Why a 43-year-old online game simply received a Grammy – Polygon

Winifred Phillips’ work stands among the many business’s greatest
by Ian Walker
In-between showering Compton-born rapper Kendrick Lamar with gilded gramophones over the weekend, the Grammy Awards additionally crowned Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord because the present’s third annual Finest Rating Soundtrack for Video Video games and Different Interactive Media.
The primary-ever Wizardry recreation launched Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying to the Apple II in 1981 earlier than being ported to a number of different PC fashions, house consoles, and even handhelds within the ensuing many years. Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord’s legacy was additional celebrated by developer Digital Eclipse with a 2023 remake, that includes an entire 3D overhaul of the traditional wireframe graphics in addition to an all-new soundtrack. Polygon’s Michael McWhertor praised the remake as a extra playable, however not any much less punishing, method to expertise the old-school recreation.
As the unique recreation’s dungeon-crawling didn’t characteristic any accompanying music, veteran composer Winifred Phillips (God of Warfare, Borderlands) needed to construct the remake’s rating from scratch. All the album is offered for obtain on Bandcamp.
“It’s like a shiny mild simply exploded in my head,” a giddy Phillips stated throughout an on-camera interview performed proper after she was offered her award. “We do a really distinctive factor. We’re creating music that should accompany people who find themselves having an expertise and who’re making decisions and having adventures and residing a grand story, and we’re type of creating the music for that story. It’s such a beautiful privilege, since you really feel such as you’re form of collaborating with the gamers, like them they usually know you. It’s actually very particular.”
Pinar Toprak (Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora), Bear McCreary (God of Warfare Ragnarök: Valhalla), John Paesano (Marvel’s Spider-Man 2), and Wilbert Roget II (Star Wars Outlaws) have been additionally nominated. Previous winners embrace Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab (Star Wars Jedi: Survivor) and Stephanie Economou (Murderer’s Creed Valhalla: Daybreak of Ragnarok).
Earlier than introducing a class particular to the medium in 2023, the Grammy Awards hardly ever acknowledged video video games. Christopher Tin’s “Baba Yetu” from Civilization 4 was the first piece of video game music to take house a Grammy in 2011, for Finest Instrumental Association Accompanying Vocalist(s), adopted two years later by Austin Wintory’s sensible work on Journey, which took house the award for Finest Rating Soundtrack for Visible Media.
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