Video game music composer
Musical artist
Tiago Lopes, better known as Tee Lopes, is a Portuguese-American composer primarily for video games. He is best known for his contributions for the Sonic the Hedgehog series beginning with the 2017 video game Sonic Mania.
Early life
Lopes was born in Coimbra, Portugal in 1986. As a young child, he created music for personal enjoyment with several programs, including Music 2000 for the PlayStation.[1] In 2009, he uploaded his first Sonic the Hedgehog remix to YouTube,[2] which led to his career as a video game composer. He would continue to upload remixes, original tracks, and other personal works to this day.[3]
Career
Lopes first started his work as a hobbyist musician working for indie games and fan games.[4] After being well-known for Sonic the Hedgehog remixes on YouTube, he went on to compose an HD fan port of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. After its completion, several of its developers including Tee Lopes created PagodaWest Games, an indie game developer.[5] In 2017, him along with the developers of PagodaWest Games partnered with Sega to develop Sonic Mania, a game that notably featured other well known Sonic fan creators such as Christian Whitehead and Headcannon.[1] After Mania, Lopes has become a freelance composer and has continued to compose for video games such as Sonic Superstars, Streets of Rage 4, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, and G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra.[6][7][8][9] On the Twitch charity fundraiser Indieland 2023, it was confirmed that Lopes was composing the soundtrack to the game Penny's Big Breakaway. He has also composed for several web series, such as Sonic Mania Adventures, SomecallmeJohnny and Scott the Woz.
Awards
Tee Lopes has won an award for IGN's People's Choice Vote for Best Original Music award for his work on Sonic Mania.[11] He has also been nominated for a Independent Composer of the Year award in VGMO's 2019 Annual Game Music Awards for his contributions to the Team Sonic Racing soundtrack.
