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Getting your big break – 2026 edition (for the video game music composer)

Posted by Winifred Phillips on

Grammy Award-winning game composer Winifred Phillips at work in her studio at Generations Productions. This photo is included in Phillips' article about breaking into the industry as a video game composer.

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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.

Grammy Award-winning video game composer Winifred Phillips celebrates the release of music from her first game in the God of War 20th Anniversary Vinyl Collection.

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:

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Getting your big break – 2021 edition (Video game music composer)

Posted by Winifred Phillips on

This photo depicts game music composer Winifred Phillips working in her music production studio at Generations Productions LLC on the musical score of the Sackboy: A Big Adventure game from Sumo Digital. Winifred Phillips is an award-winning video game music composer whose credits include games from five of the biggest franchises in gaming (Assassin's Creed, God of War, Total War, LittleBigPlanet, The Sims).

By Winifred Phillips | Contact | Follow

Delighted you’re here!  I’m video game composer Winifred Phillips, and this past year has been particularly busy for me.  I’ve released several projects this year, including Sackboy: A Big Adventure (my latest, pictured above) – and I’m very pleased that my Waltz of the Bubbles composition from Sackboy: A Big Adventure just won a Global Music Award, and is nominated along with the rest of the game’s soundtrack in this year’s NAVGTR Awards!  In between projects, I’ve given three virtual talks this past year at the Game Developers Conference in March, the VGM Academy Live event in April, and the GDC Summer event in August.  Popular events like these are great opportunities to touch base with the community and exchange ideas about the art of game composition and the business of being a video game composer.

All during this time, I’ve been keeping up with this blog, writing monthly articles that explore different topics of interest to us as game composers.  In addition to the regular monthly entries, every year I write an article that tries to answer the question, “how does an aspiring composer break into the video game industry?”  This is the question I’m personally asked most often, and it’s one I always struggle to answer.

Part of the reason for this is that my own “breaking into the business” story is so unusual.  My first video game project happened to be a triple-A blockbuster (God of War from Sony Interactive), The logo of the original God of War video game from Sony Interactive Entertainment. Game music composer Winifred Phillips was a member of the music composition team for this video game.and I was able to land the gig because an example of my work landed on the desk of a music supervisor for the project at exactly the right time.  What are the chances of that?  It’s akin to being struck by lightning, and I certainly can’t advise young composers to depend on that kind of lightning to strike.  But I don’t want to leave hopeful young composers in the lurch either.

So every year, I revisit the subject, trying to learn what helpful advice might be offered by virtue of the common wisdom that exists at the time.  In expert articles and community posts, the subject is ceaselessly examined and reconsidered.  It’s an evolving conversation that shifts in subtle but appreciable ways from year to year.  So this is the 2021 edition, in which I share the interesting observations I’ve gathered from online sources during the previous year.  Hopefully, this article will provide some guidance and support for those who are embarking on their own game music careers. But first, in case anyone might like to hear a fuller retelling of my own “breaking into the business” story, here’s an interview I gave in 2011 with GameSpot in which I recount how I landed my first gig.  The relevant discussion begins at 4 minutes and 15 seconds:

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