GamingAngels: How did you feel when you were first approached by Ubisoft to compose for Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands?

Penka Kouneva: When I found out that Ubisoft had approved me to work alongside Steve Jablonsky I was ecstatic and remember jumping to the ceiling with joy. I was being given the one “lucky break” and had to step up to the occasion. Right away I immersed myself in Middle-Eastern and Persian music. I tend to think up ideas, sketch and revise motifs, and let them gestate. I began listening to Persian singers, Armenian duduk players and (on YouTube) to tons of instrumental soloists playing santour (Persian dulcimer), ney, tambour (violin), oud, etc. My sketches sat in the notebook for a few months until I started composing in earnest. By that time, I had distilled the best ideas from the sketch book and used them for the actual game music.

What inspired you most when composing for this game?

PK: Two things: I was given an opportunity to combine my life-long passion for non-Western music and instruments, and the fact that composing this score was going to be very challenging technically, and that I was going to learn tons about adaptive scoring for games. I also knew that my agent Cheryl Tiano had to fight for me and convince Ubisoft to give me a chance because “Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands” was, technically, my first game score (on “Transformers 2009” game I wrote only about 15 minutes of in-game score. On “Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands” my assignment was to compose 2 hours of game music.)

Starting piano lessons at age 6, when did you first feel music was your passion?

At the age of 12, I had an opportunity to compose incidental music for children’s theater. The producer was my mother’s friend. With 2 buddies, a flutist and percussionist, we, bookish 7^th-graders, played Saturday matinees of the show for a year. I had such great times, earned $15 per show, and began identifying myself as a “composer.” I was a quiet, shy girl and becoming a “composer” was one of the coolest experiences in my adolescence. Of course, it was not easy: some people thought it was cute, others thought it was weird, but I just kept doing it. I continued composing for theater, small ensembles and pop songs all throughout my high school and college years.

Does your personal taste in music vary or are you particular about the genre?

Like most composers I have very broad interests: classical (early music, chant, Baroque, 18-20^th centuries, postmodernism), film and game music (I listen to new scores daily), rock, 90’s electronica, jazz, roots music, The Lomax Collection, tons of authentic world music starting with a deep knowledge of Bulgarian and Middle-Eastern folklore, and on and on. However, when I am working on a project, I do very deep “research” of its vernacular. So for the duration of the project, my passion is in that genre of music.

Do you, yourself enjoy playing games?  If so, what is your favorite?

These days I play on “easy” and call myself a casual gamer. I, however, watch tons of games that my husband plays and truly enjoy them. My favorite games are Halo, BioShock, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, the Prince of Persia games, Medal of Honor, C&C4, Assassin’s Creed 2. My favorite game scores are: Steve Jablonsky’s Gears of War 2, Halo 3, Outcast and the music for all Blizzards’ games, especially World of Warcraft and StarCraft II.

What advice would you give someone with aspirations to compose cinematic music?

One should continually develop their sense for musical drama and understanding characters, situations, story arc. One should study a vast number of styles, historical periods and musical genres. But the most important thing for a composer is to have a very personal, distinctive musical style. Naturally young composers imitate older composers, but soon comes a point where one must find who they are, and cultivate a unique voice and “style.” Another truth about our profession is that it takes years to master the craft. All composers I know work very hard on their craft for decades, learning and growing continually. On another hand, each composer forges their own individual career path. I encourage all my young composer friends to read many interviews with composers to gain insight. (I myself do it daily.) For those who aspire to write music for film or games, I would say being also a supreme collaborator and a decent, inspiring human is essential. One must continually cultivate their ability to work together and understand other people’s creative thinking – not easy at all.

Could you give us some insight on what we can expect from you in the near future?  Any projects you’re able to tell us about?

I remain loyal to Steve Jablonsky who keeps me busy with additional composing on a few of his upcoming games. I will also have premieres of 2 indie features, “Rough Hustle” and “Rejouer” and will begin another indie feature, “El Nacional.” Much of my time is also spent looking for composing work and cultivating new relationships.

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Penka was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria; started piano lessons at 6 and wrote incidental music for children’s theater shows at 12. In 1990, she ventured out of post-communist Bulgaria and came to the US to make a life for herself as a composer. She had $130 in her pocket and a Duke University composition fellowship. In 1997, she made history at Duke by receiving the first-ever Doctorate in Composition from this distinguished institution. At Duke, she studied with Stephen Jaffe, Scott Lindroth and with the Dutch postmodern minimalist Louis Andriessen. Penka also enjoyed a successful career as a concert composer. Soon after Penka arrived in Los Angeles in 1999, she began her career as an orchestrator for Emmy-winning composer Patrick Williams. Later that year, Cliff Eidelman gave Kouneva her first scoring break, the Holocaust drama “SHADOWS.” In addition to Steve Jablonsky, other composers who played a major part in Kouneva’s career would be Bruce Fowler and Lee Holdridge. Penka Kouneva has since been honored with WorldFest’s Platinum Remi for Best Score, the Aaron Copland Award, the Sundance Institute Composer Lab Fellowship and Meet the Composer Award.

Some of her other works include the horror feature MIDNIGHT MOVIE, the crime drama THE THIRD NAIL, the Sci-Fi Channel thriller ICE SPIDERS and TV music for FORENSIC FILES on CourtTV, DOG FIGHTS and MODERN MARVELS.  In addition to scoring, Penka is an orchestrator on film soundtracks, including TRANSFORMERS 1, 2, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 3, ANGELS AND DEMONS, 9, HOSTEL I and II, MATRIX 2, 3, SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS and videogames such as WORLD OF WARCRAFT, SIMS 3, TRANSFORMERS 1, 2, STARCRAFT 2, and GEARS of WAR 2.

Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands is available for digital download HERE

Mad Cats and Epic are entered into one such partnership, where Mad Catz through this agreement will have the right to market and produce officially branded controller, headsets, and other Xbox 360 peripheral with  Gears of War 3 images, and logos.

This partnership is nothing new, since Mad Catz and Epic had partnered together to produce products for Gears of War, and Gears of War 2. You may have seen these products before in the form of faceplates, and hard carrying cases.

Darren Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mad Catz had this to say about the partnership:

“We are delighted to extend our relationship with Epic Games and look forward to creating a distinctive range of accessories for the next release of one of the most successful franchises in the industry’s history,” said Darren Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mad Catz.  “Our Gears of War agreement is consistent with our strategies to align Mad Catz with the industry’s most popular and anticipated game titles and to develop and globally distribute high-value products that enhance the gaming experience.  Gears of War is a marquee relationship for Mad Catz and helps us further grow and diversify our industry-leading portfolio of branded videogame accessories.”

“Mad Catz has a history of successfully leveraging the Gears of War brand to bring high value accessories to market and elevate the game’s excitement and reality.  We are excited to work with them again on what we expect will be one of the biggest video game releases of all time,” said Jay Wilbur, Vice President, Epic Games.

The sixth update for Gears of War 2 is available on Xbox LIVE today. This update introduces the “Social Matches” feature, which lets you jump in and out of games without disruption, even if it’s a Horde match. Your party can join a game already in progress if there’s one that suits your fancy. The update also contains other improvements. Visit http://gearsofwar.xbox.com/tu6.htm for a full list of the changes.

The Social Matches feature is available to anyone who owns all four map packs, now conveniently discounted in the “All Fronts Collection” for 800 Microsoft Points. Individual map packs have also been discounted.

With these new developments, Epic’s decided that it’s the perfect time for a Triple Experience Weekend on Xbox LIVE! Starting Thursday, May 27, and going until Tuesday, June 1, you’ll get three times the experience in any multiplayer mode.

If you’ve been waiting to get into Gears 2, it sounds like a good time to catch up. Besides, you’ve got about ten months between now and the release of Gears of War 3 in April of next year.

The smell of roses is in the air, chocolates are being purchased in massive quantities, but all you want to do is rev up your chainsaw and paint the screen red?

Well then, grab your significant other and join us on Feb 14th at 7pm Eastern/4pm Pacific for our All’s Fair in Love and War event. This year its all about defeating the Horde as we get dirty in Gears of War 2. But there is more than just bragging rights at stake. We’re digging around in the prize closet and have some stuff to give away to top performing couples.

Want to participate? Just email the gamertags of your partner and yourself to pr@gamingangels.com with the subject line “Love & War Registration“. Registration for the event runs until February 10th, at which point we will set you up with the information you need to take part. Please keep in mind that this is a casual event, so please be mindful of others participating.

Update: Registration is now closed. Those who have signed up will get an email on Saturday with room details.

And if you can’t play with us, you could head over to Party Casino and play there instead.

Now, on to the winners!

69 – plasticlunchbox
13 – King Wes 24
38 – KingofKings2409
17 – xEvil Jawax
11 – MANE the SLAYER
24 – XtremeSpawn
29 – DukeN8r
47 – xTRISKITx
23 – xXTSXxSu1C1D3
19 – Lord Crosby 87
66 – MarvelousMadman
5 – CRS ESPN
63 – DATB the SLAYER
26 – CRS ESPN
18 – Reepod
60 – BusDrivin101
58 – TenaciousDude
46 - UndeadGrind3r
40 – Pur3 Original
36 – Craigybabez
52 – SyKoPaThIcFairy
54 – djfunk1234
39 – LORD CROSBY
37 – Hangtime 614
We’ve got some great prizes: a dozen COG Tags, a trucker hat, 2 ladies tshirts, and some snowblind, hammerburst and lancer codes.  Since I know many of you might already have tags, shirts or codes, I want to try and accomadate the prize and winner matches as best I can.  So, pay attention to the next bit on how to claim your prize if you want to win something you don’t already have.

To Claim Your Prize!
In order to claim your prize, please email me at cherith@gamingangels.com.  When you email me, please let me know if you already have one of the prizes listed, but please do not request specific prizes.  I’ve already matched prizes to winners, but I’m willing to adjust if possible if you already have one of the game codes.  Also, since the two shirts we have are ladies shirts (size small), I will allow specific requests for those shirts so they go to someone who might wear them.  Once I get you’re email, I’ll let you know what prize you’ve won, and what if any other information I need to make sure you receive it.

A big thank you goes out to all of you that participated in our first GA/GB Community night.  And we hope you’ll join us again next week for our Left 4 Dead / Castle Crashers night!

Since we had such a blast last time, we’re going to do it again!

GamingAngels is hosting another Gears of War 2 community playdate on July 17th. GamerBeauties will be joining us, and starting at 6pm Eastern you can find some of our women online to team up with to battle it out in the various multiplayer modes Gears has to offer.

We’ll have some great prizes to give away to randomly selected people who join us: a Gears hat, some COG tags, Gold Lancer & Gold Hammerburst codes, as well as Snowblind Maps to give away!

In order that we can make sure we are including gamers from both coasts, we have group starting at 6pm Eastern and another starting at 7pm Pacific. Make sure you send these girls an invite prior to the event so they may add you. And don’t forget to mention you are signing up for our Gears 2 night!

6pm Eastern Team

GamerGirlSB,  Kourui,  GB InfinetChick,  Paizle,  Rawr Its Nicole,  GamingAngel

7pm Pacific Team

KrystalineDream,  smatchiemo ,  StealthySlyth,  GB Uncertain,  GB Mistress,  Just Snipes

Gears of War 2 players can look forward to a Double XP weekend on the Xbox 360 from Friday, July 3 through Monday, July 6.

The winning team in ranked matches gets an additional 500 XP.

In addition, Horde Mode is getting an update according to the Gear’s forums. The Tickers will be showing up more during the Horde waves and the 10th wave will be nothing but Tickers.

“Karen Traviss has outdone herself once again,” said Rod Fergusson, executive producer, Epic Games. “Jacinto’s Remnant not only answers the question of what happens after the events of Gears 2, it also provides greater insight into the Gears of War universe and a deeper understanding of its characters. We hope players of the games and discerning readers alike will enjoy this ongoing tale of humanity’s fight for survival.”

Jacinto’s Remnant will be released alongside the Gears of War 2: All Fronts Collection on July 28th.

New videos for Gears of War 2 latest DLC, All Fronts, were released on Gametrailers today.

The Memorial map is where the videos take place showing you the versus and Horde multiplayer modes.

The All Fronts collection will be released on July 28.