Composer Sam Hulick on Scoring Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition

The Escapist has a brief article-style chat with composer Sam Hulick, specifically focusing on his work on the Enhanced Edition of Baldur’s Gate. Here’s a snip:

Hulick said that his approach to making music for the Baldur’s Gate remake is “totally different” than on Mass Effect. “With Mass Effect, composers were brought in fairly late in the game, meaning there’s a lot of material and working gameplay to look at,” he explained. “With Baldur’s Gate, especially the material I’m working on now, a lot of it is still being designed, and so I’m working mostly off of concept art and static map art, and of course direction from the team. I think with a more old school RPG like this, you can get away with coming in early, which is nice. There’s more breathing room and time to soak things in.”

He also has the benefit of having a tone set by the pre-existing and much-loved soundtrack from the original Baldur’s Gate games. While he hasn’t been in touch with original composer Michael Hoenig, Hulick said he made a point of ensuring that the new music would ring true with fans of the game, some of whom had “mixed reactions” to his hiring.

“Some people were excited or hopeful, and some were wary of me not quite hitting the mark. I expected that though – after all, Baldur’s Gate has a huge cult following and I’m glad people still care that much about the game and its music,” he said. “Anyway, after a few sample clips from ‘The Black Pits’ were released, there was an overwhelmingly positive response from the fans who were surprised by how close the new material sounds to the original score.”