Clint Bajakian (Music Composer, Producer & Educator, Clint Bajakian Music)
Michael Land (Composer, Little Big Note Music)
Peter McConnell (Composer, Little Big Note Music)
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Date: Thursday, March 23
Time: 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
Pass Type:
All Access Pass, Core Pass, Audio Pass
Topic:
Audio
Format:
Panel
Vault Recording: Video
Audience Level: All
Veteran LucasArts composer team from the 90s—Michael Land, Peter McConnell, and Clint Bajakian—take you through the process of scoring Ron Gilbert's much-anticipated 2022 video game, Return to Monkey Island. Gilbert engaged this same scoring team as in his previous 1991 installment of the series, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, so both the story and collaboration are a true return.
The composition team discusses working with creative leads who excel in absurdist humor, as well as the process of leveraging their diverse musical styles to create a complementary score. Innovations to incorporate iconic themes from the past as well as new themes and approaches are exposed. While the proprietary iMUSE system was used in the early LucasArts games, the team discusses designing adaptive music structures for Return using FMOD. Audio and visual examples will be included.
Takeaway
Attendees will gain insight into some of the universal challenges all professionals face when scoring a large game with an intricate plot. For some, many of these solutions will seem familiar, but for all, the unique approach to a signature game should serve as a reference point in the industry.
Intended Audience
This is for anyone interested in how a classic story-based video game can be scored with music creatively, technically, and collaboratively from start to finish. Composers, music producers, music integration specialists, and audio directors are the principal target audience whether experienced, early in their career, or aspiring.