RELEASES
VIDEO GAME
Pitfall Panic
Composer/Sound Designer (2020)
I got to create the music and the sound effects for Pitfall Panic. I worked with my friends at Quiet Bench Zen and Jhifara on creating this falling physics game. You basically have to get out of the way of enemies that all stay still or move in different ways making the fall tougher each time you go down. When you complete each level, you have to make a choice of which upgrade you want to get rid of, making the game harder for the next level.Creating the music for Pitfall Panic was half conceptual and half thematic. I immediately started creating sounds that represented my love for cave based music, which included longer reverbs and pluck sounds. This way when you fall down this space, it feels more like you are falling down a pit and the space of this makes sense from a reverb stand point. Once those sounds were made, I made sure most of the music was written in a way to flow downwards in scale and transposition. That way the music makes you feel like you are falling to further push the idea of speed. We ended up having the choice section that happens after every level fade in and out music wise. Both the main falling music and the choice music are running at the same time and at the same tempo so when you transition between them, they feel seamless. I honestly has a blast writing this music and would love to write more music for games like this!Twisted Twilight
Composer/Sound Designer (2020)
I got to create the music and sound design for Twisted Twilight which was made with 2 friends of mine over the span of a week. It's basically a game where you explore your home and discover what has happened to it while you avoid the dark. It's a horror based top down puzzle game that was a blast to compose music and create sound design for!
Creating the music for Twisted Twilight was honestly a good blend of what I know mixed with experimentation. I got to create the main theme for the lower section of the house that is an atmospheric composing utilizing different auditory tricks to make the player feel uneasy. The other music piece was written in stems and written with implementation in mind from the beginning. The scene for that music was a section of the house we called the music room, where different instruments are laid out for the player to interact with. When he or she would interact with the instrument, it would start to play that instruments audio track. When the player would turn the other instruments on, they would all start to play the music in sync with each other thanks to some implementation ideas the programmer Connor and I came up with. Based on comments and reviews of the short project, that seemed to be the highlight of the experience. Lastly I created all of the sound design for the game. My favorite piece of sound design was the darkness sound, which was a combination of 30 screams all morphed, distorted, compressed and layered to create this chaotic unearthly sound reminiscent of our own fear of the dark, and what may lurk around every corner.Inner World
Composer/Sound Designer (2019)
I got to make this game called Inner World with 2 wonderful people. It’s a game where you have to solve puzzles in different biomes by walking around, collecting items and going back and forth between the Inner World. We made a couple different biomes and levels within those biomes and made it so the colors change and the sky runs in reverse when in the Inner World.
What I came up with from an audio perspective was to have each biome have their own theme that was looped seamlessly and represented the theme of each area. I got to write for a dessert biome, a forest biome, an ice biome, and even a dark world biome. I used the influences I have to come up with themes for each that accurately represented how I heard each area to sound. What I came up with for the inner world, was to reverse each biome theme, so when you switch to the inner world, the track will start playing in reverse. I had to make sure when I wrote each theme, that they would work well not only going forward, but also in reverse, creating a unique compositional challenge that was a blast to mess with. It became a unique experience that has since shapped how I approach creating unique auditory experiences for each game that I work on.Mechanized Assault
Composer/Sound Designer (2019)
I was commissioned by a friend of mine to create all of the audio for his game titled “Mechanized Assault”. Mechanized Assault is game where you pilot a large mechanical robot that is tasked with fighting for their military against enemy mechs. You fly around at fast speeds and engage in combat with large weapons attached to your mech.
When I was tasked with composing the music and creating the sound design for the game, I decided to use some skills I acquired over my days in metal and hard rocks bands I used to be in. To me, the style of the soundtrack I created was very at home, so what became the challenge was matching the music to the speed of the game. It was imperative to myself and the game’s creator John Melee that the music feel like it emphasizes the action of the scenes and felt somewhat militaristic when not in combat. It ended up becoming an extremely energetic soundtrack that represented the intense action and metal/hard rock sound that John and I thought was appropriate for Mechanized Assault.Puppet Parlor
Composer/Sound Designer (2019)
Puppet Parlor is a game that was quick to make, yet can be played for a long time. It’s based on weeks from each month making it 52 levels long and includes budgeting and time based skills to create the preferred puppet from the client.
I was tasked with creating the sound design for the whole game and to compose the night time transitional music. The Nighttime music was honestly a joy to create, and somewhat meditative to listen to, starkly contrasting the music I wrote for previous games I composed for at the time. The track I wrote was called Nighttime and it consisted of a soft piano, mixed with pads that have a calming white noise feature that fades out slowly, similar to what some people use to help them go to sleep at night. It was a joy to create the music and to work the team making this game in such a short amount of time.Farm Defense
Composer (2019)
Farm Defense is a top down action game, where you protect your farm from animals that were effected by the nuclear fallout. It was a fun quick game to make that also ended up being pretty funny in some ways.
The music for Farm Defense actually was dynamically implemented so that based on different game states, the game engine would fade in the desired version of the music for the scene. We set it up to have 2 basic states; Non Combat and Combat. The two layers are the same length and the same composition generally, but used different instruments and different lead parts to accent whether the player was in combat or not. It lines up so that they are playing at the same time in the game, but only one is heard at a time, and then when combat would start, the combat piece of music would fade in as the non combat music would fade out, but both being at the same second of the song so it sounded natural. I also wrote a 10 second loop for the main menu music, very simple, yet effective for what we needed it for.Birthday Taxi
Composer/Sound Designer (2020)
Birthday Taxi is a game I got to compose music and create sound effects for with my friends at Quiet Bench Zen and Jhifara. Birthday Taxi is a game where you drive around the city picking up people’s birthday gifts and have to deliver them to their destination.
For Birthday Taxi I wanted to match the speed of the driving to the music I create. I honestly ended up only having around an hour or two to write the music and create the sound design for the game, hence the music being less designed around a birthday theme and just matching the speed. I always hit my deadlines though, so I made sure to get the music done on time to be implemented and it actually worked out pretty well. At this point I’m used to being able to get things done well and quickly, so I’m happy with how it came out.Infinite Century Escape
Composer (2019)
It is 100 hours before the dawn of the anticipated 22nd century. In an evacuated and soon-to-self-destruct Century Industries facility lies a robot that has attained sentience. Seeing the precarious scenario he's in, he has decided to flee.
Infinite Century Escape is an 8 bit rpg that I got to write the main theme for. I don’t usually write 8 bit compositions but seeing as it’s a first for me, I was eager to work on the game. The instrumentation was obviously quickly created, seeing as I was using a limited set of instruments, yet the composition became something I wanted to and had to excel at since that was what made the track interesting to listen to. In creating the music for the game I discovered more about how to create themes purely based on the composition, which is how music from classic video games such as Super Mario and The Legend Of Zelda became so memorable and was an important lessons I learned from this project.Galaxy Gauntlet
Composer/Sound Designer (2020)
I got to work with my friend Connor to create the music and sound design for Galaxy Gauntlet. The game is a procedurally generated twin stick shooter which generates different shapes that have different properties and actions for you to take down.
When creating the music for Galaxy Gauntlet, I thought of how to give emotion and energy to the game. We didn’t have an artist so the artwork was minimal and didn’t give off much inspiration to go off of. Creating music for geometry was an idea I toyed with but felt uninspired and didn’t fit the style of game, so instead I thought of writing music that’s sole purpose was to energize and motivate the player to continue to survive. I composed the music to the speed of the game and made sure to have the music make the game feel slightly faster to pump up the player. It ended up being a ton of fun and the end result is a game that is challenging to play but energizing at the same time.Drive Home
Composer/Sound Designer (2019)
Drive home is a driving game that is basically about dogging things in the road while on your way home. It was created for the Global Game Jam of 2019 with some good friends of mine.
Drive Home was a blast to work on, especially since it took us 48 hours to make it. We decided to make the run time for the game locked, so I was able to write one track for the whole game that hit all the beats in a way that reflected your driving experience. I ended writing this song that felt more like an adventure than a looping track because it was one 3 minute track that spanned a couple different emotions and speeds making it ramp up all the way until you get home in the game. It was a great lesson in writing music quickly but with professional production value and hitting deadlines early, which has always been a specialty of mine.Shadowless
Composer (2019)
“Your shadow is tired of you. So it broke free and refuses to neither be your puppet, nor mimicking your actions any longer. But a shadow cannot exist without a living body, so it possessed a big, oversized body which doesn't fit. Now it's trying to kill you and take over your body. Stop it from doing so!”
I was asked to work on this short project that seemed like some fun. The game utilizes simple colors and shapes to make you focus on the gameplay and animations of the boss. I wrote a quick theme for the boss that felt very action oriented and fit the intensity of the boss fight. It was a quick process but I really enjoyed working with the creator of the game and how the music was able to heighten the intensity of the scene to make the player feel on the edge of their seat for the boss fight.Home Return
Composer (2019)
Home Return was a game I was asked to write some music for back in 2019. It was an interesting game where you must repair a crashed alien and basically during immediate surgery on it.
The music was quite simple and fit the relaxed nature of the game. I used a soft piano to make the scenes calmer instead of taking the typical science fiction approach of using synthesizers. That made the enemy of the game less noticeable since it had a mood that didn’t come off as threatening. It was quickly made and I’m glad I got to contribute something that didn’t feel like the typical choice for this style of game. I really liked how the artwork came out too. Their work on the game was pretty inspiring and definitely helped me come up with the more somber piano vibe.The Source Tree
Composer/Sound Designer (2020)
Rodent Retribution
Music Composer (2024)
(Currently In Development)
I am currently working with Gilbert Games as the music composer for Rodent Retribution
With only some early gameplay footage and a few still of the game, the FPS shooter already has over 500 wishlists on steam and is growing fast!
I am excited to bring everything I have from my experience in the metal and hybrid genres to create a soundtrack that fits the aesthetic and the drive of the game!
The Source Tree was a game created for the 2020 Global Game Jam. “The Source Tree is to be a puzzle game where you are a pear navigating through trees to get to a companion pear. As the player, you complete puzzles to progress further towards the end goal. -- 2 different games in 1.”
Because the theme for the game was “Repair” we decided to take a less literal approach and make it about re-pairing to pears together. Because of this, I did some research on how pears are grown and found out that the wood from pear trees are used to make certain woodwind instruments. So that was where I would start to construct the musical theme for the game, utilizing woodwind instruments to tie the idea of pears into the audio to help ground the concept more. I was able to create more of a wind based sound to compliment the game while being able to stay calm and quiet as to give the player an easier headspace to solve the puzzles. I personally like the idea of putting myself in a box using certain rules for the conception of the music to elicit a different approach and stretch the bounds of what can become inspiration for a piece of music, such as being inspired by a pear tree.