Neal Acree's music has provided the emotional underpinnings for cinematics for Blizzard's World of Warcraft and Overwatch for years. Recently he released One World , the first track from his full-length album, The Velvet Machine . Neal has also been expanding his soundtrack for Frostkeep Studios' Rend , a game inspired by Norse mythology. He tells me that both of these projects gave him a chance to spread his wings and try new things. One World gave Neal a chance to collaborate with vocalist

Andrew Prahlow's first thought when he heard the description of Outer Wilds as a "backpacking adventure in space," was that it would be the perfect opportunity to use a plunky old banjo a friend had given him. Andrew was invited to compose the soundtrack for the game by his friend at Mobius Digital Games, Alex Beachum, and they agreed that the rustic home area of Outer Wilds needed a "homely" ensemble of guitar, banjo and harmonica. Of course, that changes when you set off on your adventure to

The main campaign of Battletech from studio Harebrained Schemes is a war story about betrayal, heartbreak, and occasionally, victory. Urban Warfare , the latest expansion, gives players a chance to hit the streets in massive cities around the galaxy for tactical battles. Jon Everist created a completely different sound for Urban Warfare to reinforce the epic size of the cities and the battles that take place there. Jon says it was a great experience to return to the Battletech universe after a

Listening to a live orchestra perform music from your favorite video game can bring back great memories. Or, with the performance on June 13 by the National Video Game Orchestra of Wales , give you a sneak peak into music for a game that isn't even released yet! Composer Tony Manfredonia says he's thrilled (and a little scared) to have a suite from his soundtrack to Kharon's Crypt premiered at the concert, and the founders of the NGVOW, conductor Carwyn Thomas and orchestrator Peter Brook, say

With its setting in Oregon's High Desert and mountains, and its complex main characters searching to be reunited, Days Gone, by SIE Bend Studios isn't a typical post-apocalyptic game. Composer Nathan Whitehead told me that both the setting and love story, even bringing a shred of humanity to the infected Freakers, all gave him plenty of ideas for his soundtrack. As the game opens, seemingly-tough biker Deacon St. John makes the difficult choice to put his wife Sarah on a rescue helicopter in the

As a newly-signed artist to Sony Masterworks, Inon Zur's first project is Into the Storm , an album of songs inspired by the fantasy world of his music for Dragon Age . As he told me, the album is dedicated to his fans, and they'll find the music on the album both welcoming and familiar. The album features some of the amazing artists Inon has worked with over the years as a game composer, including Aeralie Brighton, Mimi Page, Aubrey Ashburn, Arielle, Viodance and Michelle Packman, May Claire La

Solving the mystery of a missing scholar and decrypting an ancient language are just two threads of the complex, open-world game, Heaven's Vault, created by Inkle Studios. Laurence Chapman composed a gorgeous chamber music soundtrack for the game, in which archeologist Aliya and her robot companion, Six, travel to the distant moons in Aliya's home nebula in search of her missing colleague. Aliya is chosen for the mission because she's been studying an ancient language, and decoding the

As the in-house composer and sound designer at Ubisoft Sofia, Elitsa Alexandrova had a dual challenge of getting the sound design and music exactly right for two recent Assassin's Creed games: Origins: Curse of the Pharaohs and Rogue. I caught up with her after her session at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, in which she explained how her music gives a sense of time and place to the settings of both games: ancient Egypt and 18th century France. Elitsa says music of the Baroque is

Penka Kouneva's diverse portfolio of composing credits include Prince of Persia and Forgotten Sands, as well as numerous film and TV soundtracks, and passion projects like The Woman Astronaut. I talked with Penka at the Game Developers Conference ahead of her session on how composers can balance their drive for perfection with the time constraints and demands of media clients. Penka says learning as much as possible about the client's preferences and their musical goals can save a composer many

After a long wait, Crackdown 3 was released in February of this year. Brian Trifon and Brian Lee White of Finishing Move were brought in when the game was in its early stages of development, and they say having that much time with the game allowed them to craft a truly unique sound for their music, and go way beyond the original amount of music that was planned. Crackdown 3 is set in a world where there's just one area that has power, which has been taken over by an evil organization, Terra Nova