Hi it me Zach and I love doin kickflips. Game Music is a huge part of my life and being able to create and share my favorite aspects about it fills me with joy. My goal as a composer is to write songs that focus on deep, listener immersion via means of musical storytelling techniques and genre & atmosphere specific orchestration. Genres that I love and specialize in are: Fantasy, Chiptune, Metal, Quirky, Ambient, and Battle. These all really get my creative juices goin’! Additionally, I’d love to further this goal by learning more about how to implement vertical orchestration techniques into adaptive game audio systems, to add an extra immersive layer to my compositions. I’m entranced by the way that game music can convey specific emotions & atmospheres to really immerse players and transport them into the game’s universe. In my composer journey, I’ve been incredibly passionate about learning how to create a wide variety of soundscapes to fit expansive and diverse worlds. Being able to compose music that allows players to travel between calming forests, dreadful deserts, bustling cityscapes, frozen tundras, spooky graveyards, etc, while still feeling immersed in the same world, is a skill that I’m proud I’m continuing to hone. This makes games much more enjoyable when they’re able to provide that experience. Connecting players to the game’s narrative with musical storytelling via the use of motifs, leitmotifs, call & response, repetition, and musical modes to convey emotion, is something that drives me. When a game state is intense, it’s gotta feel stressful or epic. When you’re out exploring the unknown, it’s gotta feel mysterious and fill you with anticipation and a sense of wonder or even fear/unease. Did the devs just kill off an important character that every player has come to know and love, just to further the plot? Bro you KNOW that character’s motif is makin’ a return and it’s gonna make you bawl your eyes out. Games that have been incredibly influential in my studies around player immersion, having diverse worlds, musical storytelling, and overall having absolute banger soundtracks include: “Hollow Knight”, “Final Fantasy X/XII”, “Mario Odyssey”, “Ori and the Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps”, “Shovel Knight”, “Kingdom Hearts”, “Pizza Tower”, the “Fire Emblem” series, “A Short Hike”, “Owlboy”, “Death’s Door”, the “Pokemon” series, “Cuphead”, the “Sonic the Hedgehog” series, and “20XX”. In addition to game soundtracks, alternative media that provide immersive and extended storytelling experiences, have made a huge mark on my style. These include: “Inferi”, “Gorillaz”, “The Atlantis Chronicles”, “Star Wars”, Gustav Holst’s “The Planets”, “Ovid’s Withering”, “Fleshgod Apocalypse”, “Lord of the Rings”, “Encanto”, “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, and “Harry Potter”.