IN FOCUS Ep1: Sync Writing for Games



Cabrea Casey, Downtown Music’s Publishing Director of Sync and A&R, sat down with artist, songwriter, and producer Madge to explore her process behind writing for Riot Games’ Valorant. As advice for artists seeking out game sync writing opportunities, Madge advises a perspective shift, letting go of ego and self-importance of one’s own creative capability, and building an innovative partnership with developers and studios.

The following is created in collaboration with Downtown Music, a company DMN is proud to be partnering with.

Madge has paved her way in video game songwriting, writing original music with Valorant, and tackled the creative process shift to writing for a game by understanding the character, and translating that narrative into music.

Cabrea Casey and Madge talk about finding that balance of maintaining one’s artist perspective while writing with a brief, and the importance of building trust with the sync licensing team.

On how Madge’s collaboration with Riot Games and Valorant came about, Madge says, “It was a combination of having my foot in the door a little bit through my own artist presence on the internet, then pitching to them and finding a very nice, happy, collaborative home in that experience.”

“I tend to approach my personal songwriting much differently than as a brief sync writer for games,” Madge says, adding that working with a brief has a bad reputation because it’s ‘always a longer process than writing or doing it yourself.’

“Generally, there’s always going to be many, many edits with brief writing. And you’re going to be making those edits not to your own tastes, but to the taste of an entire committee.”

“But my experience with Riot Games was a very creative, collaborative one. Even though I interacted with and incorporated feedback from people who weren’t giving any musical notes, the final track came from a deep musical part of me. I’m pleased with it.”

On learning to ‘let go of ego’ and approach the project as a true creative partnership, Madge believes there’s incredible artistic value in doing away with “the preciousness and self-importance of your own ideas. “

“I feel like artists are very much children, and children love structure. They might want to push up against it and be like, No, I don’t want to take a nap. But they push as far as they can, and they end up being very safe in that framework.”

“So contrary to popular belief, I think that clear sync briefs give you something to push up against. And in many ways, you end up feeling taken care of in that space. And the pushing is beneficial for the other side, the mommies and the daddies on the sync brief side.”

Madge enjoys working with specific direction and frameworks for building songs. “I love that structure. You can crack open a creative side in your process that you wouldn’t have access to otherwise.”

“For Valorant, I wrote the theme song for the new agent [character], Clove. Writing for Clove was like butterflies, clocks, the spirit world, fluidity in between realms, and young punk. So it was brain-stretching and yet also a highly specific exercise. It was deeply inspiring to me. I loved it.”

Since Clove was a new agent, Madge worked with developers and creatives who were building the backstory, narrative, and presentation. “I got some of the first looks at this character. It was exciting but I’d signed like a million NDAs, so I was even scared to tell my mom about it.”

Speaking about the extent of the songwriter’s role in character development,  Madge admits that the agent was ‘completely fleshed out’ by Riot Games, and became more so throughout the process. “I definitely infused personal details and tones and textures that happened to align with Clove.”

For Clove, Madge received ‘specific lore’ to embody within the character. But she felt ‘there was overlap between her as a person, and Clove as a character.’ She adds, “I’m sure this was intentional when they were seeking artists who would resonate with this agent. I think Riot Games was genius for this.”

“Clove is a badass. They can stop time, and their powers are very cool. But there was something very tender about this agent. I immediately was like, Oh, they look like a baddie because that’s a defense mechanism.”

When asked if Madge had any advice for songwriters on challenges that this kind of work brings, Madge talks about one of most favorite war stories between working musicians and creative teams.

“Shift your mindset from ‘oh it’s so hard to work with non musicians’ to ‘whoa this is so cool that I’m exploring music from a completely different perspective.’”

Musicians believe that sync teams’ feedback is not credible because ‘they aren’t musicians.’ “It’s easy to gripe about it and see it as something that’s making your life harder. Switch your perspective instead and be like, whoa, how do I explore and incorporate feedback?”

Sync is about storytelling and feeling, Madge adds, and if sync teams ‘provide adjectives to change tone and emotion instead of the technicalities of music, it will ultimately give you a song that’s better suited to the sync environment.’

Casey and Madge also discuss the ‘practical aspect,’ and what songwriters need in order to write successfully for sync in games.

“While I’m not particularly a gamer in the classic sense, I enjoy video games and the world of it and the aesthetic of it. It certainly helped.”

According to Madge, the first step should begin as a consumer by understanding the medium one is pitching toward. “If you’re trying to write for video games, then you need to be immersed in it. There’s a specific sound, a specific language, and specific memes. I don’t think you’re going to be able to tap into the heart of it without understanding it.”

She adds, “I’ve been lucky enough with the Riot Games collab to feel like I’m in touch with a very living, breathing community. And a huge part of that is just being immersed in that gaming community for eight years.”

IN FOCUS is Downtown Music’s latest online content series, featuring conversations among Downtown Music team members, their clients, and industry partners. The collection of videos and podcasts offers diverse perspectives on the trends driving evolution in the music business.