Here are some resources from the video game music composition workshop I taught at Saint John’s University.
Free Music and SFX Editing Software
- Soundation
- Audacity
- Sound Effects: as3sfxr (Browser-based, simple), bfxr (Browser-based, complex), sfxr (Windows), cfxr (Mac)
Demo Game: Colorado John
If you’d like to try your hand at composing music or making sound effects for a game, unTied Games has created a demo game, Colorado John, that allows you to create your own soundtrack. Download the game files below, unzip them, and replace the .ogg files in the sound folder with your own music and sound effects. The file princess.jar runs the game. The readme.txt file in the Colorado John folder has some more info.
- Game Files (.zip)
- Charlie’s Example Soundation Projects
- Sound Asset List
- Student example game with music by Sean Deal: game files, video demo
- Student example game with music by Zachary Gibbs: game files, video demo
Other Resources
- Presentation slides
- Charlie’s Music Production Lessons podcast
- Charlie’s posts/interviews about video game music
- A Composer’s Guide to Game Music by Winifred Phillips
Special thanks to the Steve Noack Program in Pop Music and Jazz for supporting this workshop, along with the CSB/SJU music department.