We’ve had the pleasure of working with Peter Reid Jones hot off his work on the RWBY animated series. Since that time, we’ve worked on over a dozen indie game titles and counting. We admire Peter’s versatility, enthusiasm, and can-do attitude. Hear his incredible work in RWBY: Arrowfell, Evil Tonight, Dark Deception, and many more.
Read his full biography, credits list, and hear some sample music on his Scarlet Moon Artists page. Check below for an interview with Peter Reid Jones about his style, inspirations, and collaboration with Scarlet Moon.
Working on Indie Games
I believe that the heart and soul of indie is where it all began. We have our roots, but in my experience, indie is where we pour out what’s most special to US. Games got big and saturated, leading to trends, formulaic blueprints, predictable outcomes, and the like. While that’s not necessarily bad, I as a gamer-at-heart am here to be creative, not completely formulaic. When you go more with your gut than trends and standard thrill, THAT’S the stuff that speaks to us as humans. There’s a spirit to us; we know when we feel it!
Favorite Kinds of Projects
Team size doesn’t matter at all; I have worked with single-dev little bedroom projects, indie small team, fairly popular franchises like RWBY, involved with AAA like Star Wars: Outlaws; If you’ve got a vision for a killer game, let’s jam!! Bringing visions to life is a delight. My personal favorite game vibes, though? I just cannot get enough of hack’n’slash (Hyrule Warriors, NieR Automata, Ys), FPS (Brutal Doom, Quake 2, Metroid Prime), moody (Max Payne), JRPGs (Xenogears, NieR Automata, Secret of Mana), adventure (Zelda), platformer/metroidvania (Jazz Jackrabbit, AM2R/Dread/Fusion, Sonic 3 & Knuckles), and philosophical (Blade Runner, NieR Automata, Ghost in the Shell, Haibane Renmei) to name a few. I could make it through the desert on those in particular.
Creative Philosophy
It starts and ends with prose straight from the gut. It’s easy (if not expected) these days to rely on references (which I can do!), but, in case anyone hasn’t noticed, Blade Runner 2049 tried to warn us: I feel like this referential preference is bleeding into humanity’s expectations and gut instincts. Sincere humanity is what I’m all about, whether I know what I’m doing or not. Go back to video games from the beginning – they all had to figure it out by the seat of their pants, and this unwavering strife is the truest human essence! I love that, and I RELISH in wading into the waters of the soul as such. Pan for gold that way, and you ALWAYS find diamonds, warts and all. For my personal style, straight from my gut, just listen to FINAL FANTASY XIII and NieR: Automata, and you have yourself a front-row seat of a window to my soul.
What Makes Me Unique
One ace up my sleeve is versatility. Even for fun, I enjoy listening to whatever tune upon which Apple Music drops its metaphorical needle. And I THOROUGHLY ENJOY the challenge of trying to figure it out, as our VGM forebears had to! Otherwise, as said, I prefer to figure out the depth of the vision that flies out of YOU; that’s where references fall short of our creative endeavors, because you can’t fake you. And I have a pretty solid track record in helping our creative clients tap deeper and deeper into their vision. It’s an adventure and IT. IS. INVIGORATING!
Partnership with Scarlet Moon
Being the underling “new kid on the block,” I have actually seen quite a range of projects! Single-dev little bedroom projects, indie small team, composing for popular franchises like RWBY, AAA projects such as talkboxing as a cantina alien pop star in Ubisoft’s Star Wars: Outlaws; Every project is a joy to just run off into the sand pit and build our sand castles, so to speak. The planets aligned in my joining Scarlet Moon’s artistic roster and I count my lucky stars every single day. The creative process can even be messy but oh, it’s EXACTLY the mess I CRAVE.
Learn more: https://scarletmoon.com/bio-peter-jones
Contact: https://www.scarletmoon.com/contact.html