Composer Austin Wintory returned to the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday to conduct his third annual concert of game music, this one paying homage to some of his favorite pieces of music from across the medium’s history while also nodding to 2025’s biggest hits. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, unsurprisingly, had several songs featured at the end of the concert, as well as a special appearance from actors Ben Starr and Jennifer English, performing a poignant conversation between their characters Verso and Maelle.
Then Wintory clowned on them.
As part of a running bit in the concert—to drive home the impact a piece of music can have on the emotional tenor of a scene—Wintory started with the appropriate music, a melancholy piece from Clair Obscur, before suddenly transitioning to the synthy, late night lounge vibes of poker deckbuilder Balatro. Starr, somewhat notoriously, played Balatro mascot Jimbo in a live action commercial, which made the concert mash-up very much a “congratulations, you’ve played yourself” moment.
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Starr and English were in on the joke, of course—all in good fun. Earlier in the show Wintory and his friend and collaborator Troy Baker paired a speech from The Last of Us with the bouncy music of Super Mario Bros., which was even more discordant—but not quite as entertaining as watching Starr and English together trying to deliver their serious dialogue over top of a song purpose-built to send players into hours-long fugue states.
The full concert should be posted on GDC’s YouTube channel at some point, but for now enjoy this particularly silly bit of it.
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