Why Journey’s ending was so hard to score

Journey is such a seamless, timeless game, and it feels as though it was delivered fully formed by some ancient video game god. Of course, that is not the case. The path to developing the game was an arduous one, with an especially interesting quirk: the music was composed right alongside the development of the game. It even directly influenced its design.

Composer Austin Wintory sat down with us for an interview to explain how this creative process gave us Journey’s memorable score. While the game’s first song was practically written the day Wintory was asked to join the project, the same would not be the case for the game’s last song, “Apotheosis.” Nothing would be harder for both the team and Wintory than nailing the end of this harrowing journey.

If you enjoy this video game composer interview, be sure to check out other videos on The Sims composer Jerry Martin and Final Fantasy 7 composer Nobuo Uematsu.