Newsletter #2: October 2026
Hi folks, long time no see! I said I wouldn’t spam you, and looking at it, it’s been 10 months since the last update so… I’d say I’ve succeeded! A lot of exciting stuff has happened to me this year, so grab a coffee, a blanket, a cat on your lap and let’s go!
Game music
This year was filled with both ongoing and new game projects!
Heir of the Forge
An old-school 2D JRPG with a focus on skill crafting and inspired by all the best ones (Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy …etc).
The project is still ongoing, slowly but surely! There should be a first demo available soon™. I wrote a couple tracks this year including the one I’m most proud of: a boss battle!
Shroomer (gamejam!)
I gladly participated in a gamejam this year, the GMTK jam 2026! Gamejams are events where teams assemble and create each a game based on a theme, all in a given (often short) amount of time. For the GMTK jam, it was 4 days.
With 3 other people (most of the team from Ryze, down below!) we created Shroomer: a 3D boomer-shooter where your alarm clock is about to go off and you’re trying to sleep just a little bit more. Creating the music and sound effects all in 4 days was an amazing way to push myself, and I’m super proud of the game we created!
You can play it for free here, or watch me speedrun through the game in the video below.
Or even listen to the short soundtrack here:
Powerplay
Powerplay was released in early access in July 2026, and it’s been super interesting to hear the feedback from players!
I haven’t written a new tracks in a while, but it should change fairly soon as Amine (the main dev) is currently adding many new things to the game that will eventually need music: cinematics, new factions …etc.
Ryze
Oh boy, that’s a huge one! Ryze is an incredible game currently in development and I am SO.EXCITED.ABOUT.IT. It is a rage game taking the form of a retro 2D precise platformer.
The team is so good! I mean, look at that art! We’re just 5 people making a game in our spare time, yet we’ve reached such a high-quality and managed to release a fully fledged demo in September! You can play it for free on Steam and if you do, please provide me with as much feedback as possible.
I have been creating music and sound design for about a year, and so far we’ve finished about 20% of the game (what’s in the demo). I just can’t wait to compose the music for the next areas!
Dawnfall: Flowers & Thorns
While I can’t share too much about it yet, I’ve joined the team at BlackOnyx Studio in April 2026 to compose music for “Dawnfall: Flowers & Thorns”, an upcoming 2D grimdark JRPG. The game is set to be as incredible as the team.
It is big, it is ambitious, it is wonderful and it is everything I love. I’ve been composing a LOT of music, putting my heart and soul into it, and should be to share some of it fairly soon!
Non-music project
Derby Creek
Branching out of music for a moment, I’ve also been working hard on Derby Creek as a technical artist & graphics programmer. It’s an upcoming roguelike fishing game (intriguing isn’t it?) and the team has put a lot of effort into showing a glimpse of it in the trailer below.
It’s a super interesting project to me, as it’s both my first one in Godot but also my first pixel art game as a technical artist. I’ve worked mostly on visual effects you can see in the trailer such as: water & waterfall, dynamic lighting and time of day, dynamic weather, realtime reflection. On top of it, the team is very nice and so easy to work with, so I’ve been having a blast!
Pocket Opera
August saw the release of the Pocket Opera project, which I contributed to as a technical director in 2022-2024. It consists of five operas, created and recorded using volumetric capture for augmented reality applications. This was by far the most ambitious project I’ve ever participated in, but also the one where I had the most responsibility.
If you’re curious, they are available for free both on Android and iOS, or just look up “Pocket Opera” on the App Stores.
Special thanks to Alithéa Ripoll for bringing me on the project, and Jonathan Hardy for putting huge efforts into finishing it.
Learning
This year I also spent quite a lot of time on improving my composition and mixing skills as well as meeting new people, so let me highlight a few here.
Courses
At the beginning of the year I’ve followed the Mixing Cinematic Music course from Joël Dollié on mixing orchestral music.
It was recommended to me by the fantastic composer Tony Manfredonia, and it was super valuable. Full of technical details and examples, it was definitely worth it and I agree with the recommendation 100%.
I’ve had a blast spending then last six months amongst the Video Game Music Alliance people. My favorite part was the various masterclasses with excellent composers from the game industry, as well as just being part of the VGMA community. Being a freelancer (and especially a composer) can be lonely at times, so being able to share questions, music and experience with like-minded people was extremely fun and motivating.
People
I can’t start with anyone else than François Gérin-Lavoie, a wonderful fellow composer from Ottawa I’ve met in early 2026. I initially reached out to him asking about VGMA, but we ended up bonding over our love for videogame music, JRPGs, orchestra and even went to a few concerts together! (I couldn’t find any picture of us together because I’m bad a taking pics T_T).
Then there are the super kind and passionate teachers at VGMA (thanks Jordan, Brandon, Jake and Steven!).
Finally, a big shoutout to Quentin, the creative director on Dawnfall, for being both an amazing leader, writer and just a wonderful human being. I am better for knowing you! And I just can’t wait to share what we’ve been cooking.
Cello
In September, Alithéa and I decided to start learning cello! It’s been my favorite instrument for years now, and I’d love to add that to my music at some point. Not today. Maybe in a couple of years, because today, it doesn’t sound that great ^^
Oh but that thing is hard to learn!
What’s next in 2027?
As you can see, I’ve got a lot of projects that are still ongoing. So 2027 will most likely be a year of “working on the cool projects” rather than “finding new cool projects to work on”. That being said, I do have a few goals. Hopefully putting them here in writing will help me achieve them:
- Continue improving my music writing skills (composing, producing & mixing) -> I feel like I’ve improved in 2026, but I can still do better!
- Adding more real instruments in my music (both myself and other people) -> This is a long term goal, but I would love to make progress toward it next year.
- Sharing more regularly on socials -> Probably THE area where I want to improve most. Just posting what I’m doing a couple time a months would already make me very happy, so let’s do it!
Damn, thanks for reading, it was a really long newsletter again! Will next one be sooner and smaller? Who knows, stays tuned to find out!