The Media School

Soundtrack student wins Composer's Challege

30 March 2010

MA Soundtrack student Joe Thwaites has won a major competition held during the recent Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Joe, who is co-founder of his own post-production audio company Freak Audio, became the Composer’s Challenge Champion after designing a soundtrack for an imaginary iPhone game. The game was based on Pac-Man where players would play ‘real-life’ Pac-Man using GPS to chase each other around New York.

Taking inspiration from Big Band music and like-minded tunes from The Incredibles soundtrack, Joe won the audience vote for his approach to the challenge and his final composition.

In addition to taking part in the challenge, Joe travelled to speak at the Conference about the music design process in games, focusing on how to compose ‘on your feet’ whilst addressing important game design issues.

“Joe’s achievement is a credit to him and to his tutors,” said BU Professor of Post Production, Stephen Deutsch. “He is a student who, after completing his Foundation Degree came onto our BA Soundtrack (Top-up) and received a well earned 1st. Subsequently, he has joined our MA in Soundtrack Production where his collaborative work, especially for students in the National Centre for Computer Animation, has been warmly appreciated.

“Joe is evidence of how students coming from a non-traditional route to higher education can thrive within this demanding environment,” Professor Deutsch concluded.

The Game Developers Conference is the world’s largest professionals-only game industry event, attracting over 17,000 international attendees each year. The Conference is the primary forum where programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision-makers and others involved in the development of interactive games gather to exchange ideas and shape the future of the industry.