A portion of a Game Informer interview with composer Cris Velasco...

GI: How did you come to be involved with video game soundtracks? Was that always a goal of yours?

CV: I did decide fairly early on that I wanted to pursue video games as my career. While I was still in college, I started searching the mod communities online. I found a few very talented groups that were creating games based on the original Half-Life engine. The one I was most impressed with was called Gunman Chronicles. I chose wisely on this one too. The game was eventually picked up by Valve and released in stores! You can still find it on the shelves occasionally. I was hoping that this would be the thing that launched my career as a composer for games. Unfortunately, the team sort of went their separate ways and I was forced to find a new way in.

I then struggled for many years, using the time to get better and faster at writing music, until I finally got a call to demo for the Battlestar Galactica game. They eventually agreed to let me write one track for the game. I put everything I had into that track. It was well received and they gave me a couple more to do, and then more after that. I struck up a good relationship with the developer during this time and they brought me in on their next three titles too. I continued to make friends within the industry and was soon given the chance to demo for God of War. After my involvement on this one, the doors really opened for me.