Eight years ago, Chris Rickwood got a chance to put his musical skills and his love of video games together. A software engineer at the time, but also a classically trained composer, the Atlantan was asked to write five tracks for a horror game published by THQ Inc.
Today, Rickwood, 34, is one of the nation's pre-eminent composers of video game soundtracks. He's producing all the music and sound effects for the upcoming Sony Xbox game Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom. And he's working on two major games produced by Atlanta companies The Cartoon Network and High-Rez Studios Inc. Over the past eight years, he's composed music for 40-plus titles.
While video games have been popular for decades, they are increasingly becoming more sophisticated as gamers demand more cinema-like experiences.
Mike Tinney, president of CCP North America, says sound is a critical part of the atmosphere of any game. Iceland-based CCP, which has its North American headquarters in Atlanta, produces the popular space game EVE Online and is working on an Internet game based on the gothic World of Darkness comic book series.