Keep Your Composer Close - The Holistic Approach to Music For Games

There are many ways to utilize a composer in your game development workflow. Throughout my career I've had the opportunity to be "on the ground floor" in development while being very close to the team. I've also experienced the opposite where I was writing in a vacuum with no connection to the team. And I've experienced everything in between.

This talk explores the working relationship between development team and composer, and why in 2023 and onwards, having someone on the music team who is closely connected to the game will result in a more tightly synergized gaming experience. It will use examples from my own career, including Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Darksiders Genesis and the Ruined King : A League of Legends Story. It will also highlight scores from other games where I know the composer was involved in the earliest parts of game development. These will showcase musical ideas that almost certainly wouldn't have happened had the composer not been close to the game.

It will explore the benefits and the disadvantages of different ways of working, and by the end of the talk you will have a clearer understanding of ways in which the composer <-> develeper relationship can be maximized.

For composers and musicians attending this talk, you will have a better understanding of how to extract the most from your development team. 

For audio directors, music supervisors, and creative directors attending this talk, you'll learn the importance and benefits (as well as cost/benefit analysis) of having a composer be closely involved from as early as pre-production, where it's a AAA title or indie. You'll understand better how to extract the maximum from your composer - irrespective of their personality - without being overbearing.

Ultimately all attending will gain insight into my own creative process, the results that came from that process and the things that I have learned over the years working with AAA teams and small independent studios. Those experiences will be streamlined into a talk that gives clarity on enhancing the unique relationship between music creators and developers, and using that to deliver the best possible soundtrack for a game that players will remember.