I’m extremely proud to announce that I recently wrote the music for Ubisoft’s Settlers VII debut trailer. The trailer is a fun and well-done video produced by Fabrikfilm. It has been well received by the community at gametrailers.com, boasting a 8.9 rating.



The music features two main themes that set apart the main contrasts in the video. For the scenes where the players are enjoying the game, a predominantly D ‘lydian’ theme takes over -- featuring the #4. The theme appears mostly in mid-range violins and comes out of the orchestral texture. For the scenes where the video game battle build-up is more prominent, a minor mode battle theme, also based in ‘d,’ takes over while accompanied with military percussion. You’re more than welcome to check out the trailer on the front page at http://thesettlers.com. I’m also posting the notated themes below for reference.

In another collaboration with Fabrikfilm, I’ve composed the music for the opening of EA fussballfan.de’s new web TV series. I play a lot of FIFA so this was one of those especially exciting projects. As you may know, I usually write orchestral music, but for this, we went with the rock approach. You may also hear some great crowd noises in the background and big, booming drums to remind you of football. You’ll have to slightly scroll down for the video, Enjoy!

Travels with Gulliver is an exciting match-3 adaptation of the classic by Jonathan Swift recently published on Big Fish Games. The game covers the first book of Gulliver’s Travels in Lilliput. The music works to express the adventurous and comical nature of the story. Flutes, clarinets and oboes dominate the melodic material, while there is also frequent use of horns to express the adventure. Melodic ideas are often expressed briskly and playfully, they sometimes enter into a very simple fugue, call-and-answer, and move mostly step-wise. The harmonic language is also quite simple as the dominant-tonic relationship is used heavily to outline an older, classical feeling.

I used a lot of marimba and xylophone as they help to create a more unique and interesting sonic palette for the game. Harp is used very often to set a background pattern for the themes.

Zombie Escape is an exciting game recently created by Viqua Games. It was previewed on Touch Arcade recently and received a positive response from the audience. The game features cartoonish gameplay where the player must escort remaining non-zombie residents to evac helicopters.

The music features a combination of dangerous military percussion and a comic theme. I could not resist using a slight touch of the organ to play the comic melody. Even the marimba makes a brief appearance in the music. The game will be shortly released on the app-store!

Little Things is a unique and awesome game just recently released by Big Fish Games. I’m proud to have written the music for it. The game was a joy to work on due to it’s unique and atmospheric vibe. The harmonic language features all major chords with bVI chords and some interesting applied chords. Instrumentation is also unique to the game as I ended up going with harp harmonics, subtle electronic percussion, and a muted string section. The celesta was also a prominent color instrument that really helps the mood. I hope you download and enjoy the game!

“It's hard to overlook the spectacular audio/visual package in this game” - JohnB at jayisgames.com

Mythoria is a turn-based, fantasy game being developed by Random Star Games--and was just released! I recently concluded writing the soundtrack for it. I must say that it was a really fun experience. I deepened my understanding of the harmonic language used in ‘magical’ scores, and went a step beyond what I had done in the past. That is always a success. I am posting below the menu theme and one of the gameplay tracks for your pleasure. The theme is also in the flash player in the ‘Music’ section of the website.

Also posting the notation for the main melody here, it’s first heard with the boy’s choir and then is doubled with the solo violin.

Mythoria Theme MP3

Here’s also a brief expert from the opening violin part in the gameplay piece:

Mythoria Gameplay MP3

Music for evaluation purposes only.

Comets and Craters is a fun ‘tower defense’ game currently in the beta stage for the iPhone. The music was a lot of fun to write. The cartoon-y graphics fuses nicely with the serious orchestral tone and creates a fun atmosphere during gameplay.

I focused on writing the music in E Octatonic (second note of the scale being the F natural, then G, Ab etc). The main thematic figure is built from the same harmonic material as the rest of the piece. I’ve posted the figure below, if you want to hear how it sounds. You’re welcome to listen to the mp3 of the battle track. The theme will come in at 0:24 and repeat twice, once with the basses and cellos, and once horns and trombones doubling the basses and cellos. I hope you enjoy the music, and I’ll be sure to post a link to the app store once the game goes live within the next couple of weeks:

CnC Battle MP3

Please note that the samples are for evaluation purposes only.