218: Composing For Games, with Dan Hulsman (VGM Academy)

Today we're joined by Dan Hulsman founder of The VGM Academy, the leading website dedicated to composing video game music. Dan helps aspiring composers from around the world hone their composing skills and break into the VGM industry!

The VGM academy is packed full of tutorials, resources, expert interviews, courses and workshops covering all aspects of the industry. Dan teaches everything from composing melodies, to using new technologies, through to marketing and career building.

In this conversation Dan shares:

• The one thing more than anything else which is distinctive about video game music, which is still the case now, decades after the first game soundtracks were written.

• The reason it can be surprisingly hard to produce an "album" version of a game's soundtrack these days.

• And the clever way his high school choir director tricked him into joining the choir, setting him on the path to a career in teaching music and founding VGM Academy years later.

For some in our audience, the phrase "video game music" will conjure up memories of very simplistic music barely worthy of consideration - while for others it represents a large and serious part of their love of music. Whether you find yourself in one or the other category - or somewhere in between - this conversation will enlighten your musical journey.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 218

Links and Resources

• Video Game Music Academy

• VGM Academy Quest Logs

• Journey Original Soundtrack by Austin Wintory

• Prescription for Sleep: Undertale by GENTLE LOVE

• Final Fantasy XV Original Soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura

• VGM Academy Facebook

• VGM Academy on Twitter

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