By Winifred Phillips | Contact | Follow
Delighted you’re here! I’m video game composer Winifred Phillips. In previous articles, I’ve shared the story of how I broke into the video game industry with my first project – the original God of War. This year, Sony Santa Monica is celebrating its beloved franchise with a special release of the God of War 20th Anniversary Vinyl Collection. The 13-disc limited edition vinyl set includes the music from the game that started it all – including my career as a video game composer. Sony Santa Monica has also released a special limited edition double vinyl that includes just the music from the original God of War. It’s all made me very nostalgic, and I’ve thought about my early days in the game industry a lot lately.
I’m amazed that this boxed set with my music from my very first game has released in the same year that I won the Grammy Award for Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord! 2025 has been an important year for me. I certainly know that my “big break” experience is not the typical career path for a game composer, but I thought it might be useful for those who haven’t heard it. I told my “big break” story during a Society of Composers & Lyricists seminar, and this video captured that portion of the event. My “big break” story starts 4 minutes and 20 seconds into the video:
Clearly, my “big break” wasn’t the typical career path for an emerging game composer. As we draw near to the close of 2025, I thought I’d use this article to share a few thoughts about how a new game composer can break into the industry in the coming year. It’s always been a great challenge, which makes it helpful for us to revisit the subject periodically. With that in mind, here is my “Getting your big break” article – the 2026 edition!
The composer demo reel
Any article about “breaking into the video game industry” will include a discussion of the composer demo reel. This usually consists of a video featuring excerpts from the composer’s portfolio, edited together in a trailer-style presentation for maximum impact in the shortest time possible. The emphasis on brevity stems from an acknowledgement of a simple truth: most folks in hiring positions at game companies aren’t particularly interested in demo reels, and are unlikely to give them much time or attention. They want to know that a prospective composer can deliver music assets for them. They want a composer who will deliver on time, within budget, and according to the standards and style articulated in the project’s music brief. In short, they’re looking for expert credentials, impeccable work ethic, and a spirit of collaboration. While a demo reel might display our credentials, it’s quicker for them to just to glance at a resume. As far as “work ethic” and “spirit of collaboration” goes, the composer demo reel demonstrates neither of these qualities.
So how do we show that we’re hard workers and enthusiastic collaborators? For those of us with a few projects under our belts, we can point to our previous accomplishments as evidence of our productivity and team spirit. Even a relatively new composer with only one indie project can use this experience as an advantage, by obtaining written recommendations from team members that can be shared with prospective employers. An awesome endorsement from a third party in the game industry is one way to show that we’ve contributed meaningfully to our previous projects, and made other game development teams happy. This, in the end, is what prospective employers really care about.
If we’re going to produce a composer demo reel, we should keep it brief, focus on the most impressive moments in our portfolios, and edit it tightly so that it flows like a trailer. In reality, audio directors aren’t going to spend much (if any) time looking at our demo reels, and their attention will wander unless we’re addressing the “work ethic” and “collaboration” issues that matter to them. With this in mind, we might want to add some overlay text as early in the video as possible, including as many short endorsement quotes as we can. This might serve to reassure prospective employers that we’re a “safe bet.” Hiring is always a gamble, and one of our principal goals is to reassure prospective employers that they aren’t taking a risk. The composer demo reel is essentially a concise, targeted marketing tool, as I discussed in my book, A Composer’s Guide to Game Music. “As game composers, and particularly as independent contractors, we are obligated to see ourselves as a product that must be marketed effectively before it can be sold.” (Chapter 14, pg. 239-240)
Networking
Professional connections are the key to success in any industry, including game development. With that said, we may sometimes over-emphasize the importance of casual networking. As an example, we might meet an audio director by chance during a crowded game industry party, but that environment oftentimes doesn’t allow for any meaningful conversation. An audio director at a popular industry event has probably met dozens of people that day. Sadly, many audio folks at conferences tend to misplace the business cards we pass along to them. Chance encounters and serendipitous meetings at public events have sometimes led to business relationships down the road, but that doesn’t mean that we should pursue this kind of networking as a top priority.
In my book, I break down networking strategies into two key approaches. “There are two strategies that yield successful results for composers new to the video game industry. The first is for the composer to arrest the attention of key personnel at the company by virtue of some accomplishment that testifies to the indisputable quality of the services provided. Having impressive music composition credentials in another field (such as broadcast media or theatrical features) may serve this purpose, as can any accolade or testimonial coming from a source that a prospective employer would trust. The second method is to simply be a high-quality composer who just happens to show up at the right time. The only way to accomplish this feat is through a combination of extensive research and bold-faced tenacity.” (A Composer’s Guide to Game Music, pg. 244-245)
How do we reach out to key personnel at just the right time? Thankfully, there are lots of research tools at our disposal. For instance, the game development industry has a flourishing online community. While in-person events are finite in number, online connections can take place anytime. Sinking our attention into the online game audio community can reveal a world of useful information. This may include clues about games in development, audio team members who could become important contacts, and nascent game studios that might be open-minded about recruiting composers into their projects.
Over the course of my career I have spent significant time immersed in market research, trying to find viable avenues to pursue, receptive game developers to approach, and game projects at just the right stage in their development for a composer to get in touch. It’s difficult work, but well worthwhile for the aspiring game composer. Joining some of the more famous game audio communities such as the Game Audio Network Guild and the Game Audio Denizens can be a good start.
While engaged in this kind of research, it’s vitally important to keep good records. An intriguing tidbit of information today may yield results several months from now, or perhaps a year from now, or maybe even five years from now. By keeping good records and following up on leads, we increase our chances to connect with the right people at the right time. Committing to this kind of research can be a daunting proposition – as I discuss in my book. “Admittedly, this can be labor intensive. Also, this method may initially expose us to a good deal of rejection as we approach companies that may hesitate before considering a composer previously unknown to them. Fortunately, we live in the information age. Research can continually give us new directions to pursue. With this in mind, we’re really limited only by our own perseverance.” (A Composer’s Guide to Game Music, pg. 245)
Staying engaged and hopeful
The process of breaking into the game industry as a composer can be lengthy and difficult, but it is by no means impossible. By keeping the faith and staying hopeful about the future, we have our best chance of maintaining our resolve long enough to achieve our goals. In the meantime, we can find many ways to express our creativity while looking for work. For instance, game jams may be a good way to fuel our enthusiasm. A game jam is an event wherein developers are challenged to create an entire game under time or structural constraints. Participating in game jams allows an aspiring composer to get hands-on experience, and that experience can then be added to the composer’s portfolio as a tangible demonstration of skills, work ethic, and collaboration. When looking for game jams to join, the Global Game Jam site and the Itch.io Game Jams page are both good starting points.
Conclusion
So those are my thoughts on getting your big break in 2026! I hope you found something in this article that might help you on your journey. Next month I’ll be providing a big curated list of resources for game audio folks, gathered together for easy reference. Until then, you can learn more about breaking into the video game industry in my book, A Composer’s Guide the Game Music. Thanks for reading!
Winifred Phillips’ accomplishments as a video game composer include her Grammy® Award-Winning original musical score for the video game Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (listen to the official soundtrack on Spotify). Her Wizardry soundtrack has also won a Society of Composers & Lyricists Award. Phillips is known for composing music for games in many of the most famous and popular franchises in gaming: Assassin’s Creed, God of War, Total War, The Sims, LittleBigPlanet, Lineage, Jurassic World, and Wizardry. Her music for Sackboy: A Big Adventure garnered a BAFTA Award nomination. Phillips’ other awards include the D.I.C.E. Award, six Game Audio Network Guild Awards (including Music of the Year), and four Hollywood Music in Media Awards. She is the author of the award-winning bestseller A COMPOSER’S GUIDE TO GAME MUSIC, published by the MIT Press. An interview with her has been published as a part of the Routledge text, Women’s Music for the Screen: Diverse Narratives in Sound, which collects the viewpoints of the most esteemed female composers in film, television, and games. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.