Deep Dive into the Making of Video Game Music Ft. Major Bruno

yo, what's up? Welcome to the Single Player Experience Podcast. As always, I'm your host, Sebastian Moton, and in this episode we have video game composer and sound designer, major Bruno. On the show, he's gonna give you his origin story as an artist. He's gonna give some advice to inspiring video game musicians, and he's gonna tell you about his process in curating video game music. We got all this and more coming right at you right after the intro. DJ start the intro. He's been killing it on video game soundtracks. He's been doing really cool sound designs. If you haven't checked out his like social media, he's really like really talented and really killing it at that as well. So I'm like, I am super excited to have. Major Bruno on the show today, we're gonna talk about all things as far as like his top games of all time. The music he likes to make, what got him started in the industry. He'll give some advice to people who won, get in the industry, and we're just gonna have a all around good nerdy time. So without further ado, let me introduce you to the man himself, the golden instrument of the video game industry, major Bruno,

how you. I'm doing well, sir. How about you? Thanks so much for having

me

on. I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm, I'm glad I made you laugh, I'm glad I made you

laugh that that

was quite the spiel. Yeah, you nailed it. I had to give you the intro. I had to give you your due. So before we begin, can you tell the good people all about yourself? Yeah,

totally. So like you mentioned, my name is Major. I'm a composer and sound designer for games, general musician. I play guitar all around, nerd love everything. Video games, everything tech and this. A space I've been passionate about for a super long time and music's something that I've been making for a very long time. And so it just felt natural for me to bring the two things together. And so that's what I've been doing for the last couple years professionally, and it's been

a lot of fun. That's what's up. So for every new guest, we have a tradition here. We'd like to do your top five games of all time. So major what you got for us? This one is

so hard. Like I I was at a, I was at a meet up, like a game dev meet up here in town a couple weeks ago. it took me a while to, to think of, cause I feel like they changed all the time and there's like the couple of, of kind of classics that like mm-hmm. defined you as a gamer. And I feel like those don't really change. Recent stuff that I'll play that's really inspiring will come in and out and I feel like I'm always trying to shuffle what's in like the top couple

Um, I get that. I really do. Cuz I ask myself this question like all the time and I'm like, Ooh, at any given moment this'll be knocked off the list because of this game. Or like vice versa. It is one of those things to where I also think about like, How the game's impacted me emotionally at that time too. So I'm like it, I get it. It's fluctuating. It always fluctuates. I rarely see someone who has like a solidified game, like top five games, and it just

stays that way. Yeah, that makes sense. It's the best problem to have if you're constantly being inspired by new stuff. But yeah, some of the, like the permanent ones are like, I feel like I always have to start with okina of time. It's like the, my first exposure to Zelda and my first exposure to. Big like sweeping adventure games and like games that have a big narrative focus, and that also let you do whatever you want, so that one will always be there. That's also probably the first game where I really fell in love with the music. Koji Kondo was a master composer. All of those themes are super memorable. I remember learning to try and play. A bunch of them on the guitar, so that one is definitely up there. Slightly more Niche pick would be Tara Enigma, which is Oh. Oh, okay. You, so you've heard of this one? Yeah, yeah.

I was, I'm surprised to hear it.

This is one that every, every couple times I'll mention it, it like someone has never heard of it before and it totally flew under my radar for years, until I started getting into all of the old Quinte games. Mm-hmm. that had Act Razor. As a kid I knew about illusion of Gaia, but this was like their most obscure huge J R P G. Part J R ppg, part Action Adventure, Zelda style game. Mm-hmm. It only came out in Japan and in power regions, so it wouldn't have been available for me to play as a kid. No. That's for the magic of the internet. Now it's a lot easier to either play via emulation or toll track down a cartridge, which is what I ended up doing, and. that came, blew my mind. Like just huge scope and scale. Like it shouldn't have been possible on the Super Nintendo. It's so ambitious for its time. Love that game. And then some more recent stuff, just a couple of 'em. I've been playing a ton of Eldon Ring. I'm a total crumb soft nerd. I just love to hate myself and like all of their games are great, but I loved that Eldon ring somehow managed to make it a little more accessible and a little less punishing. I've, I've known a lot of people who, that's the first one of those games that they've jumped into and they haven't immediately rage quit, which I think is.

I'm about the same way cuz I was broken by bloodborne, like completely broken. I felt like Batman at the end of like dark night, right? Where he just got back broken. I was like, that's pretty much like how I felt about a blood born and elder ring is one of those things to where it is like, it feels more action adventure than it does Souls Born like that. Soul's born John Road into me. But I really, yeah, I had, I'm having a good time with it. I'm playing it myself and I'm currently. So bad at it, but, but it's mostly because I'm bad at it because I'm directional. It's like I don't know where to go. Like I, I just beat. Yeah. What is his name? Margaret De Fallen.

Oh yeah. Margaret Deel

fell. Yeah. Thank you. Love that guy. I, I just beat him and Nice. I, yeah, I got so lost at, I'm at level 41 and I just don't beat him. I'm sure

you didn't have too much trouble then. That's nice.

He was still a little challenging, but it, I think that, yeah, he still had a little bit of bite

to him. Yeah, that, that's cool. And I think that works in that game's favor. Mm-hmm. That you can go off and do whatever you want in kind of any order as opposed to the kind of classic souls formula is like you make your way through a bunch of narrower corridors and then you have to beat this impossibly hard boss. Or you just don't get to play the game anymore, And that's way more discouraging if you know. You don't quite have the muscle memory for it or that kind of repetitive Rin until you beat the boss sort of thing isn't as fun for you. What's your class? I usually play like night, super heavy, broad sword, big armor type of stuff. But like for Eldon ring, I actually tried doing like a ma spellcaster build. Oh, okay. Which it turns out, I think is like the most overpowered type of build in that game. So I've messed around with a few others since then. That was like a fun change of pace, like staying a little further away and trying out like a bunch of fun spells and

things. That's what's up. Uh, are you, is that your game of the year so far for 2022?

It is definitely up there. I've put way too many hours into it and it's very polished, like very impressive. Just like scope and scale of that game. I think I

understand it's in my top 10 list for sure. I'm, I've been going through and I'm like, I know it's in the top five now, so I'm trying to see where everything shakes out.

Yeah. That's impressive. Do you have, do you have a game of the year? Yeah, I,

uh, like on my top team, on like my top four, or let's go top three, is right now. Cult of the Lamb I think is like right up there. It is phenomenally addicting. I love Cult of the Lamb, and it's a simple premise that really works. And despite the fact that it's who John was that you like, you wouldn't think works very well. It's that life simulator. Very animal crossing kind of genre mixed in with that roguelike genre. And they Right. They just, it goes together like peanut butter and chocolate. It really just goes together and I'm like, oh, it's so fun. That one horizon, forbidden West, I think is magnificent. Mm-hmm. I don't know if you played that one, but I think Horizon for Bin West might be the most beautiful video game I've ever seen in my life. It is. I praise. Wow. Yeah. Elder Ring has moments, but it also still has that grunge look to it like Horizon has, horizon feels like it's the first game that was made for N Gen, if that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. It's like I ratchet and clank. I don't know if you played Rat and Klink. R Park was like, it was very like vi. It was a visual showcase as well, but not to this level. This is that first time where I saw something where I was just like, Oh wow. This looks like it would look like phenomenal ole tv. This is the type of game when people come, people come over, you show them this game to show off your PS five. Like that's, this

is the

flex game. Yeah, that, that's like on the Xbox side of things is Forza. Like, that's all. That's pretty much what you go true. But like on PlayStation, like that is, that's the game that if you have that game, there's, I don't think I've ever seen anything quite as majestic looking as horizon Midwest. Mm. I say this and then I think we're a month away from God of war. God of war. Yeah. I

was gonna say that's a potential heavy hitter. I'm really excited for that one. I've really liked the, uh, the no mythology angle. That's just a thing that I've always liked in general. And so then seeing Don Avo decided to switch to that I thought was a fun.

Oh, I, I'm so excited. Major. What consoles are you playing on

these days? Mostly PS five. Mm-hmm. And switch. I don't have an Xbox. I do play stuff on PC occasionally. I used to be like the PC master race guy in my friend group But as time's gone on, like my wife and I will play stuff together or like a lot of friends over and we wanna do like co-op stuff and that's just way user do to do on stuff like the Switch or PlayStation. Um, I gotcha.

Plus, plus they got me on some of those exclusives. Man, that the lineups on both of those like consoles, the exclusive lineups are like phenomenal. But especially on the PlayStation side of things. Like I, I can't say, I can't like present enough how, like how many bangers is after bangers. We get ghost to shaima just came outta nowhere and yeah. Yeah, I just loved that. Between that you had, what was it? Final Fantasy and remake, final Fantasy seven remake. You had Ghost to Shaima, you had the Spider-Man's, both Miles Morales and and Peter Parker, spider-Man. Correct. They just had a stacked lineup and I cannot say enough for the quality of those games as well.

Yeah, that's a really good point. I do hope that one day we'll get away from the console exclusivity thing. Cause I feel like it. You think so? I don't feel like it really benefits gamers necessarily. It benefits the studios putting out the games and trying to market the consoles. But that makes sense. I'd say I'd like that. I don't know how we never get there. Right? Like it's, I don't know. Making consoles is expensive and if you can't guarantee like a really great game at launch, it's harder to to sell units. So I get why it exists. It just sucks sometimes. Yeah. For people that don't have the luxury playing everyth.

Yeah, I think the bridge is starting to, the bridge is starting to form though cuz like you have Xbox Game Pass and then you have PS now or PS Extra. What are like the catalogs where you can find a lot of those like concurrent like games that you can play across all consoles. So I think like the bridge is starting to form. I do think there will always probably be those like tent poles, as long as PlayStation and Nintendo are in business, are probably gonna be those tent pole exclusives. But I don't think Xbox cares any like a bit about that.

You might be right. Yeah. They've been all in on the game pass thing and like even just the concept of cross play in general. Mm-hmm. it seems a little more common, especially for like massively multiplayer stuff or for some of the, like the multiplayer shooters or whatever. You can play those cross platform, which is really cool. Yeah. Like that, that would make a big difference where you're not like isolated from half your friends because they play on the other console from you or whatever.

Exactly. And then there's the fact that I don't think, I don't think Xbox Cares where you play game Pass at. I think they. Perfectly happy if you played Game Pass on PS five or The Switch as long as you were playing on game, on playing game Pass, basically. That's interesting. Yeah, so I, and I think especially with M O B, the show lately, coming to from PlayStation being a PlayStation exclusive to coming to Xbox, I think it's like the start of it a little bit.

Yeah. Yeah, that's a good

point. Yeah. But we'll talk about all that some other time. We gotta get to you, man, like we gotta get to you and your portfolio of music. So you've been writing and music for a very long time. What got

you started with all this? Yeah, that's a good question. I, in some ways, it feels like everything started and ended with being into video games, a kid. that was one of the earliest hobbies or like things I remember being interested in at all. I was probably like three the first time I played a Super Nintendo of it, like maybe a family member or like a friend's parents or something. But it was just something that I like always remember being or, and so even when I got to the point where I was interested in learning music, like I started to just by playing guitar and like trying to figure out how to play like all of the like nineties alt rock stuff that was in the time, like Blink 180 2 and like early Green Day and stuff like that. But like a bunch of the earliest songs I remember being into. video game songs, like on top of all of the kind of like normal music that I was listening to. And so once I figured out that games are a thing, you can just make, you know, like the early internet was full of stuff like, like the New Grounds or you know, black Sheep of the World, like all these sites of just like people making crazy stuff in flash or like in really early versions of Game Maker and stuff. So I knew that this was a thing you could just make if you knew how to do it. And that was something I was like super interested in. So I dabbled in like solo development for a long time, like a bit of coding, a bit of like really awful pixel art, a bit of audio stuff. But it wasn't until I started making music, like for bands and mm-hmm playing live music and like going on tour and putting out albums and things like that where I like really connected with the process of music making. And I realized, okay, this is the thing I love the most. And I was feeling a little stuck in my career at the time where I was doing like more tech work. And so the, all of this stuff that had been like swirling in my brain for a long time just came together where I was like, okay, I really wanna do something that's more creative, but something that is still tied into all of this stuff that I love. And so doing the game music route seemed to make sense. Work could cobble together little bits of all of these different things. I've discovered that I was. and I could feel like way more closely connected to, I don't know, to something meaningful. Like at the end of the day, I think the outcome of making games is that you get to make something that people hopefully emotionally resonate with and like an experience that sticks with them. And to me, that's one of the coolest things that you could put your efforts and your creativity towards. So I really wanted to see if I could do that.

Let's, what's up? So what, I have a question for you. What was it like getting that first check a after you made, like after you made a game, like a soundtrack for a game or made a song for a game? Like what was that feeling like? You, like it was like the culmination of what you were just

talking about. Yeah, that's a great question. I, I think it probably wasn't until the first couple that it even felt real just like this, you can do this. Like this isn't cheating. Like you don't have to absolutely hate your job or have something that's very traditional and can the box, it's still hard to explain what I do to people that don't know about games or that aren't in the space or whatever. So it was like, it was very validating, but also very, I don't know, took a while to sink in, but it was pretty

great. Oh, that's good. That's good. So what, how, what's the process like for making music for a game?

That's a good question. It depends a little bit on the game. I think the main thing it would depend on is when in the process a developer were to bring in someone to do audio. Sometimes I've worked with clients where they have like one of the ones that I've just started working on, actually the extent of the game is a couple gray boxed levels in Unity. So like very few actual assets, lots of just blocked out placeholder stuff like three or four really nice pieces of concept are, and like their explanation to me of what the game is going. and so sometimes you're starting from so little. Mm-hmm. that the process to like getting started is just like imagining it and taking the couple little like threads and extrapolating them out into our full world and trying to like connect the dots and hopefully get in the same head space as the person that's making the game so that you can start thinking of stuff that's going to mesh with the stuff they're thinking about for a game. It's more fleshed out already. I've worked on a couple where the game's been in development for like years. they start swapping out all of their placeholder audio and stuff like that. And that's a lot easier to have a direction picked for you because they might have already found a couple tracks they like, or they might have like another game style that they're inspired by or whatever. So then your job becomes much more about figuring out what stuff it is that they like. Just downloading all of that into your brain, like going and playing the reference games they mentioned if there's soundtracks they really like, or artists, they really like listening to all of that and trying to. Cross reference it with stuff that you already know. Like a lot of times people will be like, oh, the inspiration for this is this soundtrack. And I'll go listen to it and be like, oh, this reminds me of like five other things that I love. And so then I'll make a private Spotify playlist of all of these different songs. And that'll be like my, my sort of my mood board or like my starting point. For just filling my brain with stuff that is like the correct vibe for the game.

So you are a married man. Does your wife ever get tired of you listening to video game music in the car or anything like

that? That's a good question. No, she loves it just as much as I do. We, our honeymoon was to go to games, done quick in person and watch a bunch of speed runs for a week, so, oh, that's really cool. She is very down with with the whole games thing. I think maybe the one exception is when I'm working on a track and I just keep looping the same 32nd section for eight hours. That's not as cool That'll be like, she'll put on headphones and go to the opposite end of the house, so hopefully not have to hear it. And I do not blame her.

That's funny. That's funny. So what's been some of your favorite projects that you've worked?

Yeah, man. I think one that'll always have a special place for me cause it was one of the first commercial things I got to work on is a game called Little Martian and Sp we were talking earlier about how games take years to come out. A game still isn't out, but is, it is very close and it's something that I've been working on for a few years now. So it's come a long ways, which has been really cool. It is a sort of a crafting survival game with artwork inspired by the ZX spectrum and all of the early kind of eighties pixel art. and there's definitely some elements of the minecrafts and tour areas of the world, but. Very cool. Very atmospheric exploration focused, very kind of cozy I guess. It's really cool. It's got a lot of elements of crafting survival stuff and kind of cool puy sci-fi feel. Is there a demo out there is? Yeah. Okay. They're on Twitter and they also have a website, I believe it's a little Martian dev. They have a public demo and then a plan, steam release. I believe at this point it's going to be. Towards the summertime next year. No, but that project's been really cool to be a part of. The team is essentially one guy and his two kids and the game started as an opportunity for him to help teach them how to code cuz he's a software engineer full-time and then makes the game on the side. But then it kind of blew up into something a lot larger and now they're trying to make it a commercial release. And it's really impressive considering how few people work on it and that a lot of the ideas came from his kids. I don't think you'd necessarily know that It's very polished and thoughtfully made, but I like the, uh, the story. and that's the game where I've gotten to do everything that you hear. So the soundtrack, all of the sound design UI sounds, atmospheric soundscape stuff, and all of the different tools and crafting and like there's base building elements and things like that. So there was just a huge variety of stuff I got to make for it, which is really fun to, to be given free reign and be like, Hey, here's the game. Just do whatever. And he'd occasionally have bits of feedback for me, but it was really nice to just, I. Stretch my creativity a bit and just see what ended up fitting for that one.

Oh, that's fun. It sounds like you were a big part of the creative process as well, so that probably had a lot to do with why it like resonates with you so much. That's a

good point. I think in general, one of the best things about working in games is when you're given that kind of creative freedom in that kind of trust from a team, because I think you're always gonna end up with a better result and you still have to tailor it and guide it to fit with the rest of the game. It's not like you're making it in a vacuum. If you are excited about it and you get to make stuff that speaks to you when you play the game, I think you have a better chance of translating that to other people. So yeah, that one's a really cool project. I've also been working a lot on a game called Scrap Tackle. This is a game that I'm doing instead of everything. This one is just the sound design. Okay. So basically everything you hear except for the music. Mm-hmm. which has been interesting cuz usually I'll do the music or both. This is the only gig I have right now where I'm doing just the sound design. So that's. Really cool to go deep into one area. When we were talking a bit about my background, it was mostly on the music side. Mm-hmm. So banging pots and pans together and making weird sounds is like a relatively new skillset for me. And it's been really fun because people that do fully or sound design or whatever professionally and that's all they do, are so talented and there's so much you can learn in just that one area. it's been fun to start to go down that rabbit hole bit, but that game is cool. It's a very kind of, Scribble hand drawn pixel art. Look, it's a metro venia about a novice wizard that gets kicked out of the Wizard Academy and, uh, lands in a world full of people that like, are really suspicious about wizards and don't, they don't really have that great of a reputation, but this world is kind of, Dealing with a bunch of issues and then some much larger plot stuff happens. But it's basically full of a bunch of quirky, goofy characters that you get to meet and you can choose to help or ignore. And there's lots of puzzles and branching dialogue and a huge intertwined nonlinear over world. And it's just like super ambitious and really fun. And that's one where that's a ways off from being finished. But I'm so excited for people to play that one. Cause I think that has a potential to. Just a totally indie darling. Like the guy that works in that game is so dedicated cuz he, I'm the only other person really that works on it. He does everything else, like the art, the code writes all the music. There's 30 songs or something like that already. Wow. Game. Like, it's just huge volume of work. So it's just cool to be a part of something like that.

That's really cool. So are you gonna collect all of the games you've been a part of? Do you collect them within your STEAM portfolio or are you gonna try to find like a phys? Yeah, like a physical, like copy of all the games you've been a part of, to hang it up somewhere.

That's an awesome idea. Yeah, man. If I'm ever lucky enough to work on something that gets a physical release, absolutely. Yeah, that would be super

cool. And even not, like I've talked to a couple of people where they had the idea of all the digital stuff they took, like the digital art, and then they just like made, or they went and got like an old disk, like an old disk like case and stuff, and they just put it all like right there so they can still. Basically. Oh, nice. Yeah. I'm like, yeah, it's a good way to reuse some of the, like the old maybe 360 are even the Xbox One case cases and such, cuz you can peel 'em off pretty easily. So I'm like,

yeah. Yeah, good point. And kind of preserve that history of like where you've been and

what you've done. Exactly, exactly. Just an idea, just throwing it out there, but, I like it. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So you talked about like some of the games you've been a part of, your favorite projects. Let's talk about some of the games that inspired you. What's some of your favorite video game soundtracks of all time? I know I could hit you with another tough one that, it's a

good one though. I think a lot from kind of a music standpoint, a lot of the things that inspire me, newer, my coming up with the top games of all time. Mm-hmm. I feel like a lot of the games that I grew up playing have stayed. on the music side. I think right now, probably like my number one would be Hades. That's, oh, that's such a good

soundtrack.

It's, it's amazing. So many bangers, so many great riffs. But on top of that, it's also like the, I guess the work ethic behind that game. Mm-hmm. like Darren Corp, the guy that wrote that soundtrack is basically just an audio wizard, like he voices the main character in that game. He directed all of the other voice actors on the project. He helped conduct the one song that got played by an orchestra, wrote all the. and did all the sound effects, like I have no, I, I don't know how long they had to lock him up for to do all of that but really impressive. And my understanding is he's a largely a self-taught person, which I really resonate with cuz I didn't have like traditional, like formal music education. It's all been cobbled together from my own experience. And then later on taking courses and stuff or. trying to learn specific things on my own. So the idea that you could make that much art that people love and that you can find your own path to getting there, I think is super inspiring to me. And so he's someone where I'm like, if I could have 10% of that talent and that ability to like make just a total world out of sound, I think that's what I aspire to. So that's

a big one for sure. That, Hey, that's a solid game. Like I was, I thought you were gonna go like near a Automata like persona. Maybe some of those, cuz I've heard, I've gotten a couple of those before. But Hades is a really good call out. It's definitely

less, less traditional I think. Mm-hmm Most people think game music. They think either chip tune or like an orchestra. And this isn't really either of those, but I think it's got a unique aesthetic and they like leaned into it really hard and I think it. Oh, it really

does and it, it feels that like Greek style of music as well because they're a Greek mythology. It's like really? It's really good. I cannot say enough good things about Hades cuz like that's a

phenomenal game. Yeah, a hundred percent. I think a couple others, a couple of the other kind of more recent Indie Centrix that I really loved would be, Celeste is a huge one. Oh, another good one. and that's another very unique fusion of genres. A lot of like piano and kind of traditional instruments. And then a lot of like synth, soundscape, atmospheric stuff, which is like very eclectic and very like emotional games. Whole narrative deals with a lot of like heavy emotional topics. Oh, for sure. Sure. And music like totally sells that. I think it's a, a great lesson in, it's a relatively minimalist game, I think. Mm-hmm. compared to most like big narrative heavy games. But you can do a lot with very little, if each piece of it is like just. That's one I love. I'll play that one like in the car, like while I'm working, while I'm doing stuff Cause some of those pieces are just like, they just sit in the background and they're like interesting and engaging, but also like calming and meditative at the same time.

That makes sense. So you mentioned, have you played transistor by the way? Like that one's a really good

one. I need to just go play every super giant game. I think that's the goal,

eventually the best indie studio, in my opinion. I love them so much. They are phenomenal. They do phenomenal work. I've loved their stuff since Bastion and like Bastion, I think has a underrated soundtrack as

well. Yeah, that's a good point. They consistently put out very quality stuff, and it's all relatively different. Oh

yeah, for sure. So just for warning you, I have one minute left on this Zoom call, like I'm going to, I'll send you another link in a second, but Oh yeah, no worries. Yeah, it has like that 45 minute like expiration date for this Zoom call. So annoying Yeah, it's, it really is like, we're still on a lead too, so it won't go, we'll still be on the conversation, but, so just letting you know that. But when we get back on the Zoom call, like I. I think we only have two questions left. Games you've been playing lately, like and then where can the, like what games you've been playing lately and your words of inspiration for people for other people want to get into this.

Cool. Yeah.

Yeah, that sounds good. Yeah, I just started that p that aspect of the show, but I'm like, I think that's like something that kind of resonates with a lot of the listeners is I got feedback that they always like hearing guests talk to, at least to try to inspire others. Sk. Okay. That's a sweet little message too. So something I incorporated into the show.

Yeah. That's awesome. That's a great idea. I would imagine a lot of people listening, especially when they're, these style of interviews with people that make games, are people that at least have like a passing interest in wanting to make them themselves. Oh yeah. For sure.

For sure. And then there's, oh, I forgot our last, or we got one last segment, but it's gonna be a little surprise. Do Notre though.

sounds. Okay, cool. I see the new link. Okay. All right, we'll join that.

All right, and we're back. So major, I have a question for you. What words of inspiration would you give to other people who want get into sound design and video game soundtracks, like creating music for video games?

Yeah, great question. I feel like this is the kind of thing people always say, but I think this is, there's never been a better time to get into this stuff. Like we touched on it a little bit earlier, but I'm somebody that didn't go to a music school for college, didn't have a formal education in music, but was just always interested in it. And for me, that path was learning to play guitar and learning to cover a bunch of bands that I liked and then branching out into writing my own music and then sort of messing around with how do you make games and how do you make sound for games? just finding my way there over a longer period of time. There are plenty of people I've talked to who did the opposite and had a very kind of targeted goal from the very beginning, okay, I'm gonna go to school for this and I'm gonna get this particular degree and then I'm gonna go straight into the thing that I know I wanna do. I think wherever in that spectrum you are, there are so many resources and so many helpful people. Um, and that's something that I think is cool about games. Everybody who works in them has at least something that they love about it. But it's not anybody's I settled for this career, there's so many more stable, like potentially lucrative things you could be doing with your time. Anyone that's chosen it has chosen it on purpose. And I think that means there are a lot of people around you that have either been through the exact same thing that you have or who could help fill in the blanks as you're just trying to kind of figure stuff out. And if I was able to cobble together, I don't know, some weird way into doing this, I think anybody. Oh, okay. And hopefully everyone in the industry today will continue to help people do that. Cause I think that's really important.

That is really, that's nice. I like how the industry is like a, basically a community. It really is like a community of people who want to help each other.

I definitely think so. Like anything else, there's pockets of it where there's, we've seen a lot of controversy and like unfortunate stuff come out, whether that's stuff at like big studios or like individual personalities in the community, whatever. But for every situation like that, there are like a hundred indie devs that are like super passionate about what they're doing. Like we talked about super giant, so many places full of so many talented people, like big companies, small companies. I think it's just a matter of, uh, finding the good ones. But there do seem to be a.

Yeah, that makes complete sense. So I have a segment I like to do towards the end of every episode. It's called quickfire. Are you ready for it? Yes. Let's do it. So I'm gonna ask you rapid fire quickfire questions, and without thinking of it, without really just concentrating and thinking about the answer within five seconds, give me an answer. You think you're ready for it. We'll see. All right, so no pressure or anything, so there's no right or wrong answers. People might hit you up in the comments when I'm, when we talk about the socials for all these. So here we go. Which franchise is

better, Mario or Sonic? Who? Mario.

Okay. Who's the best? Who's

the best? Ninja Turtle? Oh,

Ella. Okay. Okay. That one look like it hurt you a little bit. All right, All right. Favorite indie game that you played within the last five years?

Ooh, death

Store. Oh, that's a really good one. Really good one. Love Def Store. Okay, so who would win in a fight? Ratchet and clank are Jack and Dixter.

This might be the hardest one yet. Let's go ratchet. Let's go ratchet and clank.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

That honestly, like I would have to witness it. I would have to be in the stands watching that Cause I feel like I could go either way.

I feel you. I feel you. So who's your main character that you like to play as a Super Smash? Brothers? Samis. Oh, okay. Nice one. Nice one. Best is Elder Care. I'm Best Zelda game ever.

I'm gonna say either Okra enough time or mini. I feel like that one's underrated, but I've played that one more times through a hundred percent in the game than any other Zelda for whatever reason. Ah,

gotcha. Who is the best gaming dad? Is it Creos? R Joel from last

of us. Oh, I'm gonna have to go Creos. Okay. Mostly because he's the funniest dad.

Okay. Okay. So guys, we're rounding it out. What is your favorite topping on. Ooh.

Probably just a classic, like some spicy, like sausage. Okay. Any the, any of the meats. I usually do the, just get everything on the pizza approach. Hi

man. I'm a meat lovers kind of guy myself, so I get it. So what is the weirdest instrument you've ever used on for a

project? Ooh, that's a good one. I don't know about weirdest, but the most like random would probably be the air. Is like a, it's a traditional Chinese like B instrument. Ah. You've almost certainly heard it in like adventure game soundtracks or something. It has this very like mournful kind of almost violin quality, but like not quite. It's super cool in the right circumstances. I've snuck that into a few tracks just for little, like something extra. I love it. I would love to learn how to play a real one. I don't even know how to do that, but that would.

Which video game would you hate to be trapped in as

in the world? Oh man. We were just talking about how much I love all the dark soul games. I would absolutely hate that dying on repeat, being stuck in one area, but like you can't save and quit and just go about your day like you're actually stuck there. That would be

awful. Oh, for sure. Terrible. Absolutely terrifying. Cuz everything there is trying to kill you like everyth. Yeah. I

wouldn't make it past like the tutorial enemies in real life.

I gotcha. I gotcha. Video game superpower that you would love to have.

Ooh. Any sort of time travel I think would be super cool.

Not bad. Not bad. If Kirby swallowed you, what type of superpower we could get?

Ooh. I think he'd probably like instantly be able to just shred like a guitar solo.

Okay. Okay. That'd be. I could just see it like he has your like hairstyle and everything and just writing a guitar. That'd be dope. That'd be really dope. We

should, we should definitely get Nintendo on

that. That is Oh yeah, for sure. for sure. They're making like 20 Kirby games. They can at least give us something like that. That's,

that's a good point. It fits within the universe somewhere. Yeah,

for sure. For sure. So what is the dream project that you would like to work on? Whether it be working for a studio, like what studio would you like to work for and or what kind of game would you like to work for? Work

all. Yeah. That's a really good question. We've mentioned 'em a few times, but I think not so much the specific studio, but the general vibe that that Super Giant has is really cool. They've done a bunch of documentaries on their games and seeing the way. A very tiny group of people work together. Mm-hmm. and all the implicit trust and kind of creativity that everybody seems to share. I think that vibe is something that I really value and that seems really cool to me. And as far as type of games go, I think anything in the roguelike, metroidvania space games where you have a big ever expanding world, I think really appeal to me to work on because those games just have a huge variety of content. One bio might sound completely different from another, and I don't know, figuring out how all of that sounds particularly like from a music standpoint would be super cool. You'd really get to push yourself in a bunch of different directions, and I think those games have the potential to have just really cool musical leave, a musical impression on you, I guess you spend all this time exploring and those melodies just get stuck in your brain afterwards and. I think it'd be really fun to work on something like that.

Oh, that sounds, that sounds pretty cool. So what do you think is going to be the best soundtrack of the like games next year? Do you think it's gonna be like Spiderman two? You got Tears of the Kingdom, the Breath of the Wild Sequel. You also have Starfield, which is a Bethesda hit, and they, they usually like to bring it. There's gonna be some bangers next year is what I'm insinuating. What do you think's gonna have the

best soundtrack that's. That's a really good, that's a really good question though. Zelda is almost certainly gonna be amazing, but the Wild had a big musical departure from all previous games. Way more minimalists, way more like Somberg was really cool. I think it'll be interesting to see if they stick with that or if they switch things up on us again. But I feel like they're always pushing the envelope with. How those games should sound, which is impressive cuz they've been what, like 20 Zelda games. Yeah. And they've managed to not just continue recycling the same version of the songs that we know. I don't know if I could remix my own songs 20 times. I think that's really impressive.

I have one. One last real question for you as a person. I'm just giving you my background here. I've only played one Zelda game in my entire life and that's breath of the Wild and I beat it. Nine. What gaming recommendation would you give to me as a person who's only played one Zelda game? What other Zelda game would you recommend for.

Ooh. I would almost say wind waker. Oh, that's just has, that has the big kind of open exploration aspect to it. It's probably got some of the most. Non-linear design out of those games, they tend to be the polar opposite of breath of the Wild, where it's very, you follow from story beat to story beat. You follow the dungeons in a linear order. Ah, straightforward. It's all very like, yeah. And there'll be elements of, you can explore a bunch of towns and side areas and meet characters and there's lots of secrets and things. But as far as advancing the game and getting to the end, it's usually very linear. Um, But wind Waker has a lot of, you can go to one of these three places at once and pic and there's dozens of islands and locations and people that you don't even ever have to meet if you don't want to. So I think it, it comes the closest maybe sip breath of the wilds. Like you just walk up to the plateau and you're like, oh man, I can just go anywhere. Not quite at the same degree, but you can see like the beginnings of that kind of idea. I think

that makes sense. I'll have to check that one out. Dan. I like all these games are coming to switch, so I'll have to definitely check that one out. True. Yeah. So major. It's been really fun talking to you and I'm like, I can't wait to have you on the show Again, anytime you're available, I'd love to have you and nerd out with you some more, but before we go, where can the good people

find you? Yeah, probably the best place is on Twitter at the major Bruno. You can also go to major bruno.com to find all my other socials. I'm on Instagram, I'm on Discord a lot, email, all that kind of stuff. all of it works for me.

Sounds good. So major. We'll catch you next time and this has been another great episode of the notable nerds with a very notable nerd that you should definitely check out. Awesome. Thanks so much for having me. All right, peace. Hey, what's up everyone? Thank you so much for listening to the episode. I just wanna remind you that you can get notable nerds every single Thursday, and we are gonna bring you the dopest guest in the nerd community. If you wanna suggest a nerd that you think should be on the show or discuss topics of an episode with others, join us on the Pro Nerd Report Facebook group. Once you're in, go ahead and provide some feedback. The link to join us in the Pro Nerd Report free Facebook group. In the show notes, we want to thank you for joining us today, and we hope to catch you every single Thursday. I'll let your boy later. Peace. So that's a wrap for today's episode. I wanna give a special shadow and thank you to Major Bruno for being on the show today. I also wanna let you know about the single player experience Discord server. It's the perfect place for single player gamers to talk about the good single player games they've been playing lately, and to get video game recommendations. Think of it kind of like a book club for single player gamers. The link to join will be in the description. Once you're in, feel free to share your video game backlog list. Talk about the good games you've been playing, or give your feedback on the show if you have a game that you think should be recommended or that you think I should talk about. Let me know in the single Player Experience Discord server. I'll see you there. Before we go, I just want to thank you so much for listening to today's episode. Stay safe, stay gamming, and I hope to catch you in the next one. Peace.