Creating Magical Music On XBOX

How composers craft the soundtracks to the games that you know and love, plus a rundow of some of our favorites

- Adam Bryant

From the exquisite compositions of the bleeps and bloops of yesteryear to the epic orchestral scores that sweep us off our feet, composers have long been creating soundtracks for video games that have moved us in every way. It’s pretty hard to imagine playing Halo without hearing those ethereal Gregorian chants as they give way to the drums and strings, or walking through Oakvale in Fable without the jaunty and magical theme playing alongside you. These scores don’ come from thin air, of course—but how do the composers go about creat the soundtracks to the games we adore? And what difficulties would y face? We managed to chat with J Kyd, composer on Assassin’s Cree and Hitman, and Inon Zur, compos Fallout and Dragon Age, to find ou method behind their magical music.

Most composers come from humble beginnings, and the first soundtrack that Jesper Kyd ever created was for Sub-Terrania on the Sega Genesis. It was developed by a small game studio called Zyrinx he helped cofound with friends, which later evolved into IO Interactive. But given that games traditionally take two or three years to make, Kyd set his sights on bigger things. “I wanted to write music for many different kinds of games, films and TV shows, so I declined joining this new company,” admits Kyd. “I decided freelancing was the best way forward. I continued working with my friends, this time through their new company IO Interactive, and the first title we worked on together was Hitman: Codename 47.”