The reason why retro games have such iconic music themes is due to those old cartridges only having a small amount of space for music. Back in the days of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), we were forced to listen to one to a few short musical loops over and over as we played through games. Today, video games have the full-backing of composers and entire orchestras to create original soundtracks.

Video game music has now reached a point where I’m familiar with the music for games and series which I have never played. For instance, I have been listening to the music of Final Fantasy for years without ever playing any of these games. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago where I finally decided to play some of these games. I’m currently making my way through Final Fantasy VII Remake, before trying some Final Fantasy XV and later Final Fantasy XVI.

There are also tons of games that I have played and listen to the music frequently. I have dedicated playlists on Apple Music to certain game franchises, including Uncharted, the Ori games, and The Last of Us. One of my favorite game albums to listen to while writing or working is the music of Celeste by Lena Raine. The original soundtrack for Celeste is very synth heavy, which works great for the game.

Trevor Alan Gomes (@88bitmusic)

A couple of months ago, I came across the music of Trevor Alan Gomes. Trevor is a composer, pianist, arranger (and game designer) who has always been interesting in the music of his favorite video games. I first came across his Celeste piano collections, which I quickly added to my “writing and working music” repertoire. From there I checked out some other video game piano collections of his, including Chicory and a few Pokémon albums.

I reached out to Trevor to have him as a guest on the myVGBC Podcast to talk about his work and his love for video game music. I learned a bit about the working relationships he has had with different composers while arranging their music for piano. We talked about his piano training, which began at seven years old.

Talking to Trevor, I learned a bit about the process of arranging versus composing original music. Trevor streams weekly on his Twitch channel (@88bitmusic), where fans may request for him to play different video game music on the spot. His YouTube channel features original compositions, arrangements and “unique” content (like the video below).

You can watch my full interview with Trevor Alan Gomes right here:

Thanks again to Trevor Alan Gomes for sharing his time with me to talk about music and video games. I look forward to seeing more of his work (both musical and game development).

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You can learn more about Trevor Alan Gomes and his music here:
Trevor Alan Gomes PATREON
88bitmusic Twitch
Trevor Alan Gomes Instagram
Trevor Gomes YouTube
TrevorGomes.com