Game Scoring by Nacho Gonzalez

Wrapping up the Spring semester at @berkleecollege Thank you to all these smart students for your questions and the chance to dig deeper into the fascinating world of non linear music. As Hugo Fattoruso once told me: "ponés un pie en la música y ponés un pie en el infinito". Special thanks to @anze.rozman and @bill_hemstapat for stopping by. In the summer I'll teach a section of 371 -help me spread the word with new students! - and I'll have some incredible guests soon to be announced. One of them is a serial entrepreneur, known for building some of the most successful teams in corporate America. Hint: everyday, you use products that he helped build. The other one is one of the busiest -and certainly one of my favorite- composers in Hollywood. Hint: fellow Logic user... @berkleescreenscoring @nachouy @scoringnacho

Excited to share that this summer I'll be teaching these classes at @berkleecollege Space is limited, so if you want to have a productive summer, register now! If you've friends who might be interested, feel free to share.

We just had an amazing chat with @bill_hemstapat from @riotgames who came to one of my classes at @berkleecollege There's a huge gap between the industry and the academia, but every now and then you find people like Bill who generously help build that bridge that is incredibly inspiring and necessary for emerging talent. Over 60 students wrote themes inspired on a brief from League of Legends, and 5 of them got the chance to receive feedback from Bill. As composers, sound designers, implementation people, how can we prepare for an actual audition? What are the things that people like Bill pay attention to? We all learned a lot. Congratulations @catzalan @elysiaxia @fosterkid_drums @yimo_jukui @jt_rhythmia Tan and special thanks to @alobassmann from @heavyocity for supporting this initiative! Here a few notes that I took from the session: 🎮 A great theme isn’t enough: if you mute the melody, the track should still feel distinctive. 🎮 Mockups matter—poor legato/programming steals attention from your actual writing. 🎮 Don’t “over-force” brass: loud samples turned down ≠ real forte; it reads unnatural. Btw, there's huge need in the market for quiet brass! 🎮 Recognizable libraries can date you—if everyone knows the loop (Damage, Splice, etc.), originality drops fast. 🎮 “Picking your snare is picking your genre.” One sound choice can define (or derail) the whole aesthetic. 🎮 Collaboration is a career skill: being “difficult” doesn’t scale in live service production—deadlines are real. 🎮 In this AI world we live in, your own humanity and point of view is crucial. Double down in humanity.

Very proud to announce the 5 winners of the @riotgames challenge at @berkleecollege with @bill_hemstapat 🔥Congratulations: @catzalan @elysiaxia @fosterkid_drums @jt_rhythmia and @yimo_jukui 🙏Special thanks to @heavyocity and @alobassmann for supporting this initiative. 🗓️Next week, students will have the chance to receive feedback from the one and only, Bill Hemstapat! We had over 60 submissions, and it was really hard to choose candidates. Thank you @ginazeez for helping me with this. 💪Congratulations to everyone who participated, and we hope this was an opportunity for you to grow and expand your production and composition chops. Live session is on Tuesday April 21st at 3pm EST. Send me a DM if you want to come.

Getting ready for the Riot Challenge with @bill_hemstapat at @berkleecollege and @berkleeonline if you want to join, send me a DM!

Ever hear game audio people say things like…. “Let’s implement this in Wwise” or “Use vertical remixing for this level”… …and you’re just like 👀 Well if you’re new to game audio then this is for you! In this video I break down 10 essential game audio terms every composer and sound designer should know — from DAWs and game engines to middleware and interactive music. 🎬 Watch the full video on my YouTube channel! ✨Link in Bio!! #gameaudio #gamecomposer #sounddesign #gamedev #videogamemusic

I'm incredibly excited to announce the Riot-Berklee challenge with @bill_hemstapat Students will have the chance to write to a brief and receive first hand feedback from one of the most influential leaders in the game audio community. On top of that, @heavyocity will give away a copy of Gravity 2 to the 4 winners. Deadline is on April 13th at 11:59 and live session with Bill is on April 21st at 3pm EST. DM me for more details about the brief and link to the live session. Thank you Bill for joining us! @riotgames @nachouy @berkleescreenscoring

Just had an amazing chat with @anze.rozman and here are the 10 things I learned. 🪈Composition is a muscle: Write every single day. 🪈Beat the blank page: Start with your "first bad idea" and refine from there. 🪈Know the "Real" sound: High-end libraries won’t save a track if you don't understand real orchestration. 🪈Kill your ego: You are a vessel for the director’s story, not your own. 🪈Humanity is your edge: AI can imitate, but it can’t yet replicate the nuanced emotional "weave" of human storytelling. 🪈Be proactive: Reach out to people you admire—but keep it personal and human. 🪈Find your "you": Lean into the instruments you play and the genres you love. 🪈Efficiency is key: Master your DAW and key commands to stay in the creative flow. 🪈Sound is story: Let the needs of the project dictate the instruments you build or choose. 🪈Listen deeply: To write for an orchestra, you have to know how it breathes in a live room. Thank you Anže and all the 60+ students who showed up. There's still a generation of young composers that want to learn and get better. That inspires me! #MediaScoring #Composition #MusicProduction #AnzeRozman #CareerAdvice #Creativity @berkleescreenscoring @berkleecollege @nachouy @berkleeonline

Very excited to welcome the incredible @anze.rozman to my class at @berkleecollege Anže is a four-time Emmy-nominated composer and a is schedule to compose, along with Hans Zimmer and Kara Talve, the upcoming HBO series Harry Potter. We'll talk about his journey, creating custom instruments, technology, orchestration, his workflow, and advice for emerging composers. It's going to be on Monday February 2nd at 3pm EST, if you want to attend, send me a DM. @bleedingfingersmusic @berkleescreenscoring @nachouy

Weeks ago, I was thrilled to be announced as one of the winners of Berklee’s Ubisoft Challenge 2025, which gave me the chance to present my music to @ubisoft ’s Music Supervisor and Grammy-nominated @simonlandryms 🏆 🎧 We had to create a track (pitch) in the style of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok 90% of this track is mockup, using sample libraries from some of the best companies: @cinesamples @waveletaudio @heavyocity 🎉 Thanks so much to my mentor @nachouy @scoringnacho for putting this together, and to my players and team: Bouzouki, oud, wind effects: @nathanielharder Guitars: @jackdurbano.music @juanschmulenson Video: @sebastienh9

Still thinking about my recent session with @simonlandryms at @berkleecollege and one concept in particular: Having a dialogue with the brief. We often rush to "crack" the brief, but Simon argued for slowing down to converse with it first. 🎮 Don’t just read it; interrogate it. 🎮 Don’t just accept the problem; redefine it. 🎮 Don’t just look for answers; look for the nuance. The quality of the output is usually defined by the quality of the questions we ask at the start. How do you approach a new brief? Do you dive right in, or do you chat with it first?

Just finished my 5th semester teaching at Berklee College of Music 5th semester at Berklee: ✅ 158 students from around the world: ✅ I am incredibly proud of the work produced this term. Some specific highlights include: 🎮 @skylar.hale03 : The most advanced Wwise Implementation 🎮 @loganmatuska : wonderful writing for the 471 Project 🎮 @care_does_music : Interactive Systems in Wwise and Unity Implementation 🎮 @catzalan : Ubisoft Submission 🎮 @mariiak.sound : Score & Implementation The big takeaway: In a world of AI, technical skills aren't enough. This semester, we talked about Ge Wang’s framework of the "Pi-shaped person" (π). Most education focuses on the two vertical legs: 🦵Disciplinary Expertise: (e.g., Composition/Music) 🦵Domain Expertise: (e.g., Interactive Scoring) But we often neglect the horizontal bar that connects them: The Aesthetic Lens. This represents your social, philosophical, and artistic context—the specific books you read, the culture you come from, and your personal taste. In the age of AI, this top bar is what gives meaning to your technical skills and separates you from the machine. Huge thanks to my special guests. spearssounds Paul Lipson @winifred_phillips @simonlandryms Bring on Spring 2026! @berkleecollege @berkleescreenscoring #GameScoring #Berklee #AudioImplementation #GeWang #Teaching