My Road To AAA Gamedev as a Sound Designer

I quite often get asked "how did you make it into gamedev", "how did you get started?", "How did you get into that - that's a funny business to work in" or "wow, sounds like a lot of fun and games to do that"

Actually it is quite the opposite. Not that it wasn't fun and not that I wasn't playing games, no. But it was a really long journey that took me to places I didn't think had anything to do with actual game development.

Usually when I tell my story - the reaction is that of disappointment, primarily because the person asking is expecting me to say that "yes it was all fun and games" or that it is some kind of glamour glory story which would be about just being good at what you do and then out of school get a job. And that is not the case.

I have made a video explaining my trip into game development; you can check it out in the link here: My Road To AAA Gamedev

The reason for making this video is to shed some light on what kind of dedication, work, persistence, vision, passion, some more work, luck, networking, a little more luck, some work, reading, trial and error, retrying, pulling yourself up, trying again and not giving up that is required to get into the game industry.

Surely some can tell you a much more glorified story as the one most would expect to hear, but in most cases the stories are like mine. It has also been very interesting to get into the industry and discover why you just don't let hundreds of interns come in and run the show, and why you can't take the risk of giving everybody the chance right away.

It's been a big eye opener for me to make it into the industry, as well as looking back was the same.

I started out as a child, with an interest in music and sound. I had no clue how to do anything with it and as a typical child in the 80s and 90s playing around with geeky stuff such as computers and music, I got the typical feedback from my surroundings and family, that because games and "new music" was new then parents, teachers and even the people at daycare thought that anything creative was just a fling, it wasn't possible and certainly games was all fun and games and not something that you could make a living off.

"You can't make a living off just making videogames" or "you can't spend your life just playing games" - and even so with music "when are you going to get a real job" or "what about a proper education?"

I even got and still to this day get that kind of response from friends and people that I meet around the world (unless they work in gamedev of course or understand what it takes to work hard into a career and maintain it); usually it is based around that just because you make games or music, then you also play games or just play music when you work. The difference here is that if you like to play games and music, its not the same as creating games and music, especially not in AAA where you are part of a team, it's a team effort to create the end product and basically its the same as almost any other job, you have tasks that you do and you do them well.

Most of my colleagues are all skilled artists and designers (and programmers) and the game industry has led to thousands of people with artistic skills to find a job like this instead of just having their art and craft as a hobby at home, because now it could be put to use in other ways than becoming an independent artist that could make a living off just selling their art.

It is the same with music, when I was a teenager and up through the beginning of my twenties, I was playing music all the time, travelling and playing concerts and DJ gigs - I would come home and sit for hours in front of my computer trying to nail a specific sound or just compose and try to better myself. - The relationships I started back then would follow a quite specific script (actually, mostly the relationships that didn't last did); that script being that it was interesting to date the musician or DJ and for some reason think that what it took was just going around to the concerts and parties and play and besides that just have a massive party. It was always strange because the reality is of course that I am super ordinary geek and I spend most of my day in front of a computer and experimenting creatively, travelling, bad hotels, no money and more: and that was apparently very disappointing when all the glamour came off the profession I had.

It was around 2001 when I first had the thought "Maybe I should make video games?" because I liked to create sounds and I liked to play video games - so why not combine the two? I regret not having been more aggressive in terms of getting a job back then (I was 19-20 years old) and I was focusing on my DJ career and it was going fine and my application would most likely have been like the 99% of applications I receive from others today: "I have no idea how to make games, please give me a chance"

After that I decided to get an education, but to get an education within sound. I applied at so many schools, I was turned down and it was very frustrating. Because I knew that an education was needed, both to teach me how to do things more after the book (as you can always do it your own way after that again and learning to play by the book is required for you to break the rules later anyway), but also because I found out that a lot of the jobs I was applying for was saying that I needed a degree.

In Denmark (where I am from) education is free. Which is great, it really is - the problem is that schools who live off government funding like that also have very limited space for students. Meaning it becomes a massive honor and priviledge to get into one of these schools. The academy of music in Denmark had a Ba. degree course, three year course, in Electronic Music Composition, which I started applying for.

Only four students are let in every year.

Meaning that I coulnd't just pay for it and get my education, I actually had to pass a test and be approved in. I spent the next 8 years applying for schools before I was finally let in. I applied at the Copenhagen Royal Academy of Music as the classic Tonmeister education, never stood a chance against all the piano geeks and music theory guys. I applied at the Theater School as an audio technician, I was actually allowed to participate in the following two day test after the application, but I wasn't let into the school - primarily because I had never done any theater before.

I applied at film school as a sound designer, went to the following test and interviews twice - (they allow four students in every two years) and didn't make it unfortunately.

I applied to the Rhythmic Academy of Music in Copenhagen as an Audio Engineer - never stood a chance against the other guys with years of experience with bands and in studios.

I applied again at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus for their Electronic Music Composition course. Didn't even get a response apart from the "we received your application" - I started looking into paid educations in other parts of the world, like SAE in London - but I didn't have the money to fund that kind of education when it crossed my mind.

After three years of applying for the Electronic Music Composition degree, I finally decided to call the school and demand feedback from my application, and I was told by Wayne Siegel (the professor at the faculty) that I had passed their initial process and was what they would deem qualified for the studies, but the problem was that I was a grade C or similar degree of qualification (in terms of aesthetics - which was the weighing factor) and I was told that perhaps my style was a little too mainstream............. (repeat after me ............................................. (and some more ................................))

I realized that if I wanted to get in to this school, I had to deliver a certain style - not just deliver my style that was good enough and then hope for the best and if by mainstream they meant that they didn't like techno - I decided that if I must sound like Autechre to stand a chance, if I must be so non-mainstream, then just you wait - next year, I'll come back with something so non-mainstream that you would wish it was!

I spent a whole year digging into different styles of music, getting rid of my previous work patterns and found out that it was hard, but not hard as in impossible or difficult for me to do, it was just hard to wrap my head around how to do it - because my previous techno productions had been very much tempo set, strict rules for drops and builds - now I had to just work on something that sounded cool and basically not care about the dancefloor (kind of.)

I made a number of tracks, applied the year after and was admitted to their interview - unfortunately I didn't make it past that, and after two days of being pissed off about it - I decided that NEXT YEAR! I'll just apply again and come back with MORE and BETTER of what I had applied with this year, which had taken me to the interview.

The year after I was admitted to the interview as well, I had written down hundreds of notes from the first interview and how they reacted when I answered certain things - and practiced what to respond to those kinds of questions. One that particularly came to mind was that one of the interviewers was a big fan of Stockhausen, whom I had no idea who was before the first interview and they reacted very strongly to that fact - So I had checked out who that was, listened to his work, written down that when they ask about electro acoustic music that is one of the names I'll drop! and a couple of other things in preparation to that interview, apparently it worked because that year I was FINALLY let into the school.

That was eight (8!) years of applying to schools - not being allowed in, crying when I was turned down, getting back up and saying "fu** it!" and just continue working and trying again. Eight years of no money, constant travelling, living in a suitcase, in small hotels, going to obscure music festivals and parties to perform all over Europe.

Most of all this time is pre-YouTube, pre-Facebook, pre-Linkedin. I say that because I have also met a lot of people who can't see why I didn't just look up subjects on "how to get into the game industry" or "how to get into the music industry" and the resources for that kind of question was very limited. Which is also why I run this YouTube Channel myself now - to create and provide the content I would have liked to have been there when I was trying so hard. Cujo Sound - YouTube Channel

But anyway, school started - and that was such a great experience. and I passed my Ba. degree in Electronic Music Composition.

After that I started studying an academic degree in IT. Audio Design at Aarhus University and I started getting more and more small jobs in the indie industry, and eventually I had a pretty massive resume to show for with lots of projects, but one thing was missing - that AAA Job!.

At this time it should be noted that along with those eight years of applying to schools, I went through perhaps 50 applications to game companies - all from standard applications hoping for the best to being flat out on the ground offering them my services for free to just being their slave who would bring them coffee just for a second of a chance to look over their shoulder when they would do a footstep sound.

Over and over - same approach as the school application, every time I was turned down I was sad, but then again decided that "the next time I apply! - I will be stronger! and eventually they cannot say NO!"

It worked! Eventually I got some responses for my job applications that said "nice resume" and gave me a chance to prove myself. What happened was also that I had started digging into hundreds of articles about how to write a resume, what not to write in a resume, resume composition, cover letter composition, and more in that direction. It felt weird because when you read articles like that, it's like reading a guide as to how to play a video game, you feel that you are reading your current tactic, that you are already doing this - but for some reason then your next attempt is better and the same thing goes with applications, why would it help changing the superlatives that you use? Well, I don't know - but it does.

The wording, the order of words, the overall composition and setup - how to present yourself, it worked.

Eventually I landed a job at CCP Games and from there it all took off.

That's a very long story, and the morale here is - that if you want stuff to happen - it can happen (unless it's winning the lottery and other things based on pure chance), hard work, persistence and pushing harder both on yourself and the companies that you apply for, eventually it will pay off.

I hope you enjoyed reading this and that it gives you an idea of what it took for me to get where I am today - and I'd do it again if that was needed.

Watch the video I mentioned in the beginning of the article here and get a glimpse into what it might have been like to work this hard for so many years and then finally see it all pay off and now work for some of the biggest companies and biggest game projects out there.

Thanks for reading.