Darren Korb: Bastion’s musical maestro mesmerizes DSU students

With its unique blend of narrative, art-style and sound design, Supergiant Game’s first title, Bastion, provides a gaming experience unlike any other. None if it would have been possible without teamwork says Darren Korb, composer of Bastion’s award winning soundtrack, when he musically manifested in DSU during Nanocon this year.

Comparing the Supergiant team to a band, Mr. Korb emphasized how in small teams everyone has to contribute majorly. No aspect of design is separate from another and cohesion is the key to excellence. As a complete rookie to the game design industry, Darren Korb started working on Bastion with no prior experience and no connections aside from a childhood friendship with the game’s designer Amir Rao. Despite his inexperience Mr. Korb went on to create one of the most iconic scores in recent gaming history, showing the world that if you are talented enough anything is possible.

Aside from sharing his incredibly inspiring backstory, Mr. Korb took time to answer many, many questions from DSU students. The Prairie Playhouse Auditorium was packed with Game Design, Audio and a host of other majors who threw a plethora of inquiries at our special guest. Some questions were about audio, others were about the cohesive design process as a whole. Yet others were just requests for fun tidbits that Mr. Korb was more than willing to share.

As his allocated speaking time came to a close, Darren Korb unveiled a surprise for the attendees – free copies of both Bastion and Transistor’s soundtrack. The stage was immediately rushed by students, eager to get their hands on the serendipitously symphonic soundtracks and even more eager to talk to their musically gifted muse of a maker.

Several students and faculty members proceeded to join Kr Korb for supper at El Vaquero where he and other Nanocon speakers networked with star struck students. The experience was definitely both educational and entertaining for our college. We can only hope that, one day, Mr Korb will once again brighten Madison with his presence. Until then, we will just have to replay Bastion and Transistor for the 7,612th time.