Exclusive: Winifred Phillips Discusses Creating the Perfect Soundtrack For Digital Eclipse's Return To Wizardry
Return To Wizardry
In case you missed the news last week, Digital Eclipse, those retro masterminds behind a number of today's best gaming compilations, worked their magic on a remake of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. As expected, it's great, but there was a nice bonus on the audio side with its music.
That's because composer Winifred Phillips produced it. She's worked on a number of great games in the past, including favorites like God of War, Assassin's Creed III: Liberation and the LittleBigPlanet series, among countless others.
So what goes into composing a soundtrack for a game such as this? Luckily, Winifred took the time to sit down and talk to us about it, as well as working with the folks at Digital Eclipse. Sit back and enjoy!
How did you get involved with Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord?
Over a year ago, Digital Eclipse reached out to me to discuss music needs for a project they were working on: the full 3D remake of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. I'd heard of the Wizardry franchise, and I understood the importance of Wizardry to the history of roleplaying video games, dungeon-crawlers in general, and all games based on TTRPG.
The original Wizardry was developed for Apple II by two Cornell University students in the 1980s, and it went on to become a truly foundational game in the history of gaming - paving the way for all RPGs that followed, and heavily influencing game franchises like Baldur's Gate, Dragon Quest, and Final Fantasy. When Digital Eclipse asked me to compose the music for their remake of the very first Wizardry game, I was really excited!
What was it like working with the wizards (see what I did there?!) at Digital Eclipse?
It was amazing - the Digital Eclipse developers really are wizards! Digital Eclipse has a history of developing lovingly-crafted remakes of important games from the history of video gaming, and their dedication and passion really shine through. They want gamers to fully experience the heart and soul of the original games, even as they introduce updates that make the games more accessible for modern audiences.
Playing one of these Digital Eclipse games is like taking a trip through time. Digital Eclipse allows modern gamers to play and appreciate the brilliance of early games, recognizing and celebrating what makes them important to the history of gaming.
At the same time, when developing a remake like Wizardry, Digital Eclipse is essentially recreating the magic of exploring the dungeon - the emotional awe and excitement that gamers in the 80s would have experienced - by updating the aesthetics and the interface so that they're satisfying to modern players. It was such an honor working with the team at Digital Eclipse!
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