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Winifred Phillips

A Composer's Guide to Game Music (MIT Press) Hardcover – February 14, 2014

by Winifred Phillips (Author)

79 customer reviews

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Winner of the Global Music Award Gold Medal for an exceptional book in the field of music · Winner of the National Indie Excellence Book Award · Winner of the Nonfiction Book Award (Gold Winner) · Winner of the Annual Game Music Award (Best Publication)

Music in video games is often a sophisticated, complex composition that serves to engage the player, set the pace of play, and aid interactivity. Composers of video game music must master an array of specialized skills not taught in the conservatory, including the creation of linear loops, music chunks for horizontal resequencing, and compositional fragments for use within a generative framework. In A Composer's Guide to Game Music, Winifred Phillips -- herself an award-winning composer of video game music -- provides a comprehensive, practical guide that leads an aspiring video game composer from acquiring the necessary creative skills to understanding the function of music in games to finding work in the field. Musicians and composers may be drawn to game music composition because the game industry is a multibillion-dollar, employment-generating economic powerhouse, but, Phillips writes, the most important qualification for a musician who wants to become a game music composer is a love of video games. Phillips offers detailed coverage of essential topics, including musicianship and composition experience; immersion; musical themes; music and game genres; workflow; working with a development team; linear music; interactive music, both rendered and generative; audio technology, from mixers and preamps to software; and running a business. A Composer's Guide to Game Music offers indispensable guidance for musicians and composers who want to deploy their creativity in a dynamic and growing industry, protect their musical identities while working in a highly technical field, and create great music within the constraints of a new medium.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Phillips provides an excellent introductory look at a complex and evolving artistic field. This is not a music and computer science (CS) degree in 270 pages, but a conversation with a friend who quite logically lays out the field... Anyone connected with gaming will enjoy the result.

(Computing Reviews)

Already an acclaimed book, Phillips' hands-on insights and advice make this one a keeper.

(Music Connection Magazine)

You won't find a more comprehensive guide... this book is a welcome delight.

(Robert Workman, Retro Videogame Magazine)

A Composer's Guide to Game Music, Phillips's 2014 book, offers a level-headed worker's tour of a fantasy-fueled world... Phillips thoroughly covers why music matters... and she calmly guides the reader through new and old world compositional problems...(Phillips's book) simply aims to be transparent and generous, and to offer a sensible, clear, and methodically minded explanation of how work happens in an illusory world.

(The Los Angeles Review of Books)

About the Author

Winifred Phillips is an award-winning game composer. Some of her video game credits include Assassin's Creed Liberation, Total War Battles: KINGDOM, God of War, multiple games in the LittleBigPlanet franchise (including LittleBigPlanet 3), The Da Vinci Code, Speed Racer, Shrek the Third, Spore Hero, and many others. Phillips is also the author of the bestselling book, A Composer's Guide to Game Music (The MIT Press 2014), which won the Global Music Award Gold Medal for an exceptional book in the field of music, and was described by The Boston Globe as "the first book designed to help experienced musicians brave the transition to the world of game composing." Phillips has received an Interactive Achievement Award / D.I.C.E. Award from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, three Hollywood Music in Media Awards, five Game Audio Network Guild Awards, three Global Music Awards, an IGN Best Score Award, a GameSpot Best Music Award, a GameZone Score of the Year Award, a GameFocus Award, and three Gracie Awards from the Alliance of Women in Media. She has released fifteen albums. Her soundtrack album for the Legend of the Guardians video game was the first video game soundtrack album released by WaterTower Music, the film music record label of Warner Bros. Music Connection Magazine described her as a "superstar of video game music."

Series: MIT Press
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press (February 14, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262026643
ISBN-13: 978-0262026642
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 79 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #639,382 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #371 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Theory, Composition & Performance > Composition
- #776 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Theory, Composition & Performance > Theory
- #812 in Books > Computers & Technology > Games & Strategy Guides > Strategy Guides

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Devin C.

A warning to producers and indie devs

October 11, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I am an indie developer on a one man team creating my first action platformer as well as synthesizer nerd who's been learning music theory through trial and error in FL Studio since I was six. I know how to structure a song alright, but loops (especially dynamic ones) have had me at a total loss. I've tried internet research on the topic, as well as just studying the music of my favorite games, but I didn't really find anything satisfactory. Then I found this book and thought, "Perfect! Just what I need!" So I bought it. Now don't get me wrong here, it's a good book, great even, but there are some things you should know before buying it. 1) When the title says "A Composer's Guide" it means it. It's geared heavily towards people with classical training. There are lots of sections that you won't fully be able to understand if you can't at least read musical notation. 2) The book focuses a lot on being a composer in a world of developers, with chapters on selling your skills, communicating with a team, and even why you should make music for games at all. If you're looking to compose original music for your own games like me, you're not going to read a good chunk of the material here.
I guess my final verdict is "good, but not for me."

20 people found this helpful

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Mr. Bond

Bought it; read it; lurve it!

December 11, 2014

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Winifred has written an excellent book that outlines several concepts necessary to utilize in order to succeed as a modern game composer. The introductory tone of the book is analytical and scientific (which I genuinely appreciate) and it outlines in meticulous detail an overview of what to expect from the craft; as well as what may be expected of the song writer.

This book is applicable to any composer, though it is absolutely catered to the game composer. Several scientific studies and papers are discussed in order to educate and inform, but NEVER to dictate creative choices, which the author goes out of her way a number of times to point out. As a nerd, I really appreciated the in depth discussions of how modern science can contribute to the process but I never once felt like she was suggesting that this should trump the creative instinct of the writer; a perspective that I think would serve modern musicians well. I’ve worked with musicians in the past that really have a problem with utilizing this informed approach (it’s all feeeling maaann), which I don’t think I’ll ever understand, as there are countless examples of beautiful art that came out of this technique.

A number of concepts introduced are totally fascinating: Aleatoric music, Shepard Tones, The Idee Fixe. These topics provided endless inspiration and I’ll be rereading them again in the future as often as necessary. The author utilizes the visualization technique (discussed extensively in the book ‘Flow’, which you should read right now) to demonstrate the concept of the ‘linear loop’; by imagining a scenic forest that one walks through on a pleasant day and never realizes is just a loop that repeats endlessly as new stimuli is cleverly introduced.

The book offers a great deal more that what I’ve mentioned and I’m certain that anyone interested in working as a game composer would do well to read it; it will be within arms reach in my studio for a very long time.

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Matthew Buckley

At once practical and inspiring

December 6, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

As someone who grew up with a nearly equal love for both video games and music, I have long desired to marry the two passions with a career in video game music composition. I’m entrenched in the goings-on in the games industry, and I’ve been a practicing composer for the majority of my life, but I’ve never known quite where to start when it comes to actually putting music in a game.

A Composer’s Guide to Game Music feels aimed directly at my archetype. It’s a crash course for composers who feel a deep desire to bring their craft to the gaming medium. It concentrates on passion and dogged determination while also explaining aspects as specific as necessary software and elevator pitches. Upon finishing the book, I came away with ideas, confidence, and direction. I feel a fire has been lit and I may actually know where to go from here.

This is a near mandatory read for anyone even considering entering the game music composition field. Start here, folks.

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Jason Anschutz

A great read with very useful history and information

February 8, 2018

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Phillips gives an in depth look at how writing music works for video games, the history behind video games, and other very useful material. If you are seriously considering a path and or career to writing music for video games, I'd absolutely put this book as a collection to your library. Its a great read with a lot of knowledge you should be familiar with.

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Chris Mathews

A Great Resource

March 6, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

A Composer's Guide by Winifred Philips, known for her work with the games, God of War, Little Big Planet II, and Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, is a wonderful book that manages to detail a lot of what a video game composer does without being to be general or being too technical. The guide itself is structured in a very readable way, beginning with Philips being inspired by a Tomb Raider game to write music for video games, which transitions into topics such as the place music has in video games and then further along into more specialized topics. I enjoyed how most topics were presented with examples from video games including from Philips's own works. I especially found the chapters dealing with how composers should interact with the development team and how they should conduct their business to be enlightening. Overall, it features a great balance in focus between the technical skills (explanation of looping, layering, MIDI, DAW), the Musical skills (themes, leitmotifs and ideé fixe, arrangement) and business/workplace skills (working with the devlopment team, finding work)

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