Game designer turned composer || Lena Raine - Game Maker's Notebook

A very length and wonderful chat with indie composer superstar Lena Raine! Best known for CELESTE, she's also done fantastic work on MINECRAFT, SACKBOY and (as of when we recorded this) a new indie called CHICORY. Especially unique amongst composers, she has a somewhat extensive design background at ArenaNet (on GUILD WARS 2) prior to going freelance. We cover it all and more!

Lena:

This podcast was created by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (who also give out the DICE Awards) and can be heard / subscribed to here:

Highly recommended for anyone interested in the game industry!

Me!

[aaronwilliams]

Celeste is one of my favorite games of all time! It's music was completely outstanding throughout the game!

[HenNgTr]

Starting now, Lena better also go off on John Williams related tangents

[eitanmedina]

Two of my favorite game composers in one place? What is this, a crossover episode?

[tfg]

Chicory is my new all-time favourite OST. It's flawless

[matthewt]

Lena is incredible she is so soulful. My kids and I loved the Celeste soundtrack and then came Pigstep and ascension to diety occurred 😆

[EldenRinging]

Died 2900 times in "Celeste" and I didn't even dare to try the b-sides properly.

Of course I got the soundtrack on vinyl. 😍👌

[Soulindex]

This is legit the most excited I've gotten when I saw the video title. Love her work! The CD set for Celeste is actually the first physical CD I've ever bought 😄

[vanessamoore]

My two favorite composers had a party and I'm living for it

[BoonetheAgentsofHAILCreator]

I also love Lena's work on later Minecraft updates and Deltarune Chapter 2.

[kaseystrange]

What an absolutely wonderful 2 and half hours! Two awesome people just chatting about life and music. Thank you Austin for providing these chats, thank you Lena for participating, and thank you both for the astounding music & content you create.

[johnd]

Awesome conversation! I loved the part about Celeste DLC and expanding the style. Looking back that really lines up with how the music sounded, and I think Lena achieved exactly what she was going for. Joy of Remembrance is an outstanding track that I can’t imagine fitting in the base game, but it fits perfectly.

[MissingCollectible]

Two of my favorite video game composers in one place!?

[NDG__]

Ohh yes!! Still need to catch up her interview with Kate Remington from last week! Great week end ahead, thank you so much Austin

[xandertriss]

Oh heck yeah! I know what I'll be listening to for the next few hours.

[coalescence]

I saw this and I was like, “LENA RANE??? YOU CAN’T DO THAT”

[desertrat]

How serendipitous. After finishing Celeste the other day, I wondered if you'd had Lena Raine on this show yet, and then a few days later you upload this!

[crangejo]

Lena's voice is so much deeper than what I imagined lol
Great episode!

[camerongray]

Picked up chicory because of this, excellent game

[JonnyLuscious]

when the bell choir was first added into Guild Wars 2 for wintersday, my internet was so slow it didn't work for me... but this last year i finally had decent enough internet to enjoy. cool to hear where it came from. the audio all the way around is excellent in that game (sound design, dialog, compositions, etc.) Celeste is also a favorite.

[GlydeBorealis]

I clicked on this video so fast when I saw Lena's name