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Dec 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Nick Peck

Money (That's What I Want)

As I'll discuss later, you have to love this business to have the dedication to do it. Nevertheless, the goal for a working professional is to make a fair living. While you are unlikely to get rich in game-audio production, a decent middle-class living is certainly attainable as a freelancer or as an employee.

You'll find a wide variance in salary ranges, depending on a company's geographic location and financial health and an employee's experience. A small startup in a region with a low cost of living might offer as little as $30,000 per year for a junior sound designer, whereas an audio director with some major titles under their belt, working for a major company in an expensive area, can earn a comfortable six-figure salary. Typical salaries for sound designers range between $50,000 and $90,000. Some big companies also offer paid summer internships for students. Expect to make between $10 and $20 per hour if you are lucky enough to land one.

In the big leagues, benefits such as stock options, employee stock-purchase plans, and bonuses can sweeten that pot. Of course, the more common employment benefits also have value: paid vacation time and medical, dental, and vision packages are expenses that freelancers have to pay for on their own.

Freelancers have a different set of challenges, though financially they can end up in about the same place. The average rate for an experienced individual freelance sound designer is between $50 and $65 per hour. If you are a well-established freelancer, working with your own gear at home, and with a variety of big games to your name, you may be able to negotiate your rate upward to between $75 and $100 per hour. Your ability to command such rates frequently depends on the size of the project and how desirable you are to the company. If you have a proven track record with the company, you have more bargaining power.

Not surprisingly, lower-budget projects often have less money set aside for freelancers. If you are just starting out and are trying to woo a small company, try aiming for $25 per hour. Next time, when you and the company have some experience and revenue under your belts, you can try to renegotiate for a higher hourly rate.

Freelance composers usually charge by the minute of finished music rather than by an hourly rate. That number can range from $800 to $1,500 per minute, depending on the experience and reputation of the composer. Budgets for orchestras, recording studios, and additional specialists are negotiated on top of the composer's fee.

Striking a Balance

It is impossible to consider a career in the game industry without giving some thought to life/work balance. Rightly or wrongly, the industry has gained a reputation for promoting excessive work hours, setting punishing schedules, and expecting very high output from everyone involved. When a game enters its “crunch period,” which often begins several months before the project's completion, you may face grueling hours, seven-day workweeks, and even an occasional all-nighter. During the past 15 years, I've slept on the floor of my office a half-dozen times and have worked past midnight at least 200 times.

As an in-demand freelance composer, Griskey has had his share of taxing schedules and insane deadlines. But, he observes, “it's the same in the film and TV worlds. It's hard to keep the balance between work and personal time, but luckily I get to do something I really enjoy for a living, so it makes the craziness easier to handle.”

Peer pressure plays an important role in working long hours. Successful professionals take pride in their sense of responsibility, never wanting to let down the game team. Audio production is a customer-service discipline, and it is supremely important to do what you say you are going to do, when you say you are going to do it.

However, there comes a point in the lives of many game-audio pros when a new priority trumps the overarching desire to please the game team at all costs: parenthood. The moment my son Julian was born, I knew that I had a new responsibility that was more important than any other: to give him the love, guidance, and personal time necessary for him to grow straight and true. Ironically, part of this responsibility includes having a stable income stream and medical benefits to provide for his needs, so working has become more important than ever before.

Interestingly, I think I've become a more effective audio director as a result. The desire to spend quality time as a parent compels me to find more-effective time-management strategies, whether it be through creating realistic schedules, hiring more freelance help when necessary, or simply getting it right the first time more often. There are still unavoidable crunches, but setting appropriate work boundaries can result in a better product, because a fresh, rested group is more creative.

Kwasneski, who is a single parent of two, agrees. “Sometimes there is no avoiding a crunch,” he admits, “but I find that if you plan your resources well and are not overextended, you can avoid some of the more nightmarish times. As with anything in life, you need to know when to say, ‘Enough.’ Remember that it's easy to burn out if you don't allow yourself downtime.”

As the game industry matures, more professionals across all disciplines face similar family needs. According to Collins, LucasArts Entertainment's management realizes that they can't just burn out their staff because, he says, “we would lose all of our talent that way. We are very careful to make sure that we have the staff that we need and that we work reasonable hours and keep crunch times down to a minimum.” Felton feels that Sony shares that approach. “Some companies do a better job than others supporting a healthy work/life balance,” he says. “I'm happy to say that SCEA sees value in personal time off.” Such a philosophy represents a significant improvement over the situation found in much of the game industry just a few years ago.

You Gotta Love It

I recently saw a drummer packing up after a solo street performance. His setup was enormous, including a huge kit, a gong, ancillary percussion, a large P.A., merchandise tables, and a portable riser. The effort to simply put everything away after giving his all onstage was impressive. He mentioned that he did about 20 performances per month. I marveled over the sustained effort that he put in. His response was simple: “It beats flipping burgers.”

You have to feel driven to work in game audio. It can be enormously tedious and stressful and filled with disappointments and difficulties. However, it can also be supremely satisfying when you realize that you have just contributed materially to an excellent game that millions of people will enjoy. That will put a spring in your step for weeks — which is how long you will need to recover from the crunch period that was required to complete the project. But you will be making your living doing what you love — and it certainly beats flipping burgers!

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Nick Peck is a sound designer, composer, audio engineer, and keyboardist. He is currently serving as audio director of Underground Development, an Activision studio, and has been involved in interactive audio and film for over 15 years. Peck's new album of jazz/funk Hammond organ, Fire Trucks I Have Known, is available on CD Baby.