Timothy John Follin (born 19 December 1970) is an English video game music composer, cinematographer, visual effects artist and game developer, who has written tracks for a variety of titles and home gaming systems, including the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, Nintendo Entertainment System, Mega Drive, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Dreamcast, and PlayStation.
Among Follin's works are the soundtracks to Solstice, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade's Revenge, Plok!, and Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future.
Follin has also co-founded a TV advertising company called ABF Pictures and a general-purpose media company called Baggy Cat Ltd, which to date has produced two video games, Contradiction and At Dead of Night.
Video game career
Insight Studios As a child, Follin had no significant music training. Leaving Liverpool's Sandown Music College after one year of studies, Follin's career began at the age of 15 working at Insight Studios. Follin ended up in video games due to his older brother Mike Follin learning how to program for the ZX Spectrum and obtaining professional work at Insight. After developing a pulse-width modulation effect Tim wrote the music driver and soundtrack for their first professional game, Subterranean Stryker, followed by an arrangement of Stravinsky's "The Firebird", used for the game Star Firebirds. Follin then developed a three-channel sound routine which he used to create the music for his third soundtrack, Vectron. He then went on to create 4- and 5-channel music for games such as Chronos and Agent X. In his early career, Follin's music was praised in magazine game reviews.
Follin's sole game programming credit (not counting music drivers) came with his fourth title, Future Games, where he created one minigame of the several featured.
Software Creations Hired by Richard Kay, Tim followed brother Mike in moving to Software Creations in 1987, his first full-time job, where he spent a significant portion of his career. Follin's arranged soundtrack to Bubble Bobble was his first written for a soundchip, the AY-3-8910.
Follin wrote the music for Black Lamp in one night after a bout of writer's block.
Within the level 1 music of Ghouls'n Ghosts for the Amiga is a voice sample played backwards saying "secret authority", considered nothing more than a joke by Follin. Alongside Ghouls'n Ghosts, two other Amiga soundtracks, Sly Spy and Puzznic, were presented in the Amiga music format "Follin Player II". To arcade soundtrack arrangements like Bionic Commando and Ghouls'n Ghosts, Follin added richer sound palette and occasionally composed some new songs (the title music of Ghouls'n Ghosts).
Follin described the NES title Solstice as "a very inspiring game to do music for," demanding atmospheric music within the game's dark castle environment, as well as powerful music choreographed with the title sequence. Follin did not use a keyboard or any instruments for the Solstice soundtrack, composing while "thinking along the lines of the computer and not [...] a keyboard." Follin felt the programming-only approach allowed him to work with "a more open mind".
In a 1990 interview, Follin expressed "a bit of desolation" over the prospect of no longer composing for the Commodore 64, stating "I don't see myself staying with this machine," perhaps sensing the transition occurring in the European gaming marketplace as the third generation of video and computer game platforms reached its end. Follin's final Commodore 64 release came with 1991's Gauntlet III.
Beside contributing the soundtrack with brother Geoff, Follin recorded live sound effects for 1993 SNES title Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends.
Citing a declining work environment, Follin departed Software Creations in 1993 (with his final title there being Rock N' Roll Racing).
Malibu Interactive and freelancing After leaving Software Creations, Follin joined Malibu Interactive for 18 months. While working for Malibu, Follin provided the soundtrack for Time Trax on the Sega Mega Drive and (along with brother Geoff) Prime for the Sega CD, doing "virtually nothing and getting paid" for the following year before winding up out of work. Another title composed alongside brother Geoff, Firearm, went unpublished. Follin would spend the remainder of his video game career as a freelancer. Following Malibu Interactive's collapse, Follin then worked with groups that made unsuccessful game pitches to Psygnosis and the BBC. Follin provided part of the soundtrack for Batman & Robin, developed by Probe.
Follin joined the development team of Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future as the title's lead composer around mid-1998, leaving Attila Heger no longer responsible for providing the entirety of the soundtrack. (Heger was made primarily responsible for scoring the game's cutscenes.) Follin had been offered the composer position by Sega UK producer David Nulty, who was a fan of Follin's Commodore 64 work. The soundtrack received very favourable reviews from Edge, DC-UK, and Official Dreamcast Magazine.
The 2003 multiplatform release Starsky & Hutch was given a funk-style score by Follin, who said at the time, "This is the project I had hoped I would get one day. I've always loved Starsky & Hutch and original title music." While with Software Creations, Follin had previously arranged the Starsky & Hutch television series' theme as the title music to the 1991 NES release Treasure Master.
End of video game career and return Around August 2005, Follin announced on his website "with much delight" that he had chosen to stop composing music for video games, citing its irregular work not providing a substantial income, light-heartedly adding that the situation caused him "distress and illness". The tenuous nature of game development caused several instances of Follin being hired and subsequently having the project shelved. Follin noted that Starsky & Hutch had been in development for around three years before eventually being released.
Towards the end of 2012 Follin decided to dust off an idea originally conceived as an interactive audio adventure game and reworked the concept as a video-based adventure game called Contradiction, which he designed and scripted, then filmed and programmed, also composing the game's soundtrack. The game was subsequently released on iPad and later on Steam. Follin then worked on another game, At Dead of Night, again using the FMV format but this time in the horror game genre, which was released at the end of 2020. In mid-2021, a playthrough of At Dead of Night was created by gaming YouTuber Markiplier, leading to a surge in popularity. A sequel is now in the works.
His brothers Geoff Follin and Mike Follin also worked in the video game industry as musician and programmer respectively, with both having moved on to other careers. Much like his brothers, Follin has changed careers, choosing to pursue films, television advertising, graphic design, visual effects and game design. Follin never considered himself a gamer as much as a musician or developer.
Game credits GameRelease datePlatform(s)Notes At Dead of Night 2020 Windows Contradiction: Spot the Liar! 2015 iOS, Windows, OS X Lemmings 2006 PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 Ford Racing 3 2005 PlayStation 2, Xbox, Windows, Nintendo DS co-composers: Muddy Funkers, Paul Stroud Future Tactics: The Uprising 2004 PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Windows Ford Racing 2 2003 PlayStation 2, Xbox, Macintosh, Windows co-composer: Bjørn Lynne Starsky & Hutch 2003 PlayStation 2, Xbox, Windows, GameCube sound, additional storyline; co-composers: Dave Sullivan, Matthew Costello Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future 2000(2002: PS2) Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 co-composer: Attila Heger (cutscenes) Bust-A-Move 4 1999 Game Boy Color arranger, co-arranger: Andy Brock South Park (cancelled) 1998 Game Boy Color arranger, co-composers/co-arrangers: Andy Brock, Steve Rockett Batman & Robin 1998 PlayStation film score arrangements (no compositions) WWF War Zone 1998 Game Boy Firearm (cancelled) 1995 PC co-composer: Geoff Follin Ultraverse Prime 1995 Sega CD co-composer: Geoff Follin Batman Forever 1995 Mega Drive/Genesis, Super NES co-composer: Geoff Follin (Super NES) Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball 1994 SNES arranger; co-composers/co-arrangers: Geoff Follin, Chris Jojo, Paul Tonge, Matthew Cannon Moto-X (completed, unreleased) 1994 SNES co-composer: Geoff Follin Time Trax 1993 Sega Mega Drive music driver designer, game never released Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends 1993 SNES arranger; co-composer/co-arranger: Geoff Follin Rock N' Roll Racing 1993 SNES music driver designer, arranger; co-composer/co-arranger: Geoff Follin Equinox 1993 SNES co-composer: Geoff Follin Plok! 1993 SNES co-composer: Geoff Follin Super Off Road 1992 SNES co-composer: Geoff Follin Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade's Revenge 1992 Super NES, Genesis co-composer: Geoff Follin The Incredible Crash Dummies 1992 Game Boy, Game Gear, Master System co-composer: Geoff Follin, music conversion: Matt Furniss (GG, SMS) Gauntlet III 1991 Commodore 64, Amiga, ZX Spectrum co-composer: Geoff Follin (C64, Spectrum) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Taito version) 1991 NES Treasure Master 1991 NES The New Zealand Story (known in America as Kiwi Kraze) 1991 NES co-composer: Geoff Follin Tom & Jerry (and Tuffy) 1991 NES co-composer: Geoff Follin Pictionary 1990 NES Silver Surfer 1990 NES co-composer: Geoff Follin Solstice 1990 NES Sky Shark 1989 NES Ghouls'n Ghosts Dec 1989 Amiga, Commodore 64, Atari ST arranger, composer Qix 1989 Commodore 64, Amiga Magic Johnson's Fast Break 1989 Commodore 64, NES Chester Field 1989 Commodore 64 Missile Ground Zero 1989 ZX Spectrum Solar Invasion 1989 ZX Spectrum L.E.D. Storm Feb 1989 Amiga, Commodore 64, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum Bionic Commando June 1988 Amiga, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST arranger Target: Renegade 1988 NES arranger Sky Shark 1988 Commodore 64, NES arranger Peter Pack Rat 1988 Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum arranger Bodyslam 1988 Commodore 64 Psycho Pigs UXB 1988 Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum co-composer: Geoff Follin (C64) Aigina's Prophecy 1988 Commodore 64 Star Paws 1988 ZX Spectrum arranger Raw Recruit 1988 Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum Black Lamp Apr 1988 Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum Bubble Bobble Oct 1987 ZX Spectrum, Atari ST arranger Renegade 1987 Amiga, Atari ST arranger Scumball 1987 Commodore 64 Agent X II: The Mad Prof's Back 1987 Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum Chronos 1987 ZX Spectrum The Sentinel Mar 1987 ZX Spectrum Agent X 1986 ZX Spectrum Future Games June 1986 ZX Spectrum Vectron Oct–Dec 1985 ZX Spectrum Star Firebirds Oct 1985 ZX Spectrum arranger Subterranean Stryker Mar 1985 ZX Spectrum
Thoughts on video game music
Follin's methodology of music was that music is "basically an unconscious experience" that does not and should not "engage your intellect". Rather, Follin believed game music was "more of a sort of atmospheric thing" and had "always written music to be part of something else", intending for the video game (or other media the music is composed for) to provide the image or scene of context.
Within his personal experience, Follin always found the hardest part of creating music to be the concept phase, saying "I probably tear my hair out more over arrangement than over anything else." The easiest part was the execution of the solidified concepts.