Composer Bear McCreary (The Walking Dead, Battlestar Galactica) once again engages in space combat with the new multi-player space game Moon Breakers. The retro futuristic game, from Imba Entertainment and Uber Entertainment, brings the classic genre of space shooters back to a new generation of players and is currently available to play for free on Google's Chrome Browser and on Steam.
"I am a life-long science fiction nerd and video game junkie," admitted McCreary. "I've scored science fiction projects and videogames, but I've never had the chance to approach them with such a pulpy, retro tribute to the spaceships and videogames I grew up on in the 70s and 80s. I was thrilled to work with everyone at Imba and Uber on a game that combined my passions so perfectly."
"With Moon Breakers' score we knew we wanted to create a tribute, not only to the Golden Age of space combat games, but also the vintage era represented in our world," said Ed Byrne of Imba Entertainment. "Pirate and Government themes required iconic, complex qualities to infuse them with life. We immediately went to Bear, as a master of taking the classic, the nostalgic and perfectly reforging it for an entirely new audience. The results speak for themselves; Moon Breakers delivers music that takes a game experience and makes it a visceral, magical thing that is contemporary as it is wonderfully reminiscent."
Imba's game Moon Breakers pits two teams of players against each other in objective-based missions, where nimble star ships dogfight and Carriers bristle with automated gun turrets as they fend off torpedoes and cannon fire, all set to a soundtrack by legendary composer Bear McCreary. Moon Breakers' formula of incredibly intuitive controls, crisp performance, accessibility and thrilling action allows players to fulfill their star pilot fantasies, and best of all it's free to play.
"The visual style and combat approach for Moon Breakers was so old-school, I knew it would need an old-school anthemic score," said McCreary. I fused together soaring orchestral themes, jangly ethnic odditiesand 1970's inspired synthesizers, to create a hybrid of old and new sounds. My goal was to have fun writing, to make sure that gamers out there could have fun playing."
Bear McCreary's unique combination of atypical instrumental background (he is a professional accordionist) with rigorous classical training prepared him to compose for disparate genres. By the age of 24, McCreary was launched into pop culture history with his groundbreaking score to SyFy's hit series Battlestar Galactica, for which he composed "the most innovative music on TV today" (Variety). It "fits the action so perfectly, it's almost devastating: a sci-fi score like no other" (NPR). Io9.com declared Bear McCreary one of the Ten Best Science Fiction Composers of all time, listing him alongside legends John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and Bernard Herrmann.
McCreary continues to write for the television shows The Walking Dead and Eureka. In 2013 he will lend his talents to SyFy and Trion World's groundbreaking entertainment experience, Defiance, a combined launch of a MMO videogame and television series. His upcoming film projects include The Knights of Badassdom. His other credits include critically acclaimed scores for series such as Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Caprica, and The Cape. His swashbuckling score for Human Target featured the largest orchestra ever assembled in the history of series television and earned him his first Emmy nomination. His feature film work includes Disney's Step Up 3-D and Chillerama, and his videogame credits include SOCOM 4 and Dark Void.
Moon Breakers is available now on Google's Chrome browser on Steam. A soundtrack featuring the original music by McCreary was released on June 26.