A Conversation with the Riot Games Music Team

Worldwide game phenomenon League of Legends is now entering its tenth year of existence. The League universe comprises some 140 characters hailing from 10 factions spread across Runeterra. League of Legends is updated every two weeks with new characters, new skins, storytelling pieces, and cinematics, providing a unique opportunity for music to support new content in an ever-expanding IP.

Through the creation and support of an in-house music team, Riot Games recognizes the value of music in deepening character affinity, understanding of the world of Runeterra, the expression of alternate fantasies in the game, as well strengthening the bonds between League players and the greater League community and eSports.

This panel features members of the Riot music team and other creatives working on League of Legends. The Rioters discuss their craft and creative process spanning a wide variety of projects and styles of music, and how music and its creators thrive in a dynamic, highly collaborative environment.

ABOUT KOLE HICKS

Kole Hicks is a Composer on the music team at Riot Games and writes music for League of Legend’s cinematics, champions, & events. Prior to his current position he worked at the VR game studio First Contact Entertainment, contracted at other studios like Obsidian Entertainment, and has created both music and sound for a variety of indie titles (Kenshi, Pixel Piracy, etc.). Over his decade long journey through the game industry, Kole has been a passionate proponent of game audio; speaking at numerous conferences, writing articles, and serving on the G.A.N.G. Advisory board.

ABOUT JASON WILLEY

Jason Willey is a Los Angeles based composer/guitarist and Berklee College of Music graduate currently working as a composer and sound designer for Riot Games. His music, sound design and guitar work can be heard in many games including Guitar Hero, Transformers – War For Cybertron, James Bond – Quantum of Solace, Marvel Ultimate Alliance and League of Legends. Jason is the lead guitarist for the band Pentakill and records Instrumental Space Metal under the name ProtoShredanoid.

ABOUT SEBASTIEN NAJAND

Sebastien Najand is a senior composer on the Riot Games music team where he creates a wide variety of musical content for League of Legends ranging from in-game music, cinematics, music videos, to live events. His love for contemporary production and orchestral writing tends to direct his focus toward hybrid musical styles, allowing him to contribute to many of League of Legends’ yearly songs with artists such as Imagine Dragons, The Glitch Mob, (G)I-dle, Zedd, Against The Current, Mako, and more. Prior to Riot Games, Sebastien was at Hollywood Scoring, writing music and attending to various music production related duties.

ABOUT EDOUARD BRENNEISEN

Edouard Brenneisen is a senior composer on Riot Games’ music team. His work on League of Legends spans character themes, cinematics, eSports events and music videos. Prior to joining Riot Games, Edouard wrote emotionally dynamic music scores for film, television and interactive entertainment. His work runs the gamut from animation (the “Yu-Gi-Oh!” series), to documentaries (David Attenborough’s “Micro Monsters”), episodic television (Anthony Zuiker’s “Cybergeddon”), as well as independent games and cinema. Edouard holds a particular interest for orchestral music, which he often augments with all things “electricity” and obscure instruments.