretty uneventful, but when you consider how much I accomplished during my first two days, I deserved to concentrate more on the games I would get to play in the future rather than the ones for which I might compose.

Also, I saw a surprising number of people from UC Santa Cruz Game Design major, including Nate, Angelo, and Professor Whitehead.

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Day two seemed much more efficiently spent than day one.  Perhaps there was less time being overwhelmed by San Francisco, the Moscone Center, and women wearing skin-tight clothing asking me if I want to play Resident Evil with them (a hard request to deny).

The Game Audio Network Guild Town Hall Meeting was a “here’s what we’ve done this year, here’s what we’re going to do” for GANG.  They discussed the IESD (a professionals-only branch of GANG) and the GVAC (a professionals-only branch of GANG for voice talent), congratulated the two heads of the European and Eastern American divisions of GANG, and mostly patted each other on the back.  This began at noon, and continued through the GANG Awards until 10:30pm.  Most disconcerting was the answer to my question, “What does GANG do to get its student and apprentice members hired?”

“Nothing.”

I perused the Career Pavilion after that, since apparently, I would be getting no support from GANG.  This went much more smoothly, however, than I thought, and actually ended with a few propositions (one included an augmented reality boardgame–Google it) from start-up companies.  On that note, I should prepare for day three, when I will meet the producer for Ethereal Muse for lunch and hopefully be hired to compose for his project “Encore!”.

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Today was the very first day of my very first Game Developers Conference.  A lot happened.

My brother Matthew and I woke up on time, but arrived late.  We were delayed by our search for a camera.  We concluded that the combined cost of one disposable camera per person per day was around seventy dollars, the price of a pretty decent digital camera, so a small detour to Fry’s Electronics in Campbell was planned.  A camera was chosen, and we went on our way.  Unfortunately, there was no battery pack included with the camera although one was listed in the contents of the package, so we planned a second trip to Fry’s, but this time, the one in San Jose.  All in all, we lost about two hours.

We did arrive and register in time to hear the father-son team behind Demiurge Studios, the company behind Mass Effect PC and the multiplayer in Medal of Honor: Airborne, give their talk “Stability in Stormy Weather,” a discussion about general business management of a game studio.  Only when we were allowed to wander the Career Pavilion and Expo did we realize the scale of GDC, and that was when we became overwhelmed.

I certainly felt small at GDC.  However, short but meaningful conversations with the talent scout for all of Lucas Industries (we talked about zombies) Jason Hayes, the composer of World of Warcraft (we talked about game audio in general and the direction of games in general, pictured left), did I build my confidence and realize that networking is not so difficult.  At the Career Pavilion, I spoke with a representative of CCP, the makers of EVE Online, about an in-house sound design position in Reykjavic.  I handed out my business card to people who seemed genuinely interested, and received a few as well, with written instructions on the backside on how to apply for a job serving as invitations.  It was productive first day.

Finally, we attended the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival Awards.  Tommy Tallarico, founder of the Game Audio Network Guild (of which I am a member) was presented with the Ambassador award, for helping to make games and game music a recognized art form.

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I just got my brother his first job in the game industry.  He’s now the writer for Type 3, the project for which I am Lead Composer and Music Director.

I had a conversation with the Project Lead earlier today about the Phase engine, the engine which is being made specifically for this game, the Sound Design team, and the story.  It is my understanding that the engine will be completed before May, the tentative due date for the first technical demonstration.  The purpose of a tech demo is to advertise what the engine is capable of to potential publishers; basically, the purpose is to try to sell the game idea to someone with lots of money.  I will write a music cue to accompany the demo.

Currently, I’m the only member of the Sound Design team who has contributed a signifigant amount of work–the only other member to contribute has only proposed a melody.  In order to “test their mettle,” so to speak, I’ve given the other two composers a simple task: each of them are to write a one-minute music cue for a generic setting, which has been given to them individually.  Their due date is Saturday, so hopefully I’ll see some results by the end of GDC.

The work I’ve supplied so far has been a handful of one-minute tracks meant to determine the musical identity for the game.  Usually, only two composers work on a major title, but our team has three, so the need for musical consistency is even greater.  I’ve been working off of anecdotal descriptions of the setting from our Project Lead and some concept art from our Lead Concept Artist, but there is no script thus far, and worse, no writer.  So, I proposed that my little brother, Matthew Higley, write the script.  The Project Lead read some examples of Matthew’s work, had a conversation with him, and then invited him onto the team.  Somehow it seems fitting that our first jobs in the game industry would be for the same project.

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I began working with Koru Entertainment, a game development start-up company, at the end of February, on a project called “Type 3.”  I’m not sure how much I can say about the game, but it will be an open-world first-person shooter with a strong sci-fi and psychological-thriller feel.  The team is approximately fifty members strong, with a mix of industry professionals and amateurs who have never worked on a game.  The Sound Design department includes me and three others, one of whom has an extensive resume including games, movies, and television, who will be primarily working on the sound effects for the project.  The other three of us will be composing original music.

One of the greatest challenges of working with multiple composers is making the music sound as if it were written by one person.  If each composer writes with a drastically different style, the player will be jarred by the contrast when the soundtrack switches from one peice to the next.  Sometime within the last week (when the decision was made, I was not directly notified), it was decided that I would be the one in charge of unifying our sound and determining a general style for the soundtrack, as well as organizing and directing the other two composers.  This could mean great things, because my first official title on my resume in the game industry will be “Lead Composer and Music Director.”

Wish me luck in my new role!

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It took me quite a while to settle on a design I liked, but I think I am finally happy with my website.  Thanks to suggestions from a number of people, it now looks like a presentable portfolio to which I can direct potential employers, or with which I can keep friends and family updated.

I wanted something easy to navigate.  Music is already a competitive industry, and I don’t want to waste employers’ time as they wander through a maze of links.  I also wanted something visually pleasing, so my brother helped me decide on a color scheme which was vibrant but not garish, and allowed the content to stand out from the background.  My friend Mike B. made recommendations which presented my site more “musically.”  More pictures of me playing/writing/being musical, just to prove to site visitors that my life basically revolves around music.

I might be making more changes soon, but nothing so drastic as this.  I really wish I had saved pictures of my former design–just to compare this one to the previous dull red and gray.

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