Hello everyone! I wanted to make a blog post about various things, but mostly as one final post before the end of the year. In this post, I will discuss my recent trip to Germany, my progress in the world of game audio, and my plans for the future as we look ahead to 2026. Let’s start out with the fun!
To Germany We Go!
This past October, I had the privilege to go to Germany! I can not even begin to express how much I’ve been looking forward to visiting Germany. For those who don’t know much about me, I was actually born in Germany, and then moved to the States when I was 4 years old. I pretty much stayed in the States my whole life and never really got to travel outside of the country until now.
In Germany, I visited the town where I was born, and where my family still resides today, Osnabrück! This city has been around for even longer than the United States! My parents had the hope that going around the city would trigger some memories I had when I was really little. I can report that, unfortunately, that was not the case with the places we ended up visiting. I am sure that I might have some of those memories, but I would need to go back and revisit Osnabrück in the future. Here are some of the photos I was able to capture in the city itself. I took a lot of photos, so here is just a small sample of them.
Besides Osnabrück, I was able to visit various other places around the city. I visited the museum of Kalkriese, the Nettetal, the museum of industrial culture, and I was able to visit a nearby city to see some graduating salt towers. This is just to name a few things. I visited Germany about two months ago, and I visited so many places, I don’t think I can recount and gather the pictures in one post.
I was also able to see a professional international soccer game with VFL Osnabrück! Even though the team lost that day, they gained a new lifelong fan with me! My dad was also happy to share his team with me!
Of course, this wouldn’t be my blog without talking about game audio. I actually did end up bringing my audio recorder to record some audio for my sound library. This is similar to what I ended up doing for my trip to Maine. To be quite honest, I really didn’t spend a whole lot of time with this. I ended up recording some outdoor ambience and some church bells, and that was basically it. My trip to Germany was more focused on reconnecting with my past, as well as reuniting with family that I haven’t seen in over 20 years. That, to me, was worth the world to me. In this sense, this trip really was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will always cherish. To finish up this segment here, I will leave you with a couple of photos of me recording ambience from my Airbnb balcony.
This Year in Game Audio
Since the holidays are coming up, I want to make this my final post of the year. I want to take the time and reflect on the past year a little bit.
This past year has been a crazy ride. It was a year of new beginnings, as I moved past my corporate job and worked towards my dream of becoming a game audio professional. Since the start of this year, I have participated in a total of 5 game jams, mostly through RVA Game Jams. After each jam, I’ve noticed myself getting better and better with my skills. I started just doing sound effects, then I did a whole game of sound effects and music, and then finally, with my last 2 jams, even did some audio programming with GDScript!
RVA Game Jams has truly been a home for my progress. I really can’t thank the team behind this community enough for allowing me to practice my skills, as well as meeting countless folks! I anticipate some, if not most, of the people I’ve met here will become lifelong friends of mine. If you are reading this, thank you. Truly, from the bottom of my heart <3
I also ended the year by attending my first con with GameSoundCon. It has been a great experience to network with fellow game audio folks, as well as learn something new with the panels they had this year. Shoutouts to them for an amazing con!
If you guys would like to see how I progressed through the year, be sure to check out my portfolio page! Pretty much everything is in chronological order.
2026 and Beyond
Now comes the part I am not so excited to write about. Let me talk about the good first.
I will still be involved with RVA Game Jams. They already have a couple of jams coming up, one of which is the Global Game Jam. I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon with game jams. You will also be hearing about these upcoming projects as they come up.
Next month, I will also be attending my first in-person con with MAGfest! I will be trying to network and meet with as many game developers as I can to try to get my foot in the door more within this industry. Also, it just sounds like fun to go to regardless. If you are going to MAGfest, feel free to connect with me! I’d love to meet up with you!
Now, onto the bad news…
I don’t think it’s a secret to anyone that the current economy and wider job market are extremely bad. When I first started this journey, I had about 2 years of savings to be able to pay my bills while trying to get a professional position in game audio. Now those savings have been reduced to about a year, and I don’t see myself getting any closer to a stable income in this field. What I didn’t anticipate was how incredibly difficult and niche this industry is. It is extremely difficult for someone who is considered “entry-level” to get in. I think I was a bit naïve to think that I would be able to spend about a year on my skills and then land a gig.
I will say that I don’t regret leaving the position I had at Dell Technologies. I had a lot of other reasons besides game audio that I don’t feel comfortable disclosing. Leaving enabled me to spend the year leveling up the skills that I would not have been able to with a full-time job.
That being said, after applying for game studios this year and getting rejections left and right, I will be spending some time next year applying for jobs outside of game audio. I am not too thrilled about the idea of getting whatever is available around me, which is mostly retail and service jobs, but this market and economy are forcing my hand a bit.
If that does end up happening, I will let you all know about it. I just hope that whatever ends up happening to me in 2026, it doesn’t slow my progress and momentum I have built up this past year.
Happy Holidays!
Since I anticipate this being my final post of the year, I want to thank you all for reading these posts I have made this past year. I look forward to continuing my game audio journey next year.
In the meantime, I hope everyone out there is spending some time with loved ones! Have a very happy holidays!
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