Let's take a break from composing and let's look at things which inspire us (us, meaning me)! Today I am going to go back and look at some of my favorite and most inspiring video game soundtracks. We'll start with an artist I KNOW you've never heard of.

His name is Stéphane Picq. He was a composer for the now-defunct gaming companies Exxos and Cryo. In between those two companies, he scored soundtracks for various Amiga and DOS PC games of different genres. The genres range from puzzle games, to racing games, all the way to point and click adventures. He has a certain style of taking simple, strong melodies and making them into engaging, complex, and fleshed-out tracks. He has some truly great work out there and it's a shame that most folks haven't heard of it.

This one in particular starts with a simple melody that sort of draws you into the universe the song was made for, then the song gets more pensive and complex, provoking you to reflect on the universe of which you have just been drawn into.

Disclaimer: Here's a youtube video of one of his songs. This particular version (In game version and NOT the Spice Opera version) of the song has never been released for sale and the company that made the game (Cryo) is no longer in business. I believe the assets were transferred to another company, but the in-game versions of the soundtracks were never released for sale. Another in-game version of the song is to follow.

Here is another one which starts off with a simple melody, but this one sounds more optimistic than the previous one. It sounds almost celebratory in its tone.

Despite what the link says, that is actually the PC DOS version of the game music. The Amiga version is also quite good, but in a different fashion:

That is all for now. This is only a sample of Picq's work and if you want more, you should really look him up. Trust me, you won't regret it.