When we brought you on and said we want you to consider working on Squadron, what are the first things you do? For a movie, do you start with a script?
TL;DRZanelli starts from story outlines, characters and plot points, aiming for memorable themes that follow particular characters and the game itself, as heard in the vertical slice.
Well, I might. Yes. Sometimes if the movie gets the script, other times they will send you the movie and you watch it. In the case of Outlander, they had already shot it, so I did watch it. In the case of Star Citizen, obviously the game wasn't done. So they talked about story outline, what are the main characters, main plot points, and those would be the starting points for a composer. So the goal for me is to have memorable themes that track certain characters through the game. Like if you watch the vertical slice, you see Old Man and he has a piece of music that goes when he launches and there's an intro sequence that plays. His music, and the squadron itself, or really the game itself, has a theme of its own as well, which people are starting to recognize. It's in the Bishop Speech from a while ago, and it comes in varying forms throughout the vertical slice as well.