Mark Benis

Mark Benis

@markbenis.bsky.social

game dev + composer 💀 AiliA, Wishfarers, Rosewater, Lamplight City, Once Upon a Jester, Everybody Wham Wham linktr.ee/markbenis

173 followers110 following94 posts

Can’t wait for people to hear what we’ve been up to! The musicians were absolutely incredible

Francisco González@grundislav.games

Yesterday I had the absolute pleasure of remotely listening in on the first recording session for #ProjectLion, as @markbenis.bsky.social directed musicians in a studio in Brazil. I think both composer @petegresser.bsky.social and I were on the brink of tears of joy hearing the tunes come to life.

Happy launch day to Nighthawks! Had a blast working with @wadjeteyegames.com to edit through tons of VO recordings for this. The writing is stellar and yet the voice actors absolutely take it next level. If you like vampires, a good story and some killer music from Thomas Regin def check it out!

Music from games like Elden Ring and Dark Souls with their intricate orchestration, huge sound, surprisingly delicate moments... that's me. Getting to explore that style would be a total dream project. If you're a dev looking for a dark, epic soundtrack -- let's chat!

There's an Elden Ring fan game for the Game Boy?! Shoutout to the dev shin for making it, I love pixel art/chiptune aesthetics mixed with recent games and you can tell a lot of heart went into it!

AiliA is out! 🪞 So grateful to Jingyu Sui, Andy Lin, Isaac Pérez Riera and Zac Zinger for their incredible musicianship on display in this soundtrack. AiliA is available on Steam and you can find the soundtrack on your usual suspects + Bandcamp! Links in bio 🪞

Super excited to share that @clarkaboud.bsky.social and I are writing music for Wishfarers 💫 Easy to be inspired by what @squiddershins.bsky.social is making and what a perfect game for us to join forces on! Lots more synths/8-bit + guitar on the way

Squiddershins@squiddershins.bsky.social

NEW GAME REVEAL - Wishfarers! ⭐ Play explosive RPG battles with destructible environments and streamlined platformer movement. ⭐ Customize characters with 7 classes, over 100 abilities, and many magical socks. ⭐ Explore a whimsical world of falling stars and lost wishes.

Had such a great time chatting with Josh! Covered so many fun topics that we got to really dig into, keep an eye out for part 2

Josh Bycer@gwbycer.bsky.social

For this week's podcast chat, I spoke with @markbenis.bsky.social about composing music for games, and the best ways for designers to get the most out of hiring a composer for their games and part 2 will be going up in a few days youtu.be/mfK7TopKdhQ #indiegamedev

If you're a fan of adventure games Rosewater should def be on your list! Had the pleasure writing my own take on a Western soundtrack and the world-building here is some of the finest out there

Francisco González@grundislav.games

Rosewater, my Wild West adventure game, has been out nearly 4 months and has been very well-received! But I also feel like it’s reached a fraction of its potential audience. If you can spare a repost and help spread the word, it would be greatly appreciated! www.grundislav.games/Rosewater.html

As part of writing an original theme song for Jeff the Land Shark, I also wrote some music for my favorite Jeff comic: Jeff the Magnanimous! (music ideas w/ comic panels below)

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I hear so much potential with his main theme and unique C major + F# major harmony so this is just one example of what could be done with it! And in case you didn't catch my main theme for Jeff 🦈⬇️ bsky.app/profile/did:...

Mark Benis@markbenis.bsky.social

I wrote a theme song for Jeff the Land Shark 🦈 This is what happens when a musician plays a bit too much Jeff in Marvel Rivals

As part of writing an original theme song for Jeff the Land Shark, I also wrote some music for my favorite Jeff comic: Jeff the Magnanimous! (music ideas w/ comic panels below)

I tried to really bring out some moments like giving the cat their own theme when they appear and digging into Jeff's MRRRRRR!!!! But I also took some creative liberties like giving Jeff a little tummy rumble in the beginning

With Jeff being surprised to see the cat I had his "walking" theme interrupted by the cat's theme. And with the appearance of the kittens I gave each one a little gesture on solo strings 🐈🐈🐈 Finally it ends with Jeff's main theme over cat theme's harmony and an "It's Jeff!" slide down on brass

Across the Frontier was one of my favorite pieces to write for Rosewater by @grundislav.games, here notated out! Kept most of the parts pretty simple to let everything breathe + play off each other, and Zac Zinger absolutely ran with it to make that shakuhachi part sound SO smooth.

Little snippet from our choir session yesterday! Amazing to be reunited with Angel Mannion for some good ole recording -- we did Down Among the Dead Men together from Lamplight City back in the day with engineer Chris Hobson and some singers even returning (!)

Always a blessing to have live musicians on my music. Def won't get old with players like these! Shoutout to the singers: Jasper Sussman, Lauren Carter, Katie Hickey, Julia Cordani, Sarah-Nicole Carter, Evangelina Woo, Rich Dawes, Sam Buse, John Yokoyama, Martin Green, Paul Young Jr., Michael Sokol

No I'm not obsessed with Blue Prince how could you possibly draw that conclusion from my 8 spreadsheets, 20+ pages of handwritten notes and organized screenshots folder categorized by room, puzzle type and book name

Freshly recorded main theme for AiliA! Featuring Andy Lin on erhu, Isaac Pérez Riera on violin, and Zac Zinger on xiao + flute 🎶 Learning about Chinese instruments and writing for them has been a blast and finally hearing these parts live is really something else. More info on release soon!

It’s amazing how chance encounters can end up changing your life. If only I knew how important that day would end up being!

Francisco González@grundislav.games

I met @markbenis.bsky.social at a local NYC meetup and casually mentioned I was looking for a composer for my game, and now we’ve done 2 games together, with hopefully many more to come in the future. You never know when collaboration opportunities will appear!

Had such a great time chatting with James!! Talking about everything from console sound chips and composer limitations leading to creativity to lots of details on how my collaboration with Francisco Gonzalez and my score to Rosewater came to be 🎶

James - PixelRefresh.com@james.pixelrefresh.com

Game Music Composition Interview with Rosewater’s Mark Benis – Game & Gadget Podcast #40 I interview @markbenis.bsky.social music composer of Rosewater, a point and click adventure game set in the wild west and released in 2024. www.pixelrefresh.com/game-music-c...

Hearing about YT copyright claims and twitch videos getting muted because of Rosewater’s music. My stance has been and always will be that YouTube videos of let’s plays, stream recordings, press coverage and the like + streams are free to use my music. (1/2)

Music copyright is a complex beast and I’m working to resolve this with my music distributor. For YouTube videos of the above please get in touch with me directly and I can release those claims. Appreciate your patience! (2/2)

Now that Rosewater is out in the wild, boy do I have a lot to share about producing the score! From recording with stellar musicians to crafting a unique sound palette for the West -- I'd love to chat through it all in an interview :] Just putting this out into the world! 🎶