What if the very first "video game" was actually invented in 1907? That's the premise of Bartlow's Dread Machine , created by Beep Games and Tribetoy. Teddy Roosevelt has been kidnapped, and it's the player's mission to rescue him. Composer Steve Kirk says his inspiration for the rollicking soundtrack was a suprising combination of Ravel, Schubert and John Philip Sousa! The studio behind the game even keeps their website true to the time, with "authentic" reviews from 1907 newspapers. Steve says

Disintegration, created by V1 Interactive and Private Division, is set 150 years into the future when much of humanity has been persuaded to upload their personalities and what makes them unique to cloud storage to reduce the stress on Earth's resources. An evil entity, the Rayonne, has taken control of the cloud, but a small band of rebels aims to take the Rayonne down and reboot humanity. Jon Everist told me he had an amazingly fun experience incorporating big themes of technology, humanity

Many musicians have said that life as they knew it ended when the COVID-19 quaratines began. The Videri String Quartet has come up with a unique way to relfect these times. They're welcoming arrangements for string quartet of music from video games that relate in some way to a plague, post-apocalyptic times, or a disruption of everyday life in some way, with a competition they've titled Quarantets . There's a generous prize for the winning arrangement, and royalties from the recording sales for

Gears Tactics is set twelve years before the original and now iconic Gears of War . Cities on the planet Sera are begininning to fall prey to a terrible threat emerging from underground, and it falls to reluctant hero Gabe Diaz to command his squad to defeat the Locust Hoarde. Tactics composer Edward Patrick White says his memories of playing the first Gears game, in a nearly-empty flat save for his Xbox and a kitten, infused his soundtrack. Edward says the consistent style that every Gears

Down the Rabbit Hole , a new virtual reality game by Coretopia Studios, takes to Wonderland before Alice ever visited, and it's just as strange! Composer Michael Gordon Shapiro says creating a musical signature for the game as well as the beloved characters was a really satisfying challenge.

Composer Ian Chen says writing the soundtrack for the Chinese mythology-inspired Fantastic Creatures by Blue Callisto Studios was a dream project because he combined his love of traditional Chinese instruments with the myths he listened to as a child and his love of real-time strategy games. He enjoyed the challenge of combining traditional Chinese instruments with Western ones to bring out the best qualities of both. Fantastic Creatures uses Chinese myths of creation and destruction to give the

In Lost Words: Beyond the Page, Izzy deals with her grandmother's illness by writing her thoughts in her journal. As the game progresses and it's clear that her gran's illness is quite serious, Izzy's journal becomes an escape as she creates the fantasy world of Estoria. David Housden created a soundtrack that partners perfectly with this emotional story. David says he looked to films by Pixar, Dream Works and Studio Ghibli for inspiration for the emotionally difficult experience young Izzy is

Award-winning composer Peter McConnell is no stranger to the world of Plants vs. Zombies . Battle for Neighborville is his third soundtrack for the series. He's also no stranger to the banjo! He's been playing since he was 13, but when he spied a gorgeous 1928 Gibson five-string in a music store he regularly haunts, he knew it would be perfect for the Cheese Mines levels in the game. Peter gave the whole soundtrack a real roots feel, also using a slide guitar. He even wrote his own, in his words

Amoeba Battle, a real time strategy game, gives teams of players a chance to save the world, defeating one virus at a time. Composers Kenny Wood and Igor Nemirovsky were encouraged by developer Grab Games to create music that gives an epic scale to the microscopic world the amoebas inhabit. Players in Amoeba Battle can explore different worlds, and adapt their army of amoebas to the different enemies they encounter. Kenny and Igor say the developers at Grab Games provided lots of inspiration for

The spy-thriller, Spyder , from studio Sumo Digital, is an homage to a classic genre that had its golden age in the 1960s. The Apple Arcade game features an adorable mechanical spider, Agent 8, created like one of James Bond's gadgets, that players control during missions that are increasingly dangerous. Composer Winifred Phillips created the perfect '60s and early '70s inspired soundtrack, featuring elements of jazz, orchestral, and even early synth rock sounds. She says doing the research by