Media Consumption: Tilted Mill's Keith Zizza

This week’s Media Consumption, a weekly column which seeks to find out what our favorite game designers have been listening to, watching, reading, and playing, speaks to Keith Zizza, Audio Director at Wayland, Massachusetts-based Tilted Mill Entertainment. Zizza entered the games industry in 1995, providing audio content for Impression Games’ Space Bucks. He stuck around for the next seven years or so, having a hand in Cleopatra, Caesar II, Lords of the Realm II, Poseidon and Lords of the Magic, among others, before joining many of his co-workers in founding Tilted Mill Entertainment in 2002. Their first title, Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile, shipped in November of 2004. Currently, Zizza and the rest of the team are working on the recently-announced Caesar IV for Vivendi Universal. Zizza has also written two articles for Gamasutra; 'Your Audio Design Document' and 'Writing Music under Extreme Deadlines', which was co-authored by Henry Beckett. A more extensive biography of Zizza can be found at his Gamasutra audio gallery. Sounds: "I've been listening to Miklos Rozsa's 'Ben Hur' Soundtrack for some Caesar IV inspiration. Outside of that, I'm a jazz buff and have been getting back into some Wayne Shorter, Art Blakey, and Freddie Hubbard. Also been groovin' on "A Town Called Earth" and "West Coast Boogaloo" by the Greyboy Allstars." Words: "I recently finished "Wilderness" by Roger Zelazny and Gerald Hausman. It's actually two different stories that come together, about mountain men in the early 1800s. Think of the worst situation you've ever been in, and it still won't come close to either of these guys! I'm currently Reading "A Man on The Moon" by Andrew Chaikin. I don't think many younger people (including myself before reading this book) understand how great an undertaking the manned space missions of the 1960s were. A lot of first-hand accounts from astronauts that have walked on the moon. Great stuff!" Moving Pictures: "I'm a NetFlix fan, and have spent most of my movie time checking out their classics selection... ok, make that the "epics" selection. If there's a movie out there that starts with the word "Overture" on a marble wall, and is accompanied by sweeping orchestral music, I've seen it or probably will be soon! Cleopatra, Spartacus, Ben-Hur - the list goes on." Games: "I think I'm last person on Earth to get into Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, and will probably be the last to let it go. I am still playing it for the nth time. You know you're in trouble when you close your eyes to sleep, and you still see "Mixalot the Paladin" in action! Ah - to dream of a sequel... it's been more than four years, right? I've also had some fun playing some good old classic boardgames lately, like WaterWorks, Dungeon Dice, and Stratego." [Frank Cifaldi is a Las Vegas-based freelance author whose credits include work for Nintendo Official Magazine UK, Wired, and his own Lost Levels website.]