GDC 2025 Session Viewer

For Eternal Strands, composer Austin Wintory spent 4 years trying to unpack the direction "Make it Fantasy, but not like the Renaissance Faire." The process involved lots of experimentation, and recording, eventually landing on a score built from lots of sonic building blocks, and custom instruments (both physical and virtual). This talk will be detailed post-mortem through the steps to get there, including dead-ends along the way, and how it all came together both sonically and in terms of implementation in-game.

Takeaway

This is intended as a high-level overview that, while flush with some technical details, is also about approach, concepts and philosophy. It is hoped that some of the lessons learned on this project will have useful gems applicable to any audience member.

Intended Audience

Anyone in game audio should hopefully find this talk helpful, whether a beginner just coming to terms with the techniques of game scoring, or a veteran.