Working on the soundtrack for Multicrew Tank Combat brought together several important parts of my life; my childhood enthusiasm for tank games, my interest in history, my love of cinematic composition and my own complicated relationship with war.
Growing up in Ukraine, I enjoyed tank and military-strategy games largely because of their emphasis on coordination, machinery and tactical decision-making. That interest, however, developed against an increasingly unsettling real-world background. Russia’s invasion and occupation of Crimea in 2014 cast a shadow over my childhood, making subjects that had previously belonged safely to games and history feel much closer to everyday life.
Despite my interest in military games, I have always considered myself intrinsically a pacifist. Enjoying a tank game has never meant celebrating violence or romanticising war. What fascinates me is the atmosphere: the weight and movement of the vehicles, the tension of teamwork, the changing momentum of a battle and the contrast between anticipation and release. Those qualities also lend themselves naturally to musical storytelling.
After the isolation and disruption of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine brought another profound change to my life. The war ultimately led me to leave the country while I was still in my mid teens and begin rebuilding my life elsewhere. That experience inevitably influenced how I approached a project centred on military conflict. I wanted the music to communicate scale, urgency and historical character while retaining an awareness of the human reality behind those sounds.
When I was invited to compose faction themes for Multicrew Tank Combat, the brief immediately appealed to me. Each piece needed to represent a different fictional country, political identity and historical period. Some of the themes were rooted in a 1940s-inspired setting, while others reflected a post-Cold-War world.
The music was intended to enter during the closing stages of a match, depending on which faction appeared likely to win, before continuing into the match summary. This meant that each track had to establish its identity quickly, create a sense of momentum and intensify as the timer approached zero.
The commission involved much more than writing a collection of dramatic military cues. Each faction needed to possess a recognisable musical identity of its own.
I researched the cultural and historical character suggested by each faction and considered how rhythm, harmony, instrumentation and production could communicate it. Rather than reproducing the traditional music of real countries literally, I used cultural and period references as creative starting points. My aim was to build believable musical identities for fictional nations without reducing their influences to stereotypes.
The 1940s-inspired pieces required a very different musical language from the colder and more technologically driven atmosphere of the post-Cold-War themes. Creating that contrast while ensuring that every track still belonged to the same game world was one of the most interesting parts of the project.
Hans Zimmer is a significant influence on the way I approach composition. I particularly admire his ability to construct enormous emotional worlds from relatively simple motifs, gradually adding rhythm, texture and weight until a piece feels much greater than the sum of its individual parts.
That approach proved especially useful for this soundtrack. I worked with controlled repetition, evolving layers, cinematic percussion and gradual increases in intensity. Because the music appears near the end of a match, the compositions needed to develop quickly without feeling rushed. Each theme had to function dynamically within gameplay while also standing on its own as a complete piece of music.
The project also allowed me to combine my developing skills in composition, production, mixing and sound design. The music had to be emotionally effective, but it also needed to remain clear alongside engines, weapons, movement and the other sounds of the game. Finding that balance required creativity, technical awareness and restraint.
What I particularly appreciated about the brief was that it established a strong fictional and historical framework while still giving me room to interpret it. Translating imaginary cultures, contrasting political identities, different periods and the momentum of a battlefield into music became a fascinating exercise in storytelling.
I genuinely enjoyed working on this soundtrack. It allowed me to reconnect with something I had enjoyed growing up while approaching it from a more mature and personal perspective. It also gave me an opportunity to explore how music can recognise the gravity of conflict while supporting the strategy, cooperation and dramatic tension of a game.
Most importantly, the project allowed me to transform a complex mixture of memories, influences and interests into something creative: a collection of themes intended to give every faction, every period and every final moment of a match its own distinctive musical voice.
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