Jeff van Dyck

Last updated
Jeff van Dyck
Genres Video game music, rock
Occupation(s)Composer
Years active1992–present
Website jeffvandyck.com

Jeff van Dyck, known as simply Jeff Dyck in his early years, is a Canadian-Australian video game composer. Born and raised in Vancouver, van Dyck started to become known in the video game music industry in 1992, when he was working with Electronic Arts (EA) for several sports game franchises, such as the Need for Speed series, together with Saki Kaskas. After his stint with EA, van Dyck moved to Australia and became the composer for the Total War franchise by Creative Assembly. During his collaboration with the video game developer, van Dyck won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award (2001) and garnered a nomination (2005). As composer and audio director Total War: Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai , he was nominated for the "Audio Achievement" section of the Develop awards in May 2012. In 2014 again as audio director, his team won a BAFTA for Alien: Isolation . Van Dyck is a partner in the Brisbane based indie developers Witch Beam ( Assault Android Cactus , Unpacking [1] ) and EarthWork Games ( Forts ).

Contents

Works

Awards

Related Research Articles

The BAFTA Games Awards or British Academy Games Awards are an annual British awards ceremony honouring "outstanding creative achievement" in the video game industry. First presented in 2004 following the restructuring of the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards, the awards are presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).

<i>Total War</i> (video game series) Computer strategy game series

Total War is a series of strategy games developed by British developer Creative Assembly for personal computers. They combine turn-based strategy and resource management with real-time tactical control of battles. Rather uniquely for real-time strategy games, flanking manoeuvers and formations factor heavily into gameplay. The first of the series, Shogun: Total War, was released in June 2000. The most recent major game released was Total War: Pharaoh on October 11, 2023. As of April 2021, the series had sold over 36 million copies.

<i>Shogun: Total War</i> 2000 video game

Shogun: Total War is a turn-based strategy and real-time tactics video game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows personal computers. Released in June 2000, the game became the debut title in The Creative Assembly's Total War series. Set in Japan during Sengoku jidai—the "Warring States" period from the 15th to the beginning of the 17th century—the game has players adopt the leader of a contemporary Japanese clan, attempt to conquer the nation and claim the position of shōgun. The turn-based aspect of the game focuses on a map of Japan where military force, religion, diplomacy, espionage and economics all influence the player's actions, whilst battles are fought in a 3D real-time mode.

<i>Medieval: Total War</i> 2002 video game

Medieval: Total War is a turn-based strategy and real-time tactics computer game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Activision. Set in the Middle Ages, it is the second game in the Total War series, following on from the 2000 title Shogun: Total War. Originally announced in August 2001, the game was released in North America on 19 August 2002 and in Europe on 30 August for Microsoft Windows.

<i>Rome: Total War</i> 2004 video game

Rome: Total War is a strategy video game developed by The Creative Assembly and originally published by Activision; its publishing rights have since passed to Sega. The game was released for Microsoft Windows in 2004. The macOS version was released on February 5, 2010, by Feral Interactive, who also released the iPad version on November 10, 2016, the iPhone version on August 23, 2018, and the Android version on December 19, 2018. The game is the third title in The Creative Assembly's Total War series, following Shogun: Total War, and Medieval: Total War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Hannigan</span> British composer

James Hannigan is a BAFTA Award winning composer, sound designer, producer, and conference founder. His composing credits include the bestselling, full-cast audio adaptations of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman; entries in the Harry Potter, Command & Conquer, Dead Space, Warhammer, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, RuneScape, Evil Genius, EA Sports and Theme Park video game series; Discworld, the Audie Award winning Alien dramas directed by Dirk Maggs (2016–2019), Unseen Academicals, BBC Radio 4's adaptations of Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens, Neverwhere, and more. His music has been heard in numerous television shows, such as the BBC's Top Gear, Amazon's The Grand Tour, Disney's The World According to Jeff Goldblum, BBC America's Primeval, and his other credits include Freelancer, Privateer 2: The Darkening, Space Hulk and other games, television shows, commercials and installations.

The Creative Assembly Limited is a British video game developer based in Horsham, founded in 1987 by Tim Ansell. In its early years, the company worked on porting games to MS-DOS from Amiga and ZX Spectrum platforms, later working with Electronic Arts to produce a variety of games under the EA Sports brand. In 1999, the company had sufficient resources to attempt a new and original project, proceeding to develop the strategy computer game Shogun: Total War which was a critical and commercial hit, and is regarded as a benchmark strategy game. Subsequent titles in the Total War series built on the success of Shogun: Total War, increasing the company's critical and commercial success.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy Soule</span> American composer

Jeremy Soule is an American composer of soundtracks for film, television, and video games. He has composed soundtracks for over 60 games and over a dozen other works during his career, including The Elder Scrolls, Guild Wars, Icewind Dale, and the Harry Potter series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rod Abernethy</span> Guitarist, songwriter, and composer

Rod Abernethy is a performing songwriter, guitarist, and composer. His music has been used as scores for EA, Midway, Vivendi, Universal, Sony, Ubisoft, Bethesda, Paramount, Disney, THQ, Activision, Konami, Majesco Entertainment, NC Soft, Namco and Nintendo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael McCann (composer)</span> Canadian composer (born 1976)

Michael Anthony McCann is a Canadian composer for television, video games and film. He is best known for composing the scores to the video games Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Borderlands 3.

<i>Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3</i> 2008 video game

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 is a real-time strategy video game developed by EA Los Angeles and published by Electronic Arts. It was released in October 2008 in the United States and Europe for Microsoft Windows. An Xbox 360 version was released on November 11. In addition, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Ultimate Edition, the PlayStation 3 version which contains additional material was released on March 23, 2009, along with the OS X version by TransGaming. The game is a continuation of the Red Alert games within the Command & Conquer series. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Uprising, a stand-alone expansion pack, was released for Microsoft Windows in March 2009. It was offered via digital distribution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winifred Phillips</span> American music composer and author

Winifred Phillips is an American music composer and author. Her music composition credits include God of War, Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, and the LittleBigPlanet series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winnie Waldron</span> Musical artist

Winnie Waldron is an American music producer for video games, a producer for radio, a radio script editor / adapter, a manuscript editor and a radio host.

<i>Total War: Shogun 2</i> 2011 video game

Total War: Shogun 2 is a strategy video game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega in 2011. It is the seventh mainline entry in the Total War series and returns to the setting of the first Total War game, Shogun: Total War, after a series of games set mainly in Europe and the Middle East.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austin Wintory</span> American film and video games composer (born 1984)

Austin Wintory is an American composer for film and video games. He is known for scoring the video games Flow and Journey, the latter of which made history as the only video game soundtrack to be nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.

<i>Total War: Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai</i> 2012 video game

Total War: Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai is a standalone expansion to the strategy video game Total War: Shogun 2, released on 23 March 2012. Taking place 300 years after the events of the base game, Fall of the Samurai is set in mid-19th century Japan during the Bakumatsu and the Boshin War, which pits supporters of the ruling Tokugawa Shogunate against supporters of the Emperor, who wish to overthrow the Shogunate. The time period coincides with arrival of the Western powers, which forced Japan to modernize and eventually abolish its traditional samurai-based society and adopt modern technologies. The players takes on the management of one of the many domains on either side of the conflict and must help their side win the Boshin War.

Theodosius Kaskamanidis, better known as Saki Kaskas or "Captain Ginger", was a Greek-Canadian video game music composer, best known for his soundtracks in the Need for Speed series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoff Knorr</span> Musical artist

Geoff Knorr is an American composer, orchestrator, and sound designer. He has worked on video game titles such as Civilization V, Civilization: Beyond Earth, Civilization VI, Galactic Civilizations III, and Ashes of the Singularity.

Gordy Haab is an American film, video game and television composer based in Los Angeles, California. His work has been featured in works associated with franchises including Star Wars Battlefront II, for which he won Video Game Score of the Year from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Haab is also known for his work on Microsoft's Halo Wars 2, for which he was nominated for a 2017 HMMA award. His score for Electronic Arts' Star Wars: Battlefront, won three awards at the 2016 GDC G.A.N.G. Awards: Music of the Year, Best Interactive Score, and Best Instrumental Score. Haab was also nominated for a BAFTA Games Awards for his work on Star Wars: Battlefront.

The D.I.C.E. Award for Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year is an award presented annually by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences during the D.I.C.E. Awards. This award recognizes games "in which user directs or manipulates resources to create a set of conditions that result in success as determined within the confines of the game. These games can offer the user the chance to simulate or to virtually reproduce an experience, real or imaginary, which would require some form of equipment. Strategy games emphasize the planning of tactics rather than the execution". All active creative/technical, business, and affiliate members of the Academy are qualified to vote for this category. Originally, there were separate awards for strategy games and simulation games, which simulate aspects of the real world.

References

  1. 1 2 Notis, Ari (4 November 2021). "Puzzle Game Unpacking Has 14,000 Sound Files For Ordinary Stuff". Kotaku . Retrieved 8 January 2022.
  2. "Interactive - Music in 2001". BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards . British Academy of Film and Television Arts . Retrieved 6 Nov 2016.
  3. "Games - Original Music in 2005". British Academy Games Awards . British Academy of Film and Television Arts . Retrieved 4 May 2016.