by FilmInk Staff
From honouring the musical legacy behind Australian gaming phenomenon Cult of the Lamb to building a global smash around songs by Silverchair, Portishead, Joy Division and Iggy Pop, and creating the cartoon-noir sound of Mouse: P.I. For Hire, High Score reveals the full program for the milestone 10th edition of Australia’s premier game audio conference.
High Score has unveiled the full program for its 10th edition, bringing leading composers, sound designers, music directors, and game audio professionals from Australia and around the world to ACMI on 3 – 4 October.
Presented by the Victorian Music Development Office (VMDO), Music Australia, and APRA/AMCOS, alongside venue partner ACMI, High Score returns as a cornerstone event of Melbourne International Games Week with a program that captures just how much the world of game audio has expanded across its first decade.
Alongside the craft of making games sound extraordinary, the 2026 program gets into the realities of making game audio a career: what composers should be paid, how talent can build international networks, how live musicians are brought into virtual worlds, where soundtracks find audiences beyond the games themselves, and what happens when composers put their work directly in front of developers.
One of the program’s most personal sessions, Legacy of the Lamb, turns to the creative community behind Australian hit Cult of the Lamb and its major expansion, Woolhaven. Following the passing of composer River Boy during the development of Woolhaven, the team faced the challenge of completing the expansion’s music and sound while preserving and honouring the creative voice of their friend. Featuring musical collaborator Arrowbird, developer Jojo Zhou, and members of the wider Cult of the Lamb team, the session will both celebrate River Boy’s music and explore the collective effort behind carrying his work forward, resulting in a score and soundscape described as a “mixtape of his life”
Elsewhere, High Score goes behind the scenes of one of 2026’s most distinctive game worlds with Playful & Punchy: The Sound of a Cartoon FPS, featuring PlaySide Studios’ Louis Seccull and Alec Bathman. The pair will unpack the audio of Mouse: P.I. For Hire, exploring how its sound moves between noir and cartoon, old and new, subtle and exaggerated, without losing the game’s particular sense of humour. From animation and interaction effects to voice recording, field recordings, licensed music and cutscenes, the session centres on a deceptively difficult question: how do you make something sound powerful without killing the joke?
Crafting the Perfect Mixtape brings together former Galvatrons frontman turned game developer Johnny Galvatron and producer-composer Josh Abrahams, whose career spans Future Sound of Melbourne, “Addicted to Bass”, Moulin Rouge and The Artful Escape. Together they’ll unpack Mixtape, the global smash Australian game where music is the protagonist, exploring how licensed songs, original composition, mechanics and narrative combine to create the perfect needle drop.
Two FMOD deep dives showcase very different approaches to solving complex game-audio problems using the Australian-developed audio engine now used across the global games industry.
In Creating Sounds from Hell in Malys, FMOD’s Aaron Edwards, audio director and implementor on the roguelike exorcism deckbuilder, joins Sound Blooms’ Mat Dwyer, the game’s sound designer and voice actor, to break down its demonic audio landscape. The pair will explore how they brought Malys’ demons to life through sound, and how middleware helped them shape, control and ultimately “exorcise” the game’s supernatural soundscape.
Then in Delverium – The Method to the Madness, game audio specialists Jeff van Dyck and Anders Groenningsaeter tackle a very different kind of chaos. Faced with a game where physics, sound and systems constantly collide, they built a synthesiser entirely within FMOD and devised a “Matrix of Madness” to manage Delverium’s sprawling physics-driven audio system. Their session will unpack what worked, what failed, and what happens when game audio demands solutions well outside the obvious.
The program also puts some of the game industry’s less visible creative roles and commercial realities under the microscope.
Award-winning Japanese music director and composer Yoko Honda Gaalaas presents Inside the Role of a Game Music Director, offering a rare look at the person working between composers, developers, performers, and audio teams to shape the musical identity of a game.
The session moves from creative decision-making and collaboration to the practical leadership required to carry a musical vision through an interactive production. Gaalaas, whose credits include Capcom Fighting Collection 2, Bayonetta 3, and Trek to Yomi, brings an international perspective shaped across Japan, the United Kingdom, and United States, with work spanning orchestral and electronic music through to pop, R&B, and Japanese traditional influences.
And in a session with immediate implications for Australia’s working composers, the Australian Guild of Screen Composers will launch its new Games Rate Card. How Much Does Music Cost? will introduce indicative guidance on composer fees for Australian game music commissions, based on survey data gathered in late 2025, before opening out into the other financial and rights questions that shape a commission, including publishing, master rights, and licensing.
The weekend also explores what happens to game music both before it enters a game and after it leaves one.
In Live Takes, Virtual Worlds: Capturing a Live Performance, Meena Shamaly joins producer and engineer Guus Hoevenaars, composer and pianist Nicole Brady, and composer, voice actor, and sound designer Alec Shea to examine how an idea becomes a recorded performance — from musicians and voice actors working in home studios through to larger ensemble sessions, and the compromises of time, budget, acoustics, and artistic direction along the way.
Press Play: Game Music Beyond the Screen, meanwhile, looks at the increasingly independent life of the game soundtrack. With game music moving through radio, streaming, Twitch, vinyl and live events, the session explores how scores can build communities and audiences far beyond the moment someone puts down the controller.
The newly announced program joins the headline speakers revealed last month, with three major sessions exploring very different approaches to contemporary game music and sound. BAFTA-nominated Australian composer and sound designer Christopher Larkin will open the weekend in conversation with High Score curator Meena Shamaly for The Musical Worldbuilding of Hollow Knight: Silksong. Larkin will unpack how he approached scoring one of the world’s most anticipated games, from the thematic ideas woven through the score and the musical language of Pharloom to the collaborations with Australian classical musicians that helped expand the sound of the sequel.
Wilbert Roget, II, whose credits include Helldivers 2, Star Wars: Outlaws, Mortal Kombat 11 and Call of Duty: WWII, joins MC Angharad ‘Rad’ Yeo for Trash to Treasure: The Art of Musical Sound Design. Through audio and video examples, Roget will explore his approach to “musical sound design” and “sonic recycling” — finding inspiration in everyday, synthetic and unexpected sounds, then reshaping them into musical textures that can carry atmosphere, emotion and narrative.
And Duncan Smith, Head of Music at Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe, will take audiences inside the making of the score for Housemarque’s Saros in From Vision to Soundtrack. Using the PlayStation title as a case study, Smith will trace how a AAA game soundtrack evolves from its earliest creative brief through composer selection, recording and production, interactive implementation, and finally album release and marketing, revealing the collaboration between developers, composers and PlayStation’s in-house music team along the way.
Elsewhere, the increasingly global nature of the industry comes into focus in Building a Global Career in Game Audio across Asia, examining what it takes to build professional networks, relationships with developers and publishers, and opportunities across different markets.
The discussion will be moderated by Kevin Won, CEO and Lead Composer of Jade Chamber Sound and founder of the Asian Game Audio Network. Won’s credits include projects for EA and Ubisoft, and in May he organised the first Asia Game Sound Summit in Seoul, inspired by the success of High Score in Australia.
For composers trying to get their own work in front of the industry, Demo Derby: Real-time Game Composition Feedback turns theory into practice. The Otherworld Agency CEO Fabian Malabello will give a select group of composers the opportunity to respond to real music briefs from established Australian developers, with their work then put up for direct feedback.
Together, the program reflects an industry in which music and sound are no longer simply finishing touches to a game. They shape worlds and stories, require their own increasingly sophisticated technologies and production pipelines, and are creating careers, communities and audiences that extend well beyond the screen.
The milestone edition is the first High Score curated by composer, musician, lecturer, poet and ABC Classic’s Game Show host Meena Shamaly, who has presented game music on stages with Orchestra Victoria, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and Queensland Symphony Orchestra.
High Score curator Meena Shamaly: “Programming a conference like this is a Herculean effort, and I’ve felt incredibly supported by the teams at VMDO and ACMI. I’m proud of how this program has shaped up, and I’m grateful to the astounding generosity of every speaker who has agreed to share their knowledge to help lift the entire games industry.”
“I’m constantly blown away by the sheer amount of talent and expertise we have in this country and around the world of game audio. You could easily fill ten more conferences just from all the possibilities we had this year alone. High Score may be an epic annual weekend, but its effects, memories, and overflow can last for years.”
Kirsty Rivers, General Manager, VMDO: “The VMDO is delighted to produce High Score for its tenth edition. Once again High Score will show just how much opportunity exists at the intersection of music and games. This year’s program brings together extraordinary creative and technical talent while opening up the conversations that help people build sustainable careers and build exciting game worlds: from the stories behind some of the world’s most distinctive game soundtracks to fair pay, international opportunities, new technologies, collaboration and the growing life of game audio beyond the screen.”
Award-winning Australian broadcaster Angharad ‘Rad’ Yeo also returns as MC for the 10th edition. High Score 2026 takes place at ACMI, Melbourne on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October as part of Melbourne International Games Week.
For tickets and further information, head to vmdo.com.au/events/high-score-2026.
