Get to Know Robert Mai, Midli's Composer
Robert Mai joined the DinoByte team back in September as the composer for our upcoming game Midli, and we pestered him with 21 questions to help you get to know him better!
How did you end up working with DinoByte Labs, and what exactly do you do?
I wanted to start writing music for video games and decided to browse Kickstarter for potential projects. It wasn’t long before I came across Midli, and immediately fell in love with the story and beautiful artwork. I immediately started pestering DinoByte with emails and music samples, and after a couple of weeks of talking back and forth and sharing ideas, it was clear that we shared the same creative kinship. Luckily, they decided to bring me on board, and the rest was history!
What was your favorite game growing up?
I grew up in the age of old-school N64 platformers, so it’s a tough choice… I would say a three-way tie between Super Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie, and Rayman 2, although if forced to pick, Rayman 2 is closest to my wacky sense of humor. However, my favorite game of all time is Majora’s Mask, although I just started playing that a couple years ago so it doesn’t really count.
Which games composer inspires you?
My favorite video game composer is Austin Wintory, hands down! I listen to his albums for Journey and ABZU once or twice a month, if not more, and his whole body of work is just sheer brilliance. I also love Grant Kirkhope, Koji Kondo, and Peter McConnell. Currently obsessed with the music from Cuphead. Previously obsessed with the music from Ori and the Blind Forest… bring on the sequel!
Biggest video game character crush?
Samus Aran. I guess I’m just really into strong, independent female characters that wield guns and attitude, heh heh.
What’s your favorite thing about working on games?
The freedom of unbound creativity! I love being able to create music that has structure, that is able to take on a life of its own without having to support dialogue, scene changes, or editing cuts, and yet is enormously critical to the atmosphere of the game world. Being able to explore my own musical voice and write something so intensely personal and intimate is an untold blessing. And being able to collaborate with wonderful people that share my geeky interests is icing on the cake!
If you could be teleported into any game world, which would it be?...
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