r/GameAudio • u/Level80IRL • Apr 25 '15

What is the best city to be in for game audio jobs?

I am graduating this quarter and I am looking to relocate to a new city to start my career. I was looking at LA and Austin. Where would you guys recommend and why?

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3

u/pms233 Apr 25 '15

Austin is pretty good, pretty slim pickens here in LA as I've been looking on and off for the last two years. I'd say San Francisco is a better bet, for video games in general. That's just my opinion, went to school to get a masters and focused on sound and production and most of my classmates ended up in San Francisco.

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u/Level80IRL Apr 25 '15

What do you mean by slim pickens in LA? I thought that was one of the biggest hubs.

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u/pms233 Apr 25 '15

A lot of the jobs I've seen out here for game audio usually are looking for a senior sound designer with some AAA experience. More of the jobs in audio in general out here are for film and tv post production, even those are always looking for a more senior person. I had an interview with a company to be a runner and they basically said you have to be a runner before you work anywhere here. Unfortunately runners aren't paid the best and if I'd taken the job I'd have to have moved back home within 2 months. Not trying to discourage you from LA because I absolutely love it out here, I'm just saying if you really want to be in game audio you'll probably have better luck elsewhere. That's been my experience so far, someone else may have better insight.

9

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '15

the best city to be in for game audio jobs is the one that gives you a game audio job

1

u/SounDream Apr 26 '15

Best advice ever!

4

u/hydrix13 Apr 26 '15

Seattle has a community!!! (Seattle Audio Group).

4

u/mattesque Pro Game Sound Apr 26 '15

If you're looking for a AAA job there's a good chance you'll move again. There are way more studios in the world than in any one city. If you only concentrate on place you will really narrow your self down. As said many times before we're the smallest part of any game team so doing anything to limit your search does you a disservice. Either of those will be a good starting point but be prepared to move again.

1

u/Im_NotGoodAtThis Professional Apr 25 '15

Are you planning to be freelance or trying to get a job in-house? (at a AAA company for example)

1

u/Level80IRL Apr 25 '15 edited Apr 25 '15

Eventually I'd like to get an in house job, but I feel I need to get experience to apply to those. So I'll prob start off freelance. I'm also fine with finding work in linear.

3

u/SoundBurger Pro Game Sound Apr 27 '15

Here is a cool post from a couple years ago ranking game dev cities

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u/SoundBurger Pro Game Sound Apr 27 '15

http://gamejobhunter.com/blog/top-north-american-video-game-development-cities-power-rankings/

1

u/soundeziner Retired Apr 28 '15

oh nice site. I'm adding a link to the help wanted sticky post.

1

u/BombadeerStudios Apr 25 '15

Look up the biggest game companies you can think of and search for 'game companies in ____' with whatever city they're in. For example, Irrational Games is in Boston, you can search 'game companies in Boston', and get this list.
Game companies tend to gather around each other...as individuals splinter off into new groups, or just because that's where the talent is in those areas. So it's a fairly safe approach.
That said, I really don't recommend Boston. It's crazy expensive to live here (so is SF I hear), and the game audio jobs don't really exist much.

5

u/soundeziner Retired Apr 25 '15

or check out http://www.gamedevmap.com

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u/Level80IRL Apr 26 '15

I was thinking about moving to Atlanta (it's somewhat close to me) but then I saw they only had a few companies on that map.

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u/LemonLimeAlltheTime Apr 26 '15

To be totally honest there aren't really many jobs in audio anyways, no matter where you live.

Moving to a city in hopes of finding a job is a bad idea, and game audio jobs barely exist

2

u/[deleted] May 03 '15

Guildford, UK is pretty awesome if it's not too far for you. We have 20+ AAA and indie studios around here - EA, Lionhead, Media Molecule, Creative Assembly, Hello Games, Supermassive. And Anderton's music shop is a candy store for audio types. I can't compare it to anywhere else, but it's the game studio capital of the UK (maybe Europe?) and the food selection is pretty frickin great.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '15

Toronto-Montreal area. Ubisoft, EA, Bioware, Rockstar, Black Tusk have HQs there.