(Split off from "What's your day job?")

I've recently also taken up my first paid job as a music composer for this game called Tiny Trek. It's currently being kickstarted and I've made two songs and an ambient track for it so far. Go check it out; this game is really looking awesome I think.

Nice music, Vince. And you guys hit your baseline goal!

Always wondered for a Kickstarter contributor, and PM me if you don't want this to be public, but how much are you getting paid? More importantly, is your pay variable? Like, do you get more the more stretch goals are reached, or is yours just a flat payment?

Sweet DaVince, you are making music for a game professionally!

It makes me feel slightly bad for asking you those favors a while back since you don't seem to have a lot of free time. I'd like to get one of my games on kickstarter at some time.

Thanks! I meant to make a thread about it, but just completely forgot... heh. Will split the thread because I'm hijacking.

Radnen: Actually, I felt bad for a while because I basically didn't fulfil a promise to make your game's music! *Did* have time to make music often enough back then, and then just kind of slowly got out of touch with the whole thing because I couldn't manage to get some good music made for you! Though I'm always willing to do a project with you again if you're interested! (But I find I'm better at the retro console type stuff.)

Mooch:
This game was already being developed before the Kickstarter began, at which point I was asked to do at least two tracks. I made three (title, battle, exploration ambience). This is my first commissioned work, so when the developer asked me what I thought was a fair price, I really had to think about it. How much? Would I charge per minute? Or per tune? Then when I finally thought I had a decent price, he offered something higher (so apparently my offer was on the low end, or he thought it was worth more than I offered, or both!). I will be basing my price off of that from now on (as a fixed per-minute price).

As for the relation to the kickstarter... Depends on how much music he wants! Since I'll be paid for the amount of music I make, I might get to make more tunes as the Kickstarter does better (more game content = more stuff in the game that need music). We're still discussing what music there will be, and where, though.

I'll PM. I trust you guys with how much I earned for this, but since this is still a public forum maybe it's good to be careful with that.

Will you be willing to make two tracks of music for my LD compo game? I'm doing the jam this time so having others on board is fine. I know you don't have time to do it this year, but technically you can still be a part of it by doing something for us. All I need is a battle theme (but it's like constant gameplay music) and a short title theme. You can do chiptune style if you want. It's up to you if you have any time to spare this weekend. I won't be able to compensate you though, it is afterall a free LD compo jam game.

The game is a zombie survival game where  you get only one day to prepare.

Would be glad to! Can I see a few screenshots to get an idea of what this music would be like? Depending on if the game is very hectic most of the time, or more stealth-like, the music would be very different.

I won't be able to compensate you though, it is afterall a free LD compo jam game.

Hasn't stopped me from making songs for others before.

Mooch:
This game was already being developed before the Kickstarter began, at which point I was asked to do at least two tracks. I made three (title, battle, exploration ambience). This is my first commissioned work, so when the developer asked me what I thought was a fair price, I really had to think about it. How much? Would I charge per minute? Or per tune? Then when I finally thought I had a decent price, he offered something higher (so apparently my offer was on the low end, or he thought it was worth more than I offered, or both!). I will be basing my price off of that from now on (as a fixed per-minute price).

I've always imagined a good way for a commissioned artist to charge is based on how much time and skill the work takes them. Consider, if you were working full-time doing what you're doing, how much would you get paid in the time it'd take you to churn out a given work.

It's nice that you have a higher-than-you-expected baseline from which to negotiate future commissions, though.

Interesting way to look at it, but with some creative stuff, it's hard to pinpoint just how long you've actually been working on it. You could be pining over a good melody for days, or something could just get to you. But that happens while you're doing other things; it's not really time you could be accounting for. But it was still a very important part of the creative process.

Then again, if you have physical evidence of time spent (like maybe having made a few failed half-finished songs before creating and finishing the final proper tune) I suppose you could do something with that. But it's much easier to just say "okay, this much per minute of music" and let this fluctuating effort behind the scenes basically balance itself out. (This minute was quick to make, and this other minute took a lot longer, which still gets you an in-between price, right?)

That makes sense. I know I sure as heck don't produce my creative stuff (writing mostly) in a continuous, stable way.

Hey, that game looks interesting! I backed it

I look forward to seeing the game's progress and hearing its music!

Thanks for supporting. Really looking forward to it myself!