Stephen A. Rippy (born 1975) is an American composer.

Life and career

Rippy grew up in the

Spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...

area of

Harris County, Texas Harris County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas; as of the 2020 census, the population was 4,731,145, making it the most populous county in Texas and the third most populous county in the United States. Its county seat is Houston, ...

, and now resides in Plano, Texas, near

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

. Making video game music was not Rippy's original career goal. He attended the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in the early 1990s to study visual art, and only took a few music courses. Rippy worked for Ensemble Studios as the head of the Audio department with friend and collaborator Kevin McMullan. He is best known for his sound design and scores on the ''

Age of Empires ''Age of Empires'' is a series of historical real-time strategy video games, originally developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. The first game was ''Age of Empires'', released in 1997. Nine total games within the ser ...

'' series, its spin-off ''

Age of Mythology ''Age of Mythology'' (''AoM'') is a real-time strategy video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released on October 30, 2002, in North America and a week later in Europe. A spin-off from the '' ...

'', and the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

strategy game '' Halo Wars''. Ensemble was closed down shortly after the release of ''Halo Wars''. Rippy joined

Zynga Dallas Zynga Dallas (formerly Bonfire Studios) was a video game development company based in Dallas, Texas. After Ensemble Studios was shut down by Microsoft in 2009, Bonfire Studios was one of four companies founded by former Ensemble employees. Bonfir ...

(then Bonfire Studios), a development studio formed from ex-Ensemble employees and led by Rippy's brother David.

References

External links

Interview with Rippy

Music4Games Music4Games was a video game music information site originally launched in 1999. It focused on the video game soundtrack industry and claimed to target dedicated gamers, game music fans, audiophiles, students, composers, developers, publishers, p ...

Article on Age of Empires musicarchive
, Film Score Monthly
Scoring ''Age of Mythology

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

Official Site
American male composers 21st-century American composers Video game composers 1975 births Living people People from Spring, Texas People from Plano, Texas Ensemble Studios people 21st-century American male musicians {{US-composer-20thC-stub