By Adam Kallibjian

G.A.N.G. scholars pose with game audio legend Brian Schmidt.

G.A.N.G. scholars pose with game audio legend Brian Schmidt (center). Adam Kallibjian pictured at right.

I remember as a kid playing Paper Mario on my old Nintendo 64 console and falling in love with games and music. I feel so thankful for the opportunity to now be a part of this incredible industry!

Game Sound Con is THE audio conference for video games and other forms of interactive media. When I found out that I was selected as a G.A.N.G (Game Audio Network Guild) Scholar, I immediately booked my flight and hotel for LA. I was assigned a composer mentor for the conference named Adam Gubman. We met several times over the course of the conference to talk about breaking into the industry, writing for casual and AAA games, and work life balance.

The conference was packed with talks on integrating audio in to game engines like Unreal, post mortem talks on recently released games like Halo Wars 2, VR, & Ambisonics, and panels of top industry professionals talking about their experience/advice in the game audio industry. I had the chance to meet with other GANG Scholars from around the United States and network with so many amazing people!

After the first day of the conference, I headed over to the Hexany Audio studio (which was founded by Berklee alumni). I got to meet some amazing sound designers for games like Call of Duty and hang out with friends who graduated from Berklee.

At the conclusion of the conference, the scholars were invited to a speaker dinner where we got to talk in a very casual environment with composer and sound designer veterans.

Outside of the conference, I tried to take advantage of LA best I could by visiting USC’s campus and sitting in on a class taught by the composer for the Bioshock games – Garry Schyman. Thanks to film scoring assistant chair Sean McMahon, I was also able to meet with composer Christopher Young outside of the conference to learn more about working in LA and starting out in the industry.

The whole trip was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had! I learned so many valuable skills in marketing yourself, new techniques in game audio implementation, and working in Los Angeles.

Adam KallibjianAdam Kallibjian is a composer for visual media from Cleveland, Ohio. He is the president of the Video Game Music Club, lead student technology supervisor at Berklee, and a student ambassador. Adam has worked for renowned composers Mychael Danna, Jason Graves, and Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions. He also freelances and licenses music under the label http://analogpeople.tv/