Video Game Music with Rosewater’s Mark Benis – Game & Gadget Podcast #40

I am joined by Mark Benis, who has composed the musical soundtrack for the point and click adventure game Rosewater, set in the wild west and released in 2024. Mark has also worked on the soundtrack for Lamplight City with others credits for titles including Wolfenstein: Youngblood.

In this podcast, we discuss his joy of retro chip-tune music of retro gaming platforms including the Nintendo Game Boy, which has inspired his journey creativity to now write musical soundtracks for modern gaming titles.

Topics include:

• Mark Benis’ opportunity to become a game composer
• Childhood love of Pokémon Red/Blue music led to a lifelong curiosity about chip music
• The beauty of 8-bit music to orchestral and back again
• Using Wwyse and FMOD as audio middleware to replace line-by-line coding
• Mark’s early days and the audio equipment he used
• The financial barrier of the many professional audio sample libraries
• No woodwinds in the game Lamplight City inspiring creativity by limitation
• How hardware MIDI modules (Roland MT-32, Sound Canvas etc) have been replaced with software music audio libraries
• Mark’s go to piano performances to loosen his fingers and inspire his thoughts
• Mark’s computer and desk setup for music composition
• What is Rosewater and the musical brief you were given
• Avoiding the typical wild west country style music
• How much of the original work made it into the game soundtrack?
• How much of the artwork and game direction did Mark see before composing the tracks?
• Timing introductions to the music, or arranging the music to the intro?
• Hearing the voice acting dialogue for the first time reactions
• Mixing virtual instruments with live music players
• Choral music creation for the game Lamplight City recorded in a church with a real choir
• Mark’s future projects
• Collaborating on musical projects and avoiding arguments

Featured music within the podcast, kindly provided with permission by Mark Benis…

• 7-43 to Rosewater
• Once Upon a Time in Western Vespuccia
• Night Walk
• The Showdown
• So Long, Partner
• Flor Silvestre by Christiane Ramirez

You can download the full Rosewater Soundtrack on Mark Benis’ Bandcamp page.

The full transcript can also be downloaded…

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