Pete Frogs

Here is my composer highlight reel, updated to include the recent projects I’ve worked on! If you’d like to work with me, send me an email at contact [at] petefrogs.com or a DM on Instagram, with a few words about the project you’re working on, and I’ll take it from there! For more examples of my work and testimonials, head over to my website:

I made a video to break down my process as a game composer - here's a behind the scenes look into how I created the first level theme for Turbo Shell, by @radioactvdreams , from initial demo to final master: #gameaudio #gamecomposer #gameost #vgm #composer

Sora & Chill is a full-length tribute to the music of Kingdom Hearts from video game music composer and multi-instrumentalist @petefrogs 🎵 Stream & Support ▸ http://vgm.fm/sorachill #KingdomHearts #VideoGameMusic #ChillMusic #StudyMusic #InstrumentalMusic VGMMusic GameMusic RelaxingMusic

Face My Fears by @petefrogs is a smooth, melodic reinterpretation of the Kingdom Hearts theme, blending expressive piano, unique percussion, and driving guitar into a relaxed, immersive groove. The track moves with clarity and intention; carrying the listener forward with a steady rhythm while letting the melody remain front and center. It’s an easy, focused listen; ideal for studying, reading, or settling into a calm headspace. #KingdomHearts #VideoGameMusic #ChillMusic #StudyMusic #InstrumentalMusic VGMMusic GameMusic RelaxingMusic

Here's a solo piano piece I wrote recently. I was going for something playful and cute, thinking of little animals going about their lives and maybe making a little mischief. I played a lot with the contrast between legato and staccato to create the impression of an erratic, playful rhythm, full of little steps and hops, as well as contrast between the high and low registers to evoke all the different noises animals of different sizes can make. In terms of harmony, I took a lot of inspiration from Debussy and I assume it's quite obvious that I'm a big fan of his! #composer #gameaudio #gamemusic #gamecomposer #piano #impressionism #cutemusically

We often say that exploration music can "give life" to a game location – but what about making it sound unique? I recently wrote a track called "Moon Lake" as an exercise in creating music for a very specific type of location: a mystical, ancient forest constantly under the moonlight. Here are some of the design choices behind it: - Heavy use of delays to create space: This is nothing new: back in the SNES era, Yasunori Mitsuda created incredible atmospheric tracks for Chrono Trigger thanks in part to the console's built-in delay. In this track, I'm also using techniques borrowed from dub techno; not an obvious pairing, but the focus on using delays to create atmosphere makes it work. - Non-functional harmony to create a sense of timelessness: The chords don't lead one into another in a way that's obvious or expected – instead of going from a place to another, the piece feels more akin to floating or drifting. That said, I did not take this to the extreme, as I still wanted the piece to have clear sections and loops. - Interesting timbres to create uniqueness: Glitchy, electronic percussion paired with acoustic, organic-sounding elements; female lyrical vocals paired with cellos and violins. I took the piece in more of a lyrical direction for its final section, which works as a standalone piece of music, but if it were to be used in a game, I would probably look into making it adaptive in middleware, or splitting it into two separate cues. #composer #gameaudio #gamemusic #ableton #gamecomposer

In my last reel, I showed you how I made adaptive music for a jam game I worked on by creating four different variations of the same composition. In this reel, I show you how to implement adaptive music tracks into a functional adaptive music system using FMOD, using the four tracks in question as an example. The system we had in place for the game jam was made directly in Unity and was very simple, so I seized the occasion to revisit it and improve upon it after the fact! #composer #gameaudio #adaptivemusic #gamemusic #gamejam#gamecomposer #FMOD #sounddesign

Adaptive music sounds very cool, yes, but how do you make sure it doesn't lead to total musical chaos? I created a video to showcase an adaptive music system I created for a jam game called Boogeymouse – in detail, we'll go into: - how to plan an adaptive music system ahead of creating the music - how to create music tracks that sound different while working well together The full video (available on my YouTube channel) is quite long, this reel is the middle of the video. In the next reel we'll look at how you can integrate this music system into FMOD! #composer #gameaudio #adaptivemusic #gamemusic #gamejam #LogicPro #gamecomposer

I took my heavy cyberpunk music track I shared last week, "Straylight Menace", and turned it into a dynamic music system in Fmod to accompany a two-phase boss fight, with cutscenes before, during, and after the boss fight, similar to what you might encounter in modern RPG games, such as Clair Obscur or FF7 Remake. Commentary about how that system works in Fmod is included as subtitles in the video below. A key aspect of making sure this kind of system works is having audio tails and lead-ins for most of the music segments to smooth out the transitions from one to another. Looking back at the system now, here's what I'd change: ‣ There doesn't need to be that many audio tracks in Fmod, two or three would probably be enough - I did it this way out of habit from working in DAWs, where I prefer to have each audio source on its own track in case I want to process them later. ‣ The parameters that control the music sequence can be simplified and grouped - instead of having separate parameters for the different cutscenes and boss phases, they can be grouped into one parameter with "Cutscene Start / Cutscene End / Phase 2 Cutscene Start", etc. #gameaudio #fmod #gamemusic #gamedev #cyberpunk #gamecomposer #musiccomposer

Exactly two years ago today, I released this little album/EP called Free Hugs: I wanted to make something that sounded very warm and comforting, but also a little moody and nostalgic. Lots of piano, guitar and synths on this one, as well as some chill hip-hop beats, but the parts I had the most fun working on were the little chiptune bits that I sprinkled here and there in most of the tracks! #composer #musiccomposer #musicproduction #musicmonday #musicproducers #lofiandchill #chiptune #gamecomposer

October 2011: Drive by Nicolas Refn is released. October 2012: Hotline Miami is released. What’s the connection, you ask? These two works are what put the “synthwave” music genre on the map for me. And I’m definitely not the only one! Fast forward to 2017, and I released my first synthwave album. It was the first time I had released a solo album and synthwave was the first electronic music style I learned. I’ve always gravitated toward the harder, darker edge of synthwave, which is sometimes called “darksynth”, but recently with my video game music works, I’ve enjoyed leaning into the brighter, softer side of the genre—a little less “cyberpunk dystopia” and a little more “space exploration”. The OST I wrote for Turbo Shell was the perfect opportunity for that, as were my synthwave mixes of Chrono Trigger. This one here’s a synthwave flip of the game’s main theme. The OG sounded epic and triumphant, taking advantage of the SNES sampling capabilities to conjure up the sound of a full orchestra. My remix is a bit more subdued and mysterious, but when that main melody kicks in, it still sounds like a call to adventure. # #composer #musiccomposer #synthwave #synthwavemusic #chronotrigger #vgm #vgmremix #musicproduction #musicproducers #chillwave

Throwback to the first game I wrote an OST for: Turbo Shell by Radioactive Dreams! I was approached by the devs of this cute little game thanks to a friend who was working with them as a sound designer and recommended me. It’s a really challenging but also very rewarding precision platformer. You play as an egg and what makes the game stand out is that instead of the usual running and jumping, you push and pull yourself off of nearby surfaces. The devs already had a very clear idea of what kind of music they wanted for the game and were very easy to talk to. That made it really easy for me to do my job, and working on this project was a pleasure—looking back, I feel grateful that it was the first OST I worked on! This here is the release trailer for the game, featuring custom music specifically for this trailer—an upbeat, driving synthwave tune titled “Ready to Hatch”! #vgm #musicproducers #turboshell #gameaudio #gamecomposer #videogamecomposer #ost #composer #synthwave #synthwavemusic