Heroish's composer talks making music for films vs games

Published , by TJ Denzer

Heroish is a castle defense game on mobile utilizing a number of hero classes in campaigns and PVP multiplayer, and it has some pretty decent music to match. That comes courtesy of composer Phill Boucher. Boucher has been around music in various entertainment mediums for quite some time, moving between TV and film over to video games like Heroish. Why games? Well, we got a chance to talk to him about that journey, not to mention the difference between working on music for games versus TV and film.

Boucher has rubbed elbows with legends in the industry. He modestly claims he’s been around folks like Hans Zimmer (most recently Dune & Top Gun: Maverick) and more. However, it was the pandemic that pushed him to try his hand in video games. Where TV and film suffered a little bit, games were still strong. It wasn’t as though he was particularly looking for it, but he developed friendships with people in the game industry that led to him being recommended when Sunblink Entertainment was looking for a composer.

As far how his talents worked in the transition between music, Boucher shared the difference in processes. For Boucher, the closest it came to feeling like TV and film was in cutscenes where he could create something for a specific scene, just as he did for shows like Duck Tales. However, it gets quite a bit different when it comes to ongoing gameplay or particular sound effects for an event like leveling up or achieving victory. That’s where loops and stingers come in, which require quite a different approach if you’re going to keep the player’s attention without being annoying.

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