Cultural Influences in the game music composition of Secrets of Skeifa Island

Video game composer Winifred Phillips, pictured her working on music for the project Secrets of Skeifa Island, developed by Wild River Games.

By Winifred Phillips | Contact | Follow

Hey everyone!  I’m video game composer Winifred Phillips.  One of my latest projects was the music for the game Secrets of Skeifa Island.  Developed by Wild River Games and published for the Nintendo Switch, Secrets of Skeifa Island allows players to wander a lovingly designed Nordic-inspired landscape.  The game centers on a quest to find a mysterious white ghost horse, uncover an ancient legend, and reveal a mythical realm hidden somewhere on the island.  My music for this game has already won two NYX Game Awards (Best Game Soundtrack and Best Music for a Nintendo Switch Game).  Film Score Monthly awarded this music a rating of 4 stars, calling it “enchanting!” and Cinelinx described the music as “delightful!”

This was my fourth time composing music for a project developed by Wild River Games.  My previous games for Wild River had required me to dig deep into historical research.  From Celtic orchestral drama, to courtly baroque, to medieval tavern music, to American bluegrass, my work with Wild River Games had spanned a wide array of styles.  Now, Secrets of Skeifa Island was going to point me in an entirely new musical direction.  I thought it might be interesting to share some thoughts on my research and composition process for Secrets of Skeifa Island.  Think of this as a brief case study.  I hope it’s useful for those of us embarking on challenging game projects requiring musical genres from world cultures.

When I started work on Secrets of Skeifa Island, the music direction for the project was straightforward.  I was asked to infuse every piece of music for the game with a Nordic style.  Secrets of Skeifa Island is set in modern times.  The location for the game consists of a small, charming island that is home to a small fishing village and a modest farm.  Everything about Skeifa Island is designed to be thoroughly pleasant and atmospheric, inviting leisurely exploration and sight seeing.

Image depicting the boat dock of Skeifa Island as included in the video game Secrets of Skeifa Island, developed by Wild River Games. This image is used in the article written by game music composer Winifred Phillips.

With that in mind, I contrasted the idyllic setting against the top examples of “Nordic music” that I could find.  Right away, I could see that I had a bit of a problem to solve.  If you’ve never explored the genre of contemporary music in the Norse heritage, I urge you to give it a whirl.  It’s famous for its brooding drones, haunting horns and lamenting flutes.  Most of it is performed by costumed warrior-musicians.  They’re frequently covered in face-paint, wearing great big antlers, and decorated with intricate Viking runes.  Modern Nordic music is essentially the aesthetic of Lord of the Rings blended with Death Metal.  Add the grim iconography derived from Norse mythology, and the result is very darkVery, very dark.

Clearly, this wasn’t going to be any help in looking for musical inspiration for Secrets of Skeifa Island.  Stepping away from a contemporary examination of Nordic music, I started thinking about a more historically-driven musical style.  I focused on the countries that make up the Nordics (Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden).  Much of their traditional music was written for dances.  Since I was specifically interested in music that might be heard in a tiny fishing village on a small windswept island, I narrowed my focus towards a couple of specific dance music genres.

The Norwegian Halling dance is an awesome visual spectacle.  Part dance, part sport, the Halling is an ego-driven test of stamina, expert balance and enduring strength.  Young men (and sometimes women) bounce and leap, spin for long periods, perform flips and gymnastic roundhouse-style kicks, and even spin on their heads like break-dancers all in the effort to outdo each other.  The distinctive bouncy tempo makes for lively dance music.  It seemed perfect for the kind of village gatherings one might expect on Skeifa Island.

The welcome sign on the boat dock of Skeifa Island, as encountered during the Secrets fo Skeifa video game. This image is used during a discussion of the music of this game, in the article written by game music composer Winifred Phillips.

The Swedish slängpolska dance, on the other hand, is a less competitive and more convivial couples dance.  Two dancers spin gently in each other’s arms, shifting their hold positions in several ways that can involve different underarm passes and turns.  During the dance, these spins can accelerate and continue for quite a long time.  Expert slängpolska dancers are able to keep both their equilibrium and their footwork under control.  The slängpolska was once a very popular couples dance, performed in small family cottages all over Sweden.

In my work on the music of Secrets of Skeifa Island, I studied and applied techniques from a broad array of Nordic folk traditions.  However, these two particular dance styles proved especially inspirational.  Now that I had this foundation upon which to build, I began thinking about music composition and arrangement.  It quickly became clear to me that style-appropriate instrumentation and performance technique would be immensely important in this project.  This consideration pointed me towards some rare and interesting instruments that were evocative of village culture and history on Skeifa Island.

Wide shot of the fishing village on Skeifa Island, as included in the video game Secrets of Skeifa Island. This image is incorporated into a discussion of the music creation for this video game, written by the game's composer, Winifred Phillips.

From Iceland, the langspil was especially important in my work on Secrets of Skeifa Island.  The langspil is a type of simple three-stringed dulcimer that can be plucked, hammered or bowed.  This allows it to perform mesmerizing drones. Its evocative medieval sound conveys both a sense of history and an aura of compelling enigma – qualities that were very useful for this project.

From Norway, the langeleik is a zither performed with a plectrum (a short stick).  The player applies a strumming action to produce a drone on as many as 8 drone strings. Melodies are performed on an additional fretted melodic string.  Since this instrument is very important in the performance of the Norwegian Halling dance, I used it frequently in the score for Secrets of Skeifa Island.

From Finland, the kantele is a plucked zither belonging to the instrument family known as the Baltic Psaltery. A small 15 string kantele is typical of the instruments that would have been used for local folk music.  The kantele has an especially delicate and bell-like sound.  Its shimmering reverberance hangs pleasantly in the air, and lends a magical quality to this quaint and idyllic natural setting.

An idyllic meadow encountered on Skeifa Island, from the video game Secrets of Skeifa Island. This image supports a discussion of the game's musical score, as written by game music composer Winifred Phillips.

From Sweden, the nyckelharpa is a keyed fiddle.  It looks a bit like an extra-large viola that has been given the Frankenstein treatment.  The nyckelharpa’s tones are triggered by a set of wooden keys built into the side of the instrument.  The tone on a nyckelharpa is produced by bowing, which creates a very unique and vibrant sound.  Nyckelharpa is an important traditional instrument for the slängpolska dance in Sweden, so it figured prominently in my arrangements for Secrets of Skeifa Island.

The talharpa is a Scandinavian instrument that may have originated in Sweden, or perhaps Norway – history remains unclear on this point. As a bowed lyre, the talharpa comes in a variety of sizes, and can have anywhere from two to four strings.  This instrument has an intrinsically primitive nature.  Its open-air strings aren’t supported by either a fretboard or an unfretted fingerboard.  The Talharpist moves fingers across these open-air strings to select pitches.  This often produces a sound full of rough character and unrefined personality.  I used both a bass and treble talharpa for Secrets of Skeifa Island.  As an instrument with tons of quirky charisma, it was one of my favorites during this project.

The bone flute is perhaps the oldest musical instrument, used by our cave-dwelling ancestors.  This, along with various other wooden flutes, rounded out my woodwind section.  I also used the runebomme ceremonial drum (from the Sámi people of Norway) to add an authentic texture to the rhythm section.

After all this research into musical style, history, and instrumentation, I turned my attention to composition for Secrets of Skeifa Island.  Let’s now check out how all these elements came together!  Here’s a video that includes several musical excerpts from my score for Wild River Games’ Secrets of Skeifa Island.  You’ll notice that the music includes lots of variations on the dance rhythms and modes found in traditional Nordic folk music.  My score for Secrets of Skeifa Island also employs the numerous authentic zithers, lyres, fiddles, dulcimers, flutes and percussion instruments that were discussed in this article.

Composing the music for Secrets of Skeifa Island was a fascinating challenge, and I hope you found this discussion interesting! You can read more about game music composition in my book, A Composer’s Guide to Game Music.  Thanks for reading!

Image of the book cover for the book A COMPOSER'S GUIDE TO GAME MUSIC, written by game music composer Winifred Phillips and published by The MIT Press.


Video game music composer Winifred Phillips is pictured here working on the music of Secrets of Skeifa Island.

Winifred Phillips is a BAFTA-nominated video game composer.   Music from one of her latest projects, Secrets of Skeifa Island, won two NYX Awards in 2023 (Best Game Soundtrack, Best Music for a Nintendo Switch Game).  Last year, her music from the Jurassic World Primal Ops game won both the Global Music Award and the NYX Award, and was nominated for a Society of Composers & Lyricists Award for Outstanding Score for Interactive Media, and a Game Audio Network Guild Award in the category of Music of the Year.  Other recent releases include the hit PlayStation 5 launch title Sackboy: A Big Adventure (soundtrack album now available).  Popular music from Phillips’ award-winning Assassin’s Creed Liberation score was featured in the performance repertoire of the Assassin’s Creed Symphony World Tour, which made its Paris debut with an 80-piece orchestra and choir. As an accomplished video game composer, Phillips is best known for composing music for games in many of the most famous and popular franchises in gaming: the list includes Assassin’s Creed, God of War, Total War, The Sims, and Sackboy / LittleBigPlanet.  Phillips’ has received numerous awards, including an Interactive Achievement Award / D.I.C.E. Award from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, 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. As one of the foremost authorities on music for interactive entertainment, Winifred Phillips has given lectures at the Library of Congress in Washington DC, the Society of Composers and Lyricists, the Game Developers Conference, the Audio Engineering Society, and many more. Phillips’ enthusiastic fans showered her with questions during a Reddit Ask-Me-Anything session that went viral, hit the Reddit front page, received 14.9 thousand upvotes, and became one of the most popular gaming AMAs ever hosted on Reddit. 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, Instagram, and Threads.

 

 

 

Kinetics and the 12 Tone Approach (The Game Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops: GDC 2023)

Video game music composer Winifred Phillips is pictured at work in her music production studio. Phillips' music for Jurassic World Primal Ops won a Global Music Award and a NYX Award, and was nominated for a Society of Composers & Lyricists Award and a Game Audio Network Guild Award.

By Winifred Phillips | Contact | Follow

Hey everybody! I’m video game composer Winifred Phillips, and I’m happy to welcome you to the fifth installment in this series of articles based on my Game Developers Conference 2023 lecture, “Chaos Theory: The Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops.” I’ve included the content of my GDC lecture in these articles, accompanied by all of the included videos, sound files, and many of the illustrations from my GDC 2023 conference presentation.

During the previous four articles in this series, we learned about Jurassic World Primal Ops the latest video game in the popular Jurassic Park / Jurassic World franchise. We discussed how the strategy for this game’s musical style was driven by the concept of Chaos Theory.  This chaos-inspired musical composition philosophy attempts to increase tension through the use of some of the most unpredictable composition techniques, employing these unconventional strategies in the effort to create subversive and disturbing effects.

An illustration supporting a discussion of the use of chaotic, unconventional music composition techniques in order to subvert listener expectations. This illustration is included in the article by award-winning video game music composer Winifred Phillips.

By devising a musical style that avoided a conventional structure, the music of Jurassic World Primal Ops was able to support and sustain emotional unbalance during lengthy action sequences. You’ll find these unconventional techniques discussed in detail in these four articles:

Part One: Tonic Pivot (The Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops: GDC 2023)

Part Two: Quartal Chords and Chromatics (The Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops: GDC 2023)

Part Three: Whole Tone and Octatonic Scales (The Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops: GDC 2023)

Part Four: Polytonality (The Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops: GDC 2023)

We just concluded our discussion of the role that polytonality played in the musical score of Jurassic World Primal Ops.  Polytonality is an uncommon musical device that helps us to break away from harmonic conventionalism.  But harmony is just a piece of the puzzle, and it certainly isn’t the only way we can introduce chaos into our game scores. 

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Polytonality (The Game Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops: GDC 2023)

This photo supports the article by video game composer Winifred Phillips about the use of polytonality in game music composition. Photo depicts Winifred Phillips at work in her music production studio.

By Winifred Phillips | Contact | Follow

Hello there! I’m video game composer Winifred Phillips.  Welcome to the fourth article in my series based on my GDC 2023 lecture, “Chaos Theory: The Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops.” Before we continue with the article series, I’d like to share some related news – the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts just awarded my music for Jurassic World Primal Ops with a 2023 Gold in the W3 Awards!  This is the 18th year that the AIVA has recognized “heroes of digital creativity,” and I’m thrilled that my music for this project was recognized by the AIVA!

Image including information about the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts W3 GOLD AWARD, won by the music of Jurassic World Primal Ops -- as included in the article by video game composer Winifred Phillips.

So happy to be discussing my Jurassic World Primal Ops music in this ongoing article series!  In these articles, I’ve included the substance of my GDC lecture, augmented with the videos, audio files, and some of the illustrations from the visual presentation that accompanied my lecture.

During the first three articles, we considered the world-famous Jurassic Park / Jurassic World franchise, and the release of the Jurassic World Primal Ops video game in concert with the theatrical run of the latest movie, Jurassic World Dominion.  I shared what it was like composing new music for a game in this famous and immensely popular franchise. By creating a musical score that emphasized unpredictability and chaos, I was able to enhance the tension and anxiety of playing an action-driven game featuring bloodthirsty dinosaurs on the loose in the modern world.

Illustration accompanying a discussion of the action included in the video game Jurassic World Primal Ops, as included in the article by video game composer Winifred Phillips.

You’ll find all these ideas discussed in detail in these three articles:

Part One: Tonic Pivot (The Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops: GDC 2023)

Part Two: Quartal Chords and Chromatics (The Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops: GDC 2023)

Part Three: Whole Tone and Octatonic Scales (The Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops: GDC 2023)

We’d just finished discussing the fantastic utility of both the Octatonic and Whole Tone scales, which are particularly useful when we’re pushing our music away from a classic harmonic structure and towards atonality. But now let’s take a moment to step away from atonality altogether, and consider its close cousin – polytonality.

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Whole Tone and Octatonic Scales (The Game Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops: GDC 2023)

Photo of video game composer Winifred Phillips. This image is included in the article discussing the music of one of Phillips' latest projects, the Jurassic World Primal Ops video game.

By Winifred Phillips | Contact | Follow

Hey everyone! I’m video game composer Winifred Phillips, and this is the third article in my series based on my Game Developers Conference 2023 lecture, “Chaos Theory: The Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops.” In my GDC presentation, I examined the challenges of composing unpredictable and chaotic music for a high-intensity action game. This series of articles shares the substance of that GDC 2023 presentation, along with the illustrations, videos, and audio examples I included in my presentation at the conference last March.

In the first two articles of this series, we discussed the worldwide success of the popular Jurassic Park / Jurassic World franchise. We reviewed the gameplay structure of Jurassic World Primal Ops: the top-down action game released in concert with the blockbuster theatrical run of the Jurassic World Dominion movie. I shared my experience as the composer of this Jurassic World game, and what it was like composing music for such an awesome franchise.

Image supporting the article about the music of the video game Jurassic World Primal Ops, composed by award-winning game composer Winifred Phillips.

During our discussion in the previous two articles, we took a look at some of the best music composition techniques that can introduce tension and uncertainty into our musical structure, enhancing the experience of combat in an action-heavy game.  These ideas are discussed in detail in these previous two articles:

Part One: Tonic Pivot (The Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops: GDC 2023)

Part Two: Quartal Chords and Chromatics (The Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops: GDC 2023)

In the preceding two articles, we considered how subverting traditional cadences with surprising tonic pivots can introduce unpredictability into our musical structure, and how both quartal chords and chromatics can create ambiguity in regards to key signature and tonic center.  But there are other ways for us to obscure that tonic and make our music feel more tumultuous.

This bullet list provides additional organization to a discussion of music composition techniques, as included in the article by video game music composer Winifred Phillips.

As we all know, anyone who casually listens to music is well aware of the Ionian and the Aeolian modes:

The traditional major:

The traditional minor:

This image includes a representation of the Ionian and Aeolian modes in music (otherwise known as the traditional major and minor modes). Included in the article by Winifred Phillips (video game music composer).

These modes are everywhere, with all those famous and well-worn intervals, chords, and progressions, so we’ve come to expect them. That’s why avoiding these modes is a great way to subvert expectations and create disconcerting music.

In the score for Jurassic World Primal Ops, when I wasn’t pushing atonality into my compositions, I was leaning heavily into the Octatonic and Whole Tone scales. So let’s take a look at how that worked, starting with the Octatonic.

This image depicts the Octatonic scale and the associated diminished triad, as discussed in the article by video game music composer Winifred Phillips.

 The Octatonic, or diminished scale, is an eight-tone scale that alternates whole and half tones:

It has the advantage of working really well with diminished triads:

Diminished triads are nicely unsteady and menacing in the right context. The Octatonic became one of my go-to tools for the Jurassic World Primal Ops score. Here’s one of the most straightforward examples from a combat track: notice how the bass line runs through the entire Octatonic scale in order:

Now here’s a more complex example of the Octatonic scale in an action track. While I never ran through the scale in order, you’ll notice that the bass line is overtly Octatonic in nature, with diminished chords in the brass section – and I’ve arranged the strings in a conventional minor-mode, so this makes the whole thing feel more unstable and perilous: 

While I used the Octatonic pretty frequently in this project, I also alternated it with the Whole Tone scale. This scale consists entirely of whole steps:

This means it naturally feels disconnected to a key signature – because it’s just hard to determine where the tonic is.

This image includes the whole tone scale notation, supporting a discussion of the use of this scale to create tension and uncertainty for the musical score of Jurassic World Primal Ops (composed by video game composer Winifred Phillips).

First, let’s check out a combat example:

As you can see, if we’re looking for an unbalanced scale with no tonal center, the Whole Tone scale is just what we need. Also, it features augmented triads:

Augmented triads are also harmonically ambiguous. All this is great for creating uneasy-sounding music.

This image connects the concept of the whole tone scale with the associated augmented triads, supporting a discussion in the article by Winifred Phillips (award-winning game music composer).

So let’s check out another example – this is music I composed for one of the tense ‘tracking’ sequences in which the player (as an expert dinosaur hunter) is attempting to locate these huge prehistoric beasts in the wild. Notice how apprehensive this Whole Tone structure feels:

Octatonic and Whole Tone scales are fantastic for when we’re pushing our music away from a classic harmonic structure and towards atonality.

In the next article of this series, we’ll be stepping away from atonality altogether and considering its close cousin, polytonalityIn the meantime, you can read more about game music composition in my book, A Composer’s Guide to Game Music.  Thanks for reading!

Image of the book cover for the book A COMPOSER'S GUIDE TO GAME MUSIC, written by game music composer Winifred Phillips and published by The MIT Press.

 


Photo of video game composer Winifred Phillips.

Winifred Phillips is a BAFTA-nominated video game composer.  The music she composed for her latest video game project Jurassic World Primal Ops won both the Global Music Award and the NYX Award, and was nominated for a Society of Composers & Lyricists Award for Outstanding Score for Interactive Media, and a Game Audio Network Guild Award in the category of Music of the Year.  Other recent releases include the hit PlayStation 5 launch title Sackboy: A Big Adventure (soundtrack album now available).  Popular music from Phillips’ award-winning Assassin’s Creed Liberation score was featured in the performance repertoire of the Assassin’s Creed Symphony World Tour, which made its Paris debut with an 80-piece orchestra and choir. As an accomplished video game composer, Phillips is best known for composing music for games in many of the most famous and popular franchises in gaming: the list includes Assassin’s Creed, God of War, Total War, The Sims, and Sackboy / LittleBigPlanet.  Phillips’ has received numerous awards, including an Interactive Achievement Award / D.I.C.E. Award from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, 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. As one of the foremost authorities on music for interactive entertainment, Winifred Phillips has given lectures at the Library of Congress in Washington DC, the Society of Composers and Lyricists, the Game Developers Conference, the Audio Engineering Society, and many more. Phillips’ enthusiastic fans showered her with questions during a Reddit Ask-Me-Anything session that went viral, hit the Reddit front page, received 14.9 thousand upvotes, and became one of the most popular gaming AMAs ever hosted on Reddit. 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, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Quartal Chords and Chromatics (The Game Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops: GDC 2023)

Composer Winifred Phillips wrote the musical score for the video game Jurassic World Primal Ops. In this photo, Winifred Phillips is pictured working in her music production studio.

By Winifred Phillips | Contact | Follow

Glad you’re here! I’m video game composer Winifred Phillips, and this is the second article in my series based on my Game Developers Conference 2023 presentation, “Chaos Theory: The Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops.” In the lecture I gave last March at GDC, I shared my creative process composing music for a project in the famous Jurassic Park / Jurassic World franchise. During this article series, I’ll be sharing the substance of that GDC 2023 presentation, supplemented by the audio and video examples I used, along with some of the best illustrations I included during my conference lecture.

In the first article of this series, we took a look at the Jurassic World Primal Ops video game, in which players capture and train awesome dinosaurs to fight alongside them against evil poachers and mercenaries.  Jurassic World Primal Ops was released in concert with the theatrical run of Jurassic World Dominion, the latest movie in the popular Jurassic franchise.  As a top-down action game featuring an assortment of history’s most famous and dangerous dinosaur predators, Jurassic World Primal Ops needed a musical score that would emphasize the power and danger of these enormous prehistoric lizards.

An illustration depicting some of the dinosaurs players encountered during the video game Jurassic World Primal Ops. This image is included in the article written by award-winning game music composer Winifred Phillips.

Turning to an examination of music theory as it relates to such an intense and chaotic musical score, we discussed how traditional cadences could be subverted into unpredictable progressions that we dubbed Tonic Pivot. You’ll find all these ideas discussed in detail in part one of this article series.

Continuing our discussion of harmonic devices, let’s move to the second chaotic technique on our list.

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Tonic Pivot (The Game Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops: GDC 2023)

Video game composer Winifred Phillips pictured in her music production studio. Phillips was nominated for a Society of Composers and Lyricists Award for the music she composed for Jurassic World Primal Ops (pictured).

By Winifred Phillips | Contact | Follow

Hi! I’m video game composer Winifred Phillips.  In March, I gave a presentation at the Game Developers Conference 2023 – a top industry event with lectures and panels from lots of different experts in all the varied disciplines within the field of game development.  My lecture was entitled “Chaos Theory in Game Music.” It focused on my musical score for the Jurassic World Primal Ops video game, and it was rated by GDC attendees as one of the best sessions of GDC 2023!  So awesome to participate once again in one of the best game audio conferences of the year!  

Each year after I present at the Game Developers Conference, I include most of the content of my lecture in a series of articles.  So with this article, I’m kicking off a six-part series based on my highly-rated GDC 2023 presentation!  I’ll be including all of the discussion from my GDC lecture, along with lots of the illustrations and videos that were a part of my GDC talk.  So let’s get started!

During the course of this article series, I’ll be sharing my process composing the musical score for Jurassic World Primal Ops – it’s the video game from Universal Games and Behaviour Interactive. Jurassic World Primal Ops came out last summer, right alongside the theatrical run of Jurassic World Dominion (the latest film from the popular Jurassic World franchise).

Illustration supporting an article about the music of the Jurassic World Primal Ops video game. This article was written by video game composer Winifred Phillips.

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BBC Sound of Gaming Interview: Winifred Phillips Discusses Game Music Composition

Winifred Phillips, pictured in her recording studio at Generations Productions during an interview with the Sound of Gaming radio show on BBC Radio 3.

By Winifred Phillips | Contact | Follow

Delighted you’re here!  I’m video game composer Winifred Phillips, and earlier this month, I was honored to be interviewed for the BBC Radio 3 program Sound of Gaming, hosted by Louise Blain.  BBC Radio 3 specializes in classical music, which means that the Sound of Gaming program is especially unique among that network’s program line-up.  Focusing on exceptional musical compositions from the awesome world of video games, the Sound of Gaming show has been airing regularly since 2019, bringing classical music listeners into a whole new world of musical expression.

Photo of journalist Louise Blain, host of the radio show Sound of Gaming on BBC Radio 3, as included in the article by award-winning video game music composer Winifred Phillips.

The show’s host Louise Blain is a top video game journalist, and the co-author of the popular book Guinness World Records 2014 Gamer’s Edition.  In addition, she co-hosted the BBC Proms 2022 concert “Gaming Music at the Proms” from the famous Royal Albert Hall in London.  In each of her Sound of Gaming programs, she also includes an interview segment called “The Cutscene,” during which she interviews a game music composer whose work fits into the overall theme of the program.  Whether it’s a composer for moody stealth missions, or one who specializes in light-hearted mishaps, the conversation throws light on the musical style that’s explored in the rest of the program.  In the June 3 2023 episode, the theme was “The Extraordinary,” and focused on games that ignite the fires of the imagination.  During my interview for this program, I was delighted to discuss my music for three of my video game projects: Assassin’s Creed Liberation, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and Jurassic World Primal Ops.

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Super Mario Bros. video game theme song honored by Library of Congress (NPR Interview)

Video game composer Winifred Phillips records vocals for her Super Mario Bros. theme song cover recording, "Go Mario! (Super Mario Bros)". Phillips is a BAFTA-nominated video game composer whose credits include titles in six of the biggest franchises in gaming: Assassin's Creed, God of War, LittleBigPlanet, Lineage, Total War, and The Sims.

By Winifred Phillips | Contact | Follow

So happy you’ve joined us!  Each year, the Library of Congress adds a list of top recordings to its National Recording Registry, and The Sounds Of America radio series devotes an episode to each of the recordings selected for preservation that year.  Recently I was interviewed for an episode of The Sounds Of America radio series on National Public Radio, in order to provide some background and musical context to one of the latest additions to the National Recording Registry – the famous theme to the Super Mario Bros. video game!  This is awesome news for game composers and game music fans.  The Super Mario Bros. theme music is now the first game music composition preserved for posterity in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.  Each year, the National Recording Registry selects twenty five recordings that represent “the richness of the nation’s audio legacy.”  The expert preservationists at the National Recording Registry works to ensure “the long-term preservation of that legacy for future generations.”

As the author of the book A Composer’s Guide to Game Music, I was able to discuss the historical significance of the Super Mario Bros. theme music as a seminal work in the field of game music composition.  I had previously given a lecture at the Library of Congress about the nature of video game music (that lecture is recorded and preserved in the Library’s Films & Videos Collection) and this experience gave me further insight to the importance of the preservation efforts undertaken by the Library of Congress.  I could also discuss the Super Mario Bros. theme music from the perspective of a musician who had recorded one of the many cover versions of this world-famous tune.  I recorded my version for the tribute album, “Best of the Best: A Tribute to Game Music.”  All of this gave me a unique perspective on this historically-significant musical composition, and I was honored to discuss it during the interview with The Sounds Of America radio show.  In addition to my own interview, the show includes interviews with author Jeff Ryan (How Nintendo Conquered America), Super Mario Bros. actor Charles Martinet, and the Super Mario Bros. composer himself, Koji Kondo!  You can listen to the entire show here:

 

I thought it might be useful to include the transcript of my entire interview in this article.  The transcript also includes my own cover version of the track (which you’ll find in the section discussing the popularity of cover versions).  But first, let’s listen to the original Super Mario Bros. Theme, and then dive into the transcript!

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Anatomy of a Game Music Track: Composing Music for Skyweaver

This photo shows video game composer Winifred Phillips working on the Skyweaver video game (developed by Horizon Games). Winifred Phillips is a BAFTA nominated game composer whose latest project release is Jurassic World Primal Ops. Her credits include games from the franchises Total War, The Sims, Assassin's Creed, and God of War.

Delighted you’re here!  I’m video game composer Winifred Phillips, and welcome to another article exploring the art and craft of game music composition!  If you’re a reader of my previous articles, you’ll know that they usually include discussions of large-scale music systems and best game-wide composition strategies.  Lately, it occurred to me that we might benefit from stepping away from this holistic approach, allowing us to focus on the creation of a single piece of game music.  With that in mind, in this article we’ll be examining the structure and composition of a single track that I composed for the Skyweaver video game.

Illustration of the Skyweaver cast of heroes. The music of Skyweaver was composed by video game composer Winifred Phillips.

Skyweaver is a popular strategy trading-card video game in the tradition of such famous games as Hearthstone, Legends of Runeterra, and Magic the Gathering Arena.  The game released in 2022, and currently boasts over a quarter of a million players.  Investors in the Skyweaver game include both Take-Two Interactive and Ubisoft.  The game is currently available for PC, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS.  The track we’ll be discussing is entitled “Ready,” and it’s heard frequently during Skyweaver matches.  Before we begin examining the structure of this track, let’s take a moment to discuss the nature of a strategy trading-card game.

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The Music of Jurassic World Primal Ops – Techniques for Game Composers

Video game composer Winifred Phillips is photographed on the red carpet of the 2023 Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards. Phillips was nominated for Outstanding Original Score for Interactive Media for the music she composed for Jurassic World Primal Ops.

By Winifred Phillips | Contact | Follow

So happy you’ve joined us!  I’m video game composer Winifred Phillips, and one of my latest projects is the musical score for the video game Jurassic World Primal Ops (listen to the score here).  Over the past few months, I’ve been tremendously honored that my score for this game has garnered several award nominations, including Outstanding Original Score for Interactive Media from the Society of Composers & Lyricists, and Music of the Year from the Game Audio Network Guild.  As a result, I’ve been asked numerous questions about how this score was created.  With this in mind, I thought it might be helpful to write a brief article that includes a few of the guiding principles that shaped my work on this project.

I’ll be giving a lecture during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco about my creative process, and I’ll be including some fine detail about how I planned and constructed this music.  In this article, I’ll be focusing on a couple of broader concepts related to the role that music played in this project.  But first, let’s briefly discuss the game itself.

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