When you are creating music to games like Dead Space, Dungeon Siege III or Command and Conquer, is there a particular formala that you stick to for each piece once you start composing? Or do you literally improvise to the visuals you are given from the game? Each piece is quite different, so there's really no set formula, other than I usually compose the entire cue for the strings first, then fill in the brass and woodwinds. I save the percussion and drums for last, using them as the added "spice" on top of the rest of the score. Any visual references are definitely the impetus behind the music.
You've composed for both Dead Space and Dead Space 2, so with that in mind which project would you say was more of a challenge to you and why? Wow, hard to say! They both presented such unique challenges. The original Dead Space was simply a monster of a score to produce, mostly because I was venturing into new territory and trying some really unusual things with the orchestra that hadn't really been done in games before. The biggest challenge of Dead Space 2 was to produce a new score that emotionally felt like the next step of the journey for the player. I wanted to be sure and keep the vibe of the original while moving the overall sound into a different direction.
After achieving such great success with the first Dead Space soundtrack, did you ever feel any pressure when creating the second? Absolutely! First of all, there's always the usual pressure I put myself under just to make the score sound as good as I possibly can. Honestly, that would have been enough for me! But on top of that, I was very focused on not disappointing the fans of the original game. I wanted them to be able to listen to the music from Dead Space 2 and think, "Ok, yeah, that definitely has that Dead Space sound to it."
What does it take to make the perfect scare scene in a game? I mean how do you go about composing such crafted work? It's really not about the music composition as much as it's about the music implementation. Sure, it helps considerably if the music fits the mood and emotion of the scene, but even the best music would fall flat if it were implemented poorly. That's the main reason the music to the Dead Space series works so well in the games - it's all about the brilliant implementation that the audio team at EA Redwood Shores did. I can't thank them enough!