Building Pop Worlds, One Game At A Time: Sarah Wolfe Talks High Score 2025

Sarah Wolfe has never been one to sit still. From her early days writing about music, to carving out a career as a boundary-pushing hyperpop artist, and now stepping into the fast-growing world of video game composition, her creative path has been anything but linear. 

Yet that restless curiosity is exactly what makes her one of Australia’s most exciting new voices in interactive sound.

This weekend, Wolfe brings her journey to the stage at High Score 2025 – Australia’s premier game audio conference and a cornerstone of Melbourne International Games Week. 

Running from Saturday, October 4th to Sunday, October 5th at ACMI, High Score celebrates the intersection of music, sound, and play, with Wolfe joining a lineup of local and global talent exploring how audio shapes player experience.

For Wolfe, it’s a chance to share her unique take on songwriting as system design. Her recent projects  Don’t Stop Girlypop! (Funny Fintan Softworks) and Mystiques: Haunted Antiques (Lemonade Games)  blur the lines between hyperpop innovation and gameplay mechanics, proving that catchy hooks and emotional arcs can be just as important to a boss battle as the buttons players press.

Wolfe tuned in with The Music to tell us how she’s jumped from music journalist, to musician, to game composer, and what audiences can expect from Melbourne’s annual High Score Game Audio Conference. 

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The Music: Hey Sarah! How are you? What have you been up to lately?

Sarah Wolfe: Hiya! I have been terrific, thank you! Just got back from a few days in Maroochydore, feeling super refreshed and ready for a fun hectic week at High Score and Melbourne International Games Week. 

TM: You’re gearing up for the annual High Score conference (October 4-5) 2025. Are you excited? What's on the cards?

SW: I have been counting down the days to High Score since they asked me to be a speaker! It is one of my favourite parts of Games Week, and I'm so honoured they asked me to yap for a whole presentation on the world’s two best topics combined – pop music and video games. 

I’m going to be covering the whole journey of composing music – specifically pop music – for video games: from unconventional ways to get your foot in the door, to writing lyrics that (hopefully) won’t annoy the heck out of people after they have listened to them 20 times over trying to defeat a boss!

TM: You were a speaker at the 2024 High Score convention as well. Is there anything memorable from last year’s run that you’re excited for again this year? Is there any wisdom you’re going to take into your keynote this time around?

SW: I sure was! Last year I got to take part in High Score’s Speedruns, where five of us were asked to present on a topic for five minutes. It was such a fun way of getting into public speaking, and watching the other speedrunners (Byron Webb, Daniel Bunting, Max Kearney, and Samantha van der Sluis) do their talks was absolutely a highlight! 

Last year I got very good at talking fast to fit everything into five minutes – this time around I have a whole 40 minutes to fill, so I can afford to take a few more breaths!

TM: Video games are booming in Australia right now! Have you always been a gamer, or was this career path unexpected?

SW: I grew up pretty interested in gaming, from Croc on PC to Nintendogs on my Nintendo DS, but the passion really kicked in after I turned 20! Probably because I finally got my own adult money then and could fund my video game lifestyle haha!

The Australian video game industry is absolutely incredible, and the calibre of our indie games are recognised worldwide. Cult Of The Lamb, Untitled Goose Game, Hollow Knight (and the newly released Silksong), Stray Gods… honestly the list goes on and on. I highly recommend everyone dive into any Aussie indie game ASAP! 

TM: What were the first video scores you worked on?

SW: My first taste of writing music for games came when I was working at League Of Geeks, and we wanted something fun to put behind the release trailer for one of our games Solium Infernum. 

I spoke with the team about writing a custom song for the trailer, and then I teamed up with the game’s composer Michael Allen and the wonderful Xavier Dunn to write Eternal Nights! It fit so well that it ended up going in the game's end credits as well. After that, I was hooked!

TM: You started out as a music journalist, then pop artist, now also game composer. – What did each stage teach you that you bring into game audio today?

SW: This is one of the things I’ve put into my High Score presentation – there is no one way of getting into the gaming industry! Every new job or experience has helped me pick up so many skills, and they all culminated in me getting a foot in the door for games composing. 

Being flexible, always learning, and staying open to feedback are important skills for any job, and especially when you’re writing game soundtracks. 

TM: Do you think pop offers something unique to the game space that other genres don’t? Is there a genre that game designers seem to be leaning towards?

SW: Pop music has always been my favourite genre, but I think it has a tricky relationship with video games! Most game soundtracks don’t use lyrics, so ‘traditional’ pop music – especially the structure of pop songs – is generally not used often.

It can be tricky to get the balance right when you’re wanting to put pop bangers into a space where the player controls what they’re doing and how long they do it for, but the fun part has been finding workarounds for that!

TM: Don’t Stop Girlypop! and Mystiques: Haunted Antiques are very different in tone. How did you approach shaping the musical identity of each world?

SW: They both orbit the pop universe, just in slightly different ways. Mystiques takes its sonic inspiration from artists like Charli XCX, Carly Rae Jepsen, The Veronicas – more ‘traditional’ pop leaning, sometimes with darker or more ethereal undertones.

Don’t Stop, Girlypop! exists more in the hyperpop and girly pop space, with inspo from artists like SOPHIE, Paris Hilton, and Kim Petras. 

TM: In your pop work you’ve often started with lyrics. What’s the process like with gaming scores? Is it more collaborative?

SW: I have the absolute privilege of getting to work with Xavier Dunn, an incredible songwriter and producer. We’ve been working together for so long that we have our process pretty ironed out – I'll start mapping out lyrics and vibes and melodies, as he starts crafting the sonics, then we meet in the middle! 

Writing for gaming scores is incredibly fun because we both love getting to write to a brief, and getting to be a part of a larger development team feels so rewarding. 

TM: You came back to music after major brain surgery in 2023 – has that experience changed how you think about creative work and resilience?

SW: Without a doubt, it has changed the way I go about not just my creative work but also my everyday life in general. I used to be very anxious about putting myself out there, of showing the world who I truly was, but having to go through brain surgery and living with a disability actually ended up stripping me of a lot of that fear. 

Our time on this earth is finite, and I never know which days I’m going to feel absolutely fabulous or which days are going to bring me right back down again, so I try my best every day not to hide myself from the world and to make the most of every opportunity. 

TM: As a woman in both pop and gaming, do you feel the industry is genuinely becoming more inclusive, or are there still barriers that need breaking down?

SW: I think gender equality, and all forms of diversity, should be at the forefront of all industries. Diversity is what makes industries thrive, especially creative ones. 

From my experience, the gaming industry in Australia has been incredibly welcoming, but there is always work to be done to ensure everyone is able to flourish and feel safe, no matter their background. 

The stories and feelings and innovation that games are able to create are only ever richer and better off when they have diverse voices behind them.

TM: What role can conferences like High Score play in shifting the culture?

SW: Facilitating an environment where people feel accepted and safe to be themselves is something that High Score excels at. Genuine connections with your fellow gamemakers and composers are incredibly important to keep the gaming industry thriving, and conferences like High Score provide the perfect setting for that. 

TM: At High Score, you’ll be speaking alongside seasoned legends. What do you hope younger or emerging composers take away from your story?

SW: I might sound like a broken record at this point, but I definitely think an important part of my story is that you never know what skill, experience, or job will be the one that will get you where you want to be. 

Having a genuine love and passion for learning new things, as well as a genuine love and passion for the industry, will get you far! Your experiences, good and bad (here’s looking at you brain surgery), are the things that make you unique, and will make your music so much richer. 

TM: Between your solo music and game composing, where do you see your creative energy flowing next?

SW: I’m actually looking at putting my other passions – video editing and going into random research holes on niche topics – into use by starting up a podcast! I can’t share too much yet, but I’m working with the incredible team at Lowkii Productions to make something extra special that I can’t wait to share! Watch this space!!

High Score Game Audio Conference kicks off this weekend, running from Saturday, October 4th to Sunday, October 5th. Catch Sarah Wolfe and all the audible action of this Melbourne International Games Week event at Melbourne’s ACMI museum. Tickets for both in-person and streaming options can be purchased via the ACMI website.