2012 to 2025 - continued composition for indie developers, Steam releases, and orchestral revivals
Still Composing
Since the Turrican Anthology Kickstarter campaigns of 2012, Chris Hülsbeck has maintained one of the most sustained creative outputs of any retro-era game composer. The modern era combines original scores for new games, orchestral realisations of classic material, and direct community engagement through Bandcamp and Patreon.
Projects 2012–2025
Modern2012
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams
Black Forest Games · PC/Steam · PS3/Xbox 360
The long-awaited official sequel to The Great Giana Sisters. Hülsbeck delivered a full orchestral score - his most ambitious since the Symphonic Shades concert. The game features a dynamic music system where the soundtrack shifts between two distinct emotional palettes as the player switches between dream worlds.
Strong commercial performance on Steam introduced Hülsbeck's compositions to players with no prior knowledge of his C64 and Amiga catalogue. The soundtrack received particular critical attention for its quality relative to the game's budget.
Multiplayer spin-off of Twisted Dreams. Additional music compositions extending the orchestral palette established in the 2012 original. The game allowed up to four players to race through Giana's dream worlds with competitive mechanics.
A collection of 20 official Turrican games - the most comprehensive official Turrican release ever produced. Hülsbeck was directly involved in curating the music compilation, ensuring the audio accurately represented the original compositions across different hardware platforms.
The collection included Turrican, Turrican II: The Final Fight, Mega Turrican, Super Turrican, and Super Turrican 2, along with numerous variants and regional versions. Extensive liner notes covered the musical history of the series.
Modern2021
Turrican Anthology Vol. 1 & 2
Ship to Shore PhonoCo. · Vinyl / Digital
Two-volume commercial release of the complete Turrican soundtrack, crowd-funded through Kickstarter. Newly recorded, professionally mastered, and released on vinyl and digital formats. The campaign attracted significant backing, demonstrating the enduring commercial value of the Turrican catalogue and Hülsbeck's sustained relationship with his audience.
Complete original soundtrack for this Apple Arcade Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles roguelike action game. The brief required music that could sustain repeated runs through procedurally varied content - a different compositional challenge from the narrative scores Hülsbeck is best known for.
The game reached a broad casual audience on Apple Arcade, further extending Hülsbeck's reach beyond the retro gaming community.
Modern2023
Tiny Thor
Fabian Rastorfer · PC/Steam
A retro-informed platformer with an original score by Hülsbeck that consciously honours the classic game music aesthetics of the C64 and Amiga era while employing modern orchestration and production techniques. The game is a deliberate love letter to 16-bit-era platformers.
The score received strong praise from the retro gaming community for its authenticity and compositional quality.
Complete original score for the 40th anniversary revival of First Star Software's 1984 classic. Hülsbeck composed a full original soundtrack for this modern reimagining, bringing the same care to a beloved retro franchise that he applied to his own C64-era compositions.
Modern2025
X-Out: Resurfaced
ZXC Games · PC / Consoles
Remaster of the 1990 Rainbow Arts horizontal shooter X-Out, featuring new orchestral arrangements by Hülsbeck of his original C64 and Amiga compositions. Revisiting his own early work three and a half decades later, the arrangements expand the harmonic and textural vocabulary of the original scores while preserving their melodic identity.
Hülsbeck's Bandcamp offers digital and physical releases of his commercial recordings. Purchasing directly supports ongoing composition work and provides the highest-quality available audio files.
Available titles include the Turrican Anthology volumes, Symphonic Shades, Orchestral Selections, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, and X-Out: Resurfaced.
Chris Hülsbeck maintains an active Patreon that provides supporters with direct access to his compositional process. Patron benefits include early access to recordings, behind-the-scenes content, work-in-progress audio, and direct communication with the composer.
The Patreon model has allowed Hülsbeck to sustain ongoing composition independent of publisher contracts, funding creative work on a direct subscription basis.
