Pete Frogs Music 🎶

Welcome! I’m Pete Frogs, a video game composer and music producer, and I write music that helps indie games resonate emotionally with players. For more info on my work and any collaboration opportunities, head over to my website: petefrogs.com

Yes, GenAI is built upon stolen labor and the exploitation of unprivileged workers, No, GenAI won't empower the masses, No, GenAI, won't make art available to everyone, Yes, GenAI only stands to benefit the tech bros who control it. Fuck AI.

This menu theme I wrote for a prototype is all about creating that haunting feeling of uncertainty and mystery. A lot of that comes from the lead synth. It keeps playing the same five notes, but because the piece has no fixed meter, it's also unpredictable and keeps you guessing.

This year's Game Camp was amazing! Perfect opportunity to reunite with the @unlimitedspoons.bsky.social team and meet tons of creatives and developers working on exciting projects. Coming back energized and inspired from witnessing such passion and dedication for creating games!

How do you make sure your 1'30 game music loop doesn't sound boring? A vast question! For this specific piece written for a cosmopolitan marketplace town, my answer was: contrast! Each new section features a key change and a new lead instrument, while the drum & bass backbone stays consistent.

Back from a nice weekend in Lyon! Work session with the @unlimitedspoons.bsky.social team on Friday. Creating sounds with the team present is sooo valuable. Then @indiegamelyon.com on Saturday! Perfect opportunity to catch up with game industry friends and try new games.

Sora & Chill is a full-length tribute to the music of Kingdom Hearts from video game music composer and multi-instrumentalist @petefrogs.bsky.social. 🎵 Stream & Support ▸ vgm.fm/sorachill #KingdomHearts #VideoGameMusic #ChillMusic #StudyMusic #InstrumentalMusic #VGMMusic #GameMusic #RelaxingMusic

Here we go! My take on "Face My Fears" from Kingdom Hearts III. See you in two weeks for the full album release 💖 vgm.fm/facefears

Face My Fears by @petefrogs.bsky.social is a smooth, melodic reinterpretation of the Kingdom Hearts theme, blending expressive piano, unique percussion, and driving guitar into a relaxed, immersive groove. 🎵 Stream this album ▸ vgm.fm/facefears

Quick announcement ! I'm releasing an album of Kingdom Hearts remixes very soon, once again with game music label @gamechops.com. The lead single, "Face My Fears" will be out tomorrow and the full album will drop on April 21. "I just can't wait. Once we set sail, it'll be great." (Kairi, KH1)

Happy to announce that I'll be in charge of music and sound design for the vertical slice of Dust to Dust! Dust to Dust is a really cool story-driven top-down metroidvania game developed by Unlimited Spoons, a young game studio based in Lyon, France. Big thanks to them for bringing me on board!

This track makes music out of the sound of browsing through samples. While browsing through pad samples, I thought to myself, "wait, why don't I record myself browsing through sounds and just use that in the track"? To me, it sounds like the musical equivalent of flipping through TV channels.

Everything you're hearing now is coming from just one synthesizer! Using samples is great, but for this one I wanted to create my own textured, evolving ambient pad from scratch. Gives me more control to make it work with the rest of the track!

This is the track I wrote for my first gig as a game music composer! The brief: write an upbeat, chiptune character theme for Beri, an excitable hamster mechanic with electric abilities, to be played as a modded character for the game Rivals of Aether.

I reimagined the funky character theme I shared last week as a boss fight theme: The character theme version was slower and inspired by 70s funk music. For the boss fight version, I kicked up the tempo and drew from 90s rave and house music to add energy and grit while retaining the groove!

I wrote this funky track as a theme for a game character that has astronomical levels of cool – the kind that would steal the show the moment they're introduced. *But* you could also use this theme ironically for a character who thinks they're cool, but aren't.

For this track, "Glimmers of Goodbyes", I went for a complex mix of emotions: neither happy nor sad, but rather a bittersweet mix of loss, acceptance, and hope.

The last video I posted was about creating adaptive music; in this one, I show you how to implement music into an adaptive music system in FMOD.

Here's a breakdown of how I created an adaptive system for a jam game – in the game, you transition through four different realities, so I made four different versions of the same composition:

I recently wrote a track called "Moon Lake" as an exercise in creating music for a very specific type of location: a mystical, ancient forest constantly under the moonlight:

This synth patch uses randomness to create an endlessly evolving sound: For every new note, the volume, panning, fine tune, octave, and waveform of some of the oscillators are randomized. I could let this section of music loop for hours and get something slightly different every time!

Had the opportunity to play a DJ set last week for the 15th anniversary of @atlangames.com, my local video game cluster! I played a collection of synthwave and cyberpunk tracks I've released over the years. Always appreciate putting my background in music performance to use for this kind of events!

I created an SFX "instrument" that allows me to "play" futuristic, sci-fi whooshes when I play random notes and move sliders around on my MIDI keyboard. The power! Coming from a musician background, I really appreciate being able to "perform" sound effects like this.

I took my heavy cyberpunk music track I shared last week, "Straylight Menace", and turned it into a dynamic music system in Fmod to accompany a two-phase boss fight, with cutscenes before, during, and after the boss fight, similar to what you might encounter in modern RPG games:

Music demo time! This week, I have some heavy cyberpunk music: Going for a futuristic sound with a grimy / dirty edge, I think that combination is the essence of the cyberpunk aesthetic. Could work as a boss battle theme in an ARPG, with the quieter parts underscoring cutscenes.

I wrote an epic boss fight theme! I was envisioning a climactic battle in the sky against a gargantuan boss, hence the title, "Sky Sunderer". Maybe not the final boss, but definitely close to it!

I wrote some creepy music, taking inspiration from Japanese horror media and going for a slight retro 90s/00s vibe. Makes me think of dark, mysterious woods, and some messed up occult ritual happening by a moonlit night. Not written for Halloween specifically, but it did line up pretty well!

I wrote a piece with a 15/16 time signature, which is probably the wackiest time signature I've ever used! Going for something crystalline, enigmatic, and ethereal. Think a late-game level in an RPG or Metroidvania made of pure white, mirrors and glass.

I made a video to break down my process as a game composer. Here's a behind the scenes look into how I created the first level theme for Turbo Shell, by Radioactive Dreams UG, from initial demo to final master: Link to the full video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=axfp...

Here's a somber and sorrowful track I wrote recently, featuring piano and an accompaniment of strings, guitar, and electronics. Could work as a main menu theme, or for a specific in-game cutscene.

We don’t want AI slop. Stop sending us AI slop. Stop wasting our time with AI slop. It doesn’t sound good. It’s antithetical to our core values. You didn’t even make it. Knock it off.

Here's a solo piano piece I wrote recently. Going for something playful and cute — makes me think of little animals going about their lives and maybe making a little mischief. And yeah, I'm a big fan of Debussy.

Gotta vibe slow! Sonic & Chill 2 is out now 💙 10 chill, lofi house remixes of classic Sonic tracks from the Genesis era — my little love letter to the Sonic series and the 90s! vgm.fm/sonicchill2

The Sonic & Chill legacy continues in a synth-driven house tribute from @petefrogs.bsky.social! 🎵 Stream & Support ▸ vgm.fm/sonicchill2

♡ STARDEW & CHILL 2 ♡ it's such a pleasure to present this album on the third anniversary of the original Stardew & Chill—hope you all love it ♡ out now 🌟 @gamechops.com streaming everywhere 🌱 vgm.fm/stardew2 album artwork 🖼️ @artbyriana.bsky.social

Come on... almost there...

CTHULOOT, our arcade coop 1-4 players game is now playable on Nintendo Switch! Grab it on the Nintendo eShop: www.nintendo.com/us/store/pro... (EU players: search on the console directly, page is still not up). Have fun! #gamedev #indiedev #indiegame #coopgaming

Sinners comes highly recommended if you like horror movies and/or blues music and/or film noir

Today is release day! "Hydrocity Zone Act 2" just dropped: vgm.fm/hydrocity2 It's the lead single from my upcoming album, "Sonic & Chill 2", releasing on June 24. You can presave it here on Spotify: open.spotify.com/prerelease/5... can't wait for the full album release! 🐸 💙 🦔

Today, @petefrogs.bsky.social makes a splash in “Hydrocity Zone”! Dipping into Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Pete is back with a deep house groove to dance or kick back and relax to. Support ▸ vgm.fm/hydrocity2 #Sonic #Sonicmovie #Sonic3

I have a new remix coming out next Tuesday on GameChops! @gamechops.com It's the lead single for an album coming out at the beginning of summer, and my first remix album focusing on one video game series in particular! Place your bets below ⬇️

Happy 10th Birthday to Hotline Miami 2! Thanks to @jamesturner.bsky.social for this anniversary art.