In-between showering Compton-born rapper Kendrick Lamar with gilded gramophones over the weekend, the Grammy Awards also crowned Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord as the show’s third annual Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media.
The first-ever Wizardry game introduced Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying to the Apple II in 1981 before being ported to several other PC models, home consoles, and even handhelds in the ensuing decades. Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord’s legacy was further celebrated by developer Digital Eclipse with a 2023 remake, featuring a complete 3D overhaul of the classic wireframe graphics as well as an all-new soundtrack. Polygon’s Michael McWhertor praised the remake as a more playable, but not any less punishing, way to experience the old-school game.
As the original game’s dungeon-crawling didn’t feature any accompanying music, veteran composer Winifred Phillips (God of War, Borderlands) had to build the remake’s score from scratch. The entire album is available for download on Bandcamp.
“It’s like a bright light just exploded in my head,” a giddy Phillips said during an on-camera interview conducted right after she was presented her award. “We do a very unique thing. We’re creating music that needs to accompany people who are having an experience and who are making choices and having adventures and living a grand story, and we’re kind of creating the music for that story. It’s such a wonderful privilege, because you feel like you’re sort of collaborating with the players, like you know them and they know you. It’s really very special.”
Pinar Toprak (Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora), Bear McCreary (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla), John Paesano (Marvel’s Spider-Man 2), and Wilbert Roget II (Star Wars Outlaws) were also nominated. Past winners include Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab (Star Wars Jedi: Survivor) and Stephanie Economou (Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok).
Before introducing a category specific to the medium in 2023, the Grammy Awards rarely acknowledged video games. Christopher Tin’s “Baba Yetu” from Civilization 4 was the first piece of video game music to take home a Grammy in 2011, for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s), followed two years later by Austin Wintory’s brilliant work on Journey, which took home the award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.
