Our final HALO guest is the award-winning composer. Please welcome Marty O’Donnell to our first annual Washington State Gaming Expo in Puyallup on March 29-31, 2024.

Marty O’Donnell earned his Master of Music Degree in Composition with honors from USC in 1981. He then founded the Chicago-based commercial music and sound production company, TotalAudio, writing and producing numerous film scores and jingles such as Flintstones Kids and Mr. Clean. In 1997 he created sound design for Cyan’s Riven, the Sequel to Myst, and created all of the audio for Bungie’s award-winning Myth series.

Ten days after Marty accepted a position as Bungie’s Audio Director and Composer, Microsoft purchased the studio and moved them to Redmond so they could focus their efforts on developing Halo for the launch of the Xbox.

The audio and music for the Halo series have received numerous honors and awards, including the Game Developers Choice Award, the Edge Award, Rolling Stone Magazine’s Best Game Soundtrack, and Best Sound/Music from the AIAS, IGDA, GANG, TEC, and Spike TV.

Marty’s Destiny project featured music in collaboration with Sir Paul McCartney. The stand-alone soundtrack, Music of the Spheres, was recorded at Abbey Road Studios. Marty also performed the casting and directing of all the voice acting for Bungie’s games. The music and audio from Destiny have won several awards including Best Audio and Best Music from the AIAS. He was awarded GANG’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.

Marty is also co-founder and co-owner of Highwire Games in Seattle. Their first title, Golem, an exclusive title for PlayStation VR was released in 2019. He also composed and produced Echoes of the First Dreamer, the musical prequel to Golem.