We’re joined today by another amazing and prolific guest; composer Jeff van Dyck. Instead of focusing on a specific game we take a tour through Jeff’s entire career from Skitchin’ all the way to recent games like Unpacking. Jeff began his career in 1992 with EA (Electronic Arts), working on games like the FIFA, NHL series, and Need for Speed 1 & 2. He went on to do music for many of the major games in the Total War series, starting with the original Shogun: Total War, and continuing with the Medieval and Rome Total War games. In recent years, Jeff has written music for a number of indie titles like Assault Android Cactus, Hand of Fate 1 & 2, Submerged, Forts, Paint the Town Red and Unpacking.
In this interview we talk about a great many things; working in a constantly shifting industry, evolving as a composer, writing music for AAA games as well as indies, a bit of light hardware discussion, and just life in general over the last three decades. 2022 marks 30 years for Jeff in the games industry, a landmark achievement for anyone, and he’s still going strong. We crammed in as much music as we possibly could, and we hope you enjoy listening to some lovely selections of music that Jeff has written over the course of his career.
Episode Track List:
All music composed by Jeff van Dyck unless otherwise stated
- 0:00:04 “Title Screen” Skitchin’ (1993 – Gen)
- 0:04:18 “Smells Like Tuna” bedding
- 0:07:20 “Silken Liver Slipper” bedding
- 0:10:32 “Song 1” Fifa 95 (1994 – Gen)
- 0:16:00 “Song 3” bedding
- 0:18:24 “Aaeeyaaeeyaa” The Need for Speed (1996 – PS1/SAT)
- Vocals by Angela van Dyck
- 0:24:20 “Gore” Need for Speed II (1997 – PS1)
- with Saki Kaskas
- 0:36:48 “Pi Pa Village” Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom (2002 – WIN)
- 0:46:15 “Mobilize 3” Shogun: Total War (2000 – WIN)
- 0:50:50 “Melee Cafe” Rome: Total War (2004 – WIN)
- 0:57:06 “Divinitus” Rome: Total War (2004 – WIN)
- Vocals by Angela van Dyck
- Guitar and mandolin by Saki Kaskas
- 1:00:43 “Forever” bedding
- Vocals by Angela van Dyck
- 1:02:45 “Cactus” Assault Android Cactus (2013 – Various)
- 1:10:40 “The Beginning” Hand of Fate 2 (2017 – Various)
- Vocals by Angela van Dyck
- 1:20:06 “Infatuation” Unpacking (2021 – Various)
- 1:27:58 “I Like Water” excerpt
- 1:30:14 “Lost and Found” bedding
- 1:36:07 “Hog Wild” Paint the Town Red (2021 – Various)
[Correction: When discussing the song Forever, Jeff said Russian soldiers, but meant Roman soldiers]
Other links:
- Jeff van Dyck
- Bandcamp – purchase many of Jeff’s wonderful albums!
- YouTube – listen to a selection of Jeff’s music
- Unpacking: The Fun Behind the Foley – Talk at GDC
Recently released and upcoming games mentioned
- TemPoPo by Witch Beam
- Forts – High Seas – with music by Ella van Dyck
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:40:18 — 189.0MB)