Winifred Phillips is an American music composer and author. Her music composition credits include God of War, Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, and the LittleBigPlanet series. In 2025, Phillips won a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media for her music in the video game Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord.
Early life
Phillips' love of music began in childhood, supported by her experiences in the public school system. She looked upon her teachers and looked forward to her music classes. In middle school, her band teacher found out that she was a quick learner and got into the habit of giving her a new instrument to learn whenever there was a gap in one of his ensembles. She got to play all sorts of music and all different kinds of instruments, eventually becoming classically trained in keyboard and voice."From God of War to Assassin's Creed: The Musical Journey of Winifred Phillips" GameSpot.com. Accessed December 16, 2016. In addition to her public school education, Phillips studied composition through private lessons with a local composer. She specifically used MIDI keyboards to begin experimenting with composition.
Phillips had been an avid gamer in her childhood and played everything from shooters and side-scrollers to sprawling RPGs. Phillips’ work on Radio Tales was heard by a music supervisor at Sony’s American gaming division. In 2004, Philips met with the supervisor, where they were shown God of War and asked to contribute music. It was after this meeting that Phillips truly realized she could compose for games.
Career
Early career From 1992 to 2003, Phillips was the composer, producer and actress in a series of radio dramas, first presented on National Public Radio Playhouse under the title Generations Radio Theater Presents,"NPR Playhouse - January - March, 2001" MNinter.net. Accessed March 21, 2008. and then later as Generations Radio Theater Presents: Radio Tales.National Public Radio: "NPR Quarterly Program Guide, Spring 2001". NPR Marketing, Vol. VII, No. II This anthology series adapted classic works of American and world literature, and was a recipient of funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.National Public Radio: "NPR Quarterly Edition, Fall 1998". NPR Marketing, Vol. IV, No. III The series was described by NPR as "featuring a top-to-bottom music score that is completely original and fully integrated to the text"."NPR Playhouse Catalog Information Supplied by NPR Cultural Programming Producer Andy Trudeau" MNinter.net. Accessed March 21, 2008. The programs aired regularly as the Radio Tales series on the Sirius XM Book Radio channel."Program List for Channel SIRIUS XM BOOK RADIO" XMRadio.com. Accessed March 9, 2010. On this project she worked with Winnie Waldron, the creator of Radio Tales, and would continue to work on scores together.
Video games
In 2004, Phillips contributed music to her first video game project, when she was hired by Sony Computer Entertainment America, now Sony Interactive Entertainment, to create God of War. This game was very successful, winning seven awards from the Game Audio Network Guild Awards, including Music of the Year. She then went on to compose the musical scores for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 2005, and The Da Vinci Code games in 2006, published by 2K Games. As of 2026, Winifred Phillips has composed scores for 34 video games, and 1 TV mini series.
Some relevant titles include the LittleBigPlanet video game franchise, SimAnimals, and most notably Assassin's Creed III: Liberation. For the music composition of Liberation, she won seven awards for this project including the Global Music Award for musical excellence, a Hollywood Music in Media Award, and GameFocus Award. The main theme of Liberation also won a G.A.N.G. Award from the Game Audio Network Guild in the category of "Best Original Vocal Song - Choral". The soundtrack also received nominations in competitions such as the GameZone Awards, the Best of IGN Awards, and the G4TV X-Play Best of 2012 Awards.
Writing Phillips is the author of the book A Composer’s Guide to Game Music, which was published by the MIT Press in March 2014."A Composer's Guide to Game Music" Worldcat.org. Accessed August 25, 2014. The book uses her experience and knowledge from working in composition for video games to assist aspiration composers. The book has won several awards including a National Indie Excellence Book Award,"Indie Excellence Awards: Winners of the 2015 Awards" IndieExcellence.com. Accessed May 18, 2015. and a Nonfiction Book Award from the Nonfiction Authors Association."Book Award Winner: A Composer's Guide to Game Music" NonfictionAuthorsAssociation.com. Accessed July 10, 2015.
The book was very well received by critics"FMS Feature - by Jon Burlingame" FilmMusicSociety.org. Accessed November 6, 2014."A Composer's Guide to Game Music Book Review" SoundonSound.com. Accessed August 25, 2014. and in 2015, O'Reilly Japan published a Japanese language edition titled Game Sound Production Guide - Composer Techniques for Interactive Music."O'Reilly Japan - Game Sound Production Guide” Oreilly.co.jp. Accessed September 18, 2015. Phillips also was a series of YouTube tutorials to supplement the book, and writes a blog with more information on the topic of scoring for video games. Beginning in 2015, she has also given keynotes at the Game Developer's Conference surrounding the topic of game audio.
Works Phillips has composed music for more than 20 video games across multiple genres. Her work spans action-adventure, simulation, role-playing, and casual games, demonstrating a high degree of stylistic versatility within interactive media.
Some notable titles include LittleBigPlanet, SimAnimals, and Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation. In addition to these, Phillips contributed to Spore Hero, where she developed adaptive musical systems designed to respond to gameplay progression, and LittleBigPlanet 2, which incorporated interactive scoring techniques aligned with user-generated gameplay environments.
Her work on licensed titles such as The Da Vinci Code and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory reflects her ability to compose within pre-existing cinematic and narrative frameworks while maintaining flexibility for interactive systems. Across her career, Phillips has composed for over 30 video games as well as television productions, contributing significantly to the development of music in interactive entertainment.
Compositional style and approach Winifred Phillips is recognized for her work in interactive game music, particularly her use of adaptive and non-linear compositional techniques that respond dynamically to player input and gameplay conditions. According to her book, A Composer's Guide To Game Music, her approach often involves designing modular musical layers that can be rearranged, added, or removed in real time, allowing the score to evolve based on gameplay rather than following a fixed linear structure. Phillips' style also focuses on maintaining emotional continuity in interactive environments. Instead of composing isolated cues, she constructs musical systems that preserve thematic cohesion even as the music shifts in response to gameplay variability.
Phillips frequently combines orchestral instrumentation with electronic elements, creating hybrid soundscapes suited to a wide range of game genres. In works such as Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, she incorporates choral writing and historically informed musical gestures to enhance narrative immersion and cultural context.
Discography
Games
LittleBigPlanet Series YearTitleDeveloper2011LittleBigPlanet 2 (co-composer)Media Molecule2012LittleBigPlanet PS Vita (co-composer)Double Eleven, Tarsier Studios and XDev Studio Europe2012LittleBigPlanet Karting (licensed music)United Front Games and San Diego Studio2014LittleBigPlanet 3 (co-composer)Sumo Digital2020Sackboy: A Big Adventure (co-composer)Sumo Digital
Other games YearTitleDeveloper2005God of War (co-composer)Santa Monica Studio2005Charlie and the Chocolate FactoryHigh Voltage Software2006The Da Vinci CodeThe Collective2007Shrek the ThirdAmaze Entertainment2007Shrek-N-RollBackbone Entertainment 2007Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator (only case 6)Grundislav Games2008Speed Racer: The VideogameSidhe Interactive2009Spore HeroElectronic Arts2009SimAnimalsElectronic Arts2009The MawTwisted Pixel Games2010Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'HooleKrome Studios2010Hasbro Family Game Night 3Electronic Arts2012Assassin's Creed III: LiberationUbisoft2013Fighter WithinUbisoft2014Clash of KingsElex Tech2015Call of ChampionsSpacetime Studios2015Total War Battles: Kingdom (co-composer)Creative Assembly2016Rival Stars College FootballPikPok2016Homefront: The RevolutionDambuster Studios 2017Little Lords of TwilightBKOM Studios2018They Suspect NothingCoatsink2018Shattered StateSupermassive Games2018The Haunted GraveyardHolospark2018Scraper: First StrikeLabrodex Inc2019Hades' StarParallel Space Inc2019BallistaHigh Voltage Software2019Sports ScrambleArmature Studio2020Life Hutch VRChthonic Studios2020SpyderSumo Digital 2020The Dark Eye: Book of HeroesRandom Potion2021Lineage M (co-composer)NCSoft2022Jurassic World Primal OpsBehaviour Interactive2023Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (remake)Digital Eclipse
Awards
Video games