I think most of us are well aware that the largest difficulty in pursuing a game audio career is often being social and networking. Sitting in your room making sound effects and not being bothered by any humans sounds like a utopia to some – but talking to others often does not.
With that in mind, let me introduce you to your new best friend and inspiration – Creme Puff the cat.
The Illustrious Creme Puff
Creme Puff is a mystical animal of great legend – she was born in 1967 in Austin, Texas, and lived to be the oldest cat ever recorded at 38 years and 3 days old. It’s within Creme Puff’s longevity that hold both the secret to her long life and your game audio career: the seeking out of new experiences and connections.
But even with this knowledge, what if you still find yourself struggling with building relationships in the industry? As we’ve discussed previously, I believe AI-powered tools are a game-changing way to help. In this article, we’ll cover in-depth the following three ways in which AI tools like ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com) can largely remove the networking struggle for you:
- How you can use AI to help write “love bomb” appreciation messages
- How you can use AI to help keep your messages concise and edited
- How you can use AI to help you draft questions to other designers
One of the best “networking” moves you can make is to send “love bombs”
What I call a “love bomb” is a concise highly gracious, thankful, and appreciative message to someone who has truly touched you. Instead of writing a 5 page love letter, you write a short “love bomb” typically over DM or email.
The entire purpose behind these messages is to pack as much emotional gratitude and appreciation in the shortest amount of space possible, with the intent that the recipient will actually read it and appreciate it.
The problem with “love bombs” is that if you don’t have much practice with it, it can be very difficult to get used to. Generally, we’d rather gush our emotions out than swiftly get to the point. While messages like that are wonderful, too – it can be difficult for the recipient to get through them.
So here’s the type of prompt that we can give ChatGPT:
“Write a 50-70 word direct message to sound designer [person’s name] generously thanking them for their last post. Please mention that it inspired me to get to work today, and that I wound up finishing my demo reel!”
Here’s what ChatGPT gives us back:
“Hi [person’s name],
I just wanted to reach out and generously thank you for your last post. It truly inspired me to get to work today and I ended up finishing my demo reel. Your insights and expertise are truly appreciated. Thank you again for sharing.
Best regards,
[Your Name]”
That’s… okay, but not particularly thrilling, right? So let’s ask ChatGPT to modify what it’s written, giving it more specifics as to what we want and giving it a little more leeway.
Here’s the prompt:
“Modify that to make it the formatting a little less formal, expand it to include that I really appreciated the point about not needing to be perfect as that what I was getting stuck on. Make it two paragraphs long.”
And here’s ChatGPT’s response:
“Hey [person’s name],
I just wanted to thank you for your last post. It was exactly what I needed to hear today. Your point about not needing to be perfect really hit home for me. I was getting stuck on that and your words helped me push through and finish my demo reel.
I really appreciate your insights and expertise. It’s so valuable to see someone who has been in the industry for a while sharing their experiences and wisdom. Thank you again for sharing, it’s greatly appreciated.
Best,
[Your Name]
While the formatting is still a little too formal for my taste, and the wording is not yet in my voice – this is boilerplate I can definitely copy and work with. I’d probably modify the both paragraphs to make similar points, but say them in my words.
It can really be that quick that ChatGPT pulls together a simple “love bomb” that says what we want to say, concisely. Then it’s just up to us to put that into our own phrasing.
But direct messages are one thing, what about when we’re wordy on email?
Etiquette for direct messages is typically short and informal – but many of us who try cold email outreach have a fantastically difficult time putting concise thoughts together.
If we’re honest with ourselves, we know that as much as we’re excited about future career prospects, most people don’t have time to read our life story in an email. Despite that, it can be both difficult to get started and difficult to stop once we get rolling!
Here’s a fake example of emails I occasionally receive, and let’s see what ChatGPT can do to get the point of the message across without losing the intent…
“Hey Adam!
“I’m a student in my second year of college, studying sound design for games and I also love composing. I’ve studied programming before too! I love video games, I grew up playing Gamecube and I love all the Zelda series, especially Breath of the Wild (which I’d love to work on). I’ve been exloring all different types of sound design and even some sound design and programming, with my main focus of becoming a sound designer at a AAA studio. When I was in school, I programmed in Python regularly and learned all the fundamentals. Occasionally I think about what it would be like to try machine learning because that seems cool, too. But then I watched a video on game sound design and I was FASCINATED and I wanted to be just like Ben Burtt, but for games (I can only hope!!). That’s when I was clear I wanted to be a sound designer or bust. But it’s so hard with all of the different slacks and social media and things you have to keep up with, it’s like a job before a job. I have such a struggle with where to start? Then I found your newsletter and it’s amazing and there’s a bunch of information that I can get started with. If you have time ever I’d love to talk more, here’s my twitter… Thanks!”
To be clear, there’s nothing to be ashamed of or feel guilty for if you’ve written or do write like this. I’ve written like this, and my intention here is to help people get the responses they desire. So what if we take this and put it into ChatGPT with the following prompt:
“Check the following for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Please edit the response to keep it under three sentences long.”
Here’s ChatGPT’s response:
“I’m a second-year college student studying sound design for games and also enjoy composing. My main goal is to become a sound designer at a AAA studio and I have experience in programming, particularly Python. I became interested in game sound design after watching a video and would like to be like Ben Burtt for games. I struggle with keeping up with all the tasks and social media for my career, but your newsletter has been helpful and I would love to talk more. Thank you.”
While not exactly three sentences, this is significantly more concise and to the point. So not only is ChatGPT effective for giving you boilerplate that you can edit into your own words – if you’ve got plenty of words, it can help you carve them down to something more readable very quickly!
These are great examples, but what if you have no idea what to ask at all?
Great question, because this is one of the biggest problems for aspiring sound designers when reaching out to people they look up to. If you’re excited at the prospects of talking to individuals at your favorite studios and are willing to reach out, but you don’t have any idea of what to say or ask – AI can help you there, too!
Let’s try inputting this prompt to ChatGPT:
“I want to reach out to a composer on Zelda and tell them how inspiring their music was. I would like to ask them good questions about their work. Would you give me a list of 5 questions I can ask them?”
Here’s the response we get back:
Sure! Here are five questions you could ask a composer who has worked on The Legend of Zelda series:
- How did you become involved in the project and what was your role as a composer?
- What was your process for composing music for The Legend of Zelda series? Did you have any specific influences or inspirations that you drew from?
- How do you think the music in The Legend of Zelda games has evolved over the years, and how have you contributed to that evolution?
- Can you share any interesting stories or anecdotes from your time working on the series?
- What advice do you have for aspiring composers who are looking to work in the video game industry?
Though you may want to get more detailed in some of those questions, or pick and choose what you actually ask – these questions, again, are a fantastic starting point to reaching out to people in the industry.
“But Adam, if I use AI for this and so do other people, won’t all our questions and outreach sound the same and then won’t I have a harder time standing out than a purple multi-headed cow at a purple cow show?!”
No, not at all – especially if you don’t just copy and paste.
As weird as it may seem – most questions about getting into the industry are similar, regardless of who is asking. The differences between those who get answers and “make it” and those who don’t, are down to learning and perseverance over time. Those of us (like yours truly) who have made plenty of dumb decisions and mistakes, eventually learn ways to more successfully interact with folks. Again, I only think using a tool like ChatGPT will bring you there better and much faster than I learned!
Alright – so how can we use AI for networking again?
- You can use AI to help write “love bomb” appreciation messages
- You can use AI to help keep your messages concise and edited
- You can use AI to help you draft questions to other designers
The next time you’re struggling with reaching out to people in the industry…
Just remember the illustrious motto of Creme Puff the cat: “Use AI and you will live forever.”
…just kidding. Like Creme Puff showed us – pushing your boundaries can help you wind up with a long and successful career, and I think using AI tools is an incredibly easy way to get started!