Sonic Branding in Video Game Companies

Published November 3, 2025

This video explores how video game companies use sound to build recognizable, flexible, and emotionally consistent brand identities. Through examples from PlayStation’s startup cues, the sonic language of survival horror, and Nintendo’s eclectic but unified musical style, it shows how sonic branding shapes player expectations, reinforces company aesthetics, and turns sound into a key part of how we experience games.

 

Correspondences between Sound and Gameplay Modality in Minigames Sonic Framing Functions

Published October 14, 2025

This presentation examines how sound and music frame minigames inside larger game worlds in titles like Super Mario Party, Nintendo Switch Sports, and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. By tracing silences, jingles, tempo changes, and shifts in timbre alongside changes in player control, it shows how “sonic frames” carve out little bubbles of play and shape how we experience time, agency, and transitions between overworld and minigame spaces.

 

Leittimbre and Film Noir in Grim Fandango

Published August 27, 2025

This video explores how Grim Fandango uses jazz saxophone and acoustic guitar as leittimbres to shape character identity and evoke the film-noir traditions the game draws from. By tracing how these instruments signal villainy, romance, and shifting power dynamics, it shows how Peter McConnell’s score weaves musical storytelling into Manny’s journey through the Land of the Dead.

 

The Voice as a Lure: Chanting Winged Dames and Musical Deception in Elden Ring

Published August 10, 2025

This video explores the Chanting Winged Dames of Elden Ring and how their haunting voices reshape the player’s understanding of danger, beauty, and betrayal. By combining mythology and ludomusicology, it shows how FromSoftware uses these singing creatures to twist sonic expectations and deepen the game’s themes of loss, deception, and embodied horror.

 

Harmonizing Art and Music: The Role of Aesthetics in Raphael’s Final Act

Published April 23, 2024

This video breaks down the dramatic final boss battle with Raphael in Baldur's Gate 3, showcasing how its gothic visuals and intense music reverse the usual tropes in role-playing games, enhancing the player's experience.

 

Enchanted Portals vs. Cuphead: Unveiling the Abyss Between Imitation and Authenticity

Published April 17, 2024

This video will show how Enchanted Portals' imitation of Cuphead's distinct 1930s animation style differs in significant ways that impact the player's overall enjoyment of each game.

 

Musical Representations of Journey in Celeste

Published January 31, 2024

This video looks at how Celeste uses musical metaphor to tell its story. By tracing recurring motives, soaring gestures, and modular loops that shift with player progress, it shows how Lena Raine’s soundtrack mirrors the game’s themes of struggle, repetition, and self-discovery, and how the music itself becomes part of Madeline’s journey up the mountain.

 

Analyzing Subversion in Undertale Through Soundscape

Published August 25, 2022

This video looks at how Undertale twists the usual retro-game formula. By tracing shifts in timbre, sound cues, and moments where the music aligns or clashes with what we expect, it shows how the game uses its soundtrack to unsettle the player and reinforce its themes of choice, agency, and breaking from tradition.

 

The use of progressive rock in donkey kong country

Published March 9, 2020

Curious about the use of progressive rock in Nintendo's Donkey Kong Country? This video explains some of the style elements, and how it contributes to our enjoyment of the game.

 

Ducktales: Tonomura vs. Kaufman's Version of "The Moon"

Published August 15, 2019

 

Communicating Morality and Humanity in War Games

Published March 31, 2019

Several recent games take a different approach to war, with plots that revolve around morality and consequence. This video will examine the music of three games that engage with moments of decision-making that dramatically influence the outcome of the game.

 
 

Using Music to Alter Time Perception in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Published March 30, 2019

This video will examine how tempo, complexity and tonality contribute to how fast time is perceived by the player in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Presented at the 2019 North American Conference on Video Game Music.

 

Variation and Expectation in the Title Theme of Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)

Published January 14, 2018

An analysis of Sonic the Hedgehog's (1991) Title theme, Continue theme, and Game Over theme. Presented at the North American Conference on Video Games, January 14th, 2018. https://vgmconference.weebly.com/