Michael Pennington reflects on Ludo2025, Europe’s leading conference on videogame music and sound.
Thanks to the wonderful opportunity provided by the CCCI Affiliates Seed Fund, I was able to attend Ludo2025, Europe’s leading conference on videogame music and sound in July 2025 at the University of East London.
I presented the findings of an exciting research project conducted alongside my colleague Professor James Newman. This work – titled “Saving the Sound of BitSummit 2024” – focuses on audio and visual documentary approaches to videogame preservation during Japan’s largest annual independent games festival.
The research will be officially published in the autumn as a public history report for the National Videogame Museum and its Videogame Heritage Society subject-specialist network (SSN), the UK’s only SSN dedicated solely to digital game preservation. I look forward to sharing this work with CCCI when the public report is published.
On a very hot summer’s day in Stratford, East London, with the Olympic Park looming in the background, ludomusicology scholars from across the world gathered to share their ideas and research on game music and sound. After years of COVID-19 restrictions and online-only conferences, I was thrilled to finally be able to participate in-person.
Attending Ludo25 was greatly beneficial to my personal development as an early-career researcher. I completed my PhD in April 2022 and have been working as an Associate Lecturer at BSU since early 2023. However, with the significant challenges faced across the HE sector – from precarious contracts to a lack of permanent vacancies – I have found that opportunities to explore my research since completing my PhD have been limited.
Across Ludo25, I had many meaningful interactions with peers and experts. I was struck with how attendees were generous with their time, especially to a newcomer! I was also fascinated by the diversity of talks, approaches, and interests at the conference.
In particular, I enjoyed Richard Sherriff’s historical examination of PC-game fan communities and sound in the 2000s. This paper deftly showcased how videogames and videogame communities import and remediate sounds, sound effects and music from traditional forms and products of global popular culture into their own digital ecosystems. And it was nice to be reminded of the potent emotional heft of Daniel Powter’s ‘Bad Day’ when playing a modded version of Counter-Strike (and please do check out the ludo25 programme here).
As an interdisciplinary researcher, these conversations were highly valuable and have given me a much greater understanding of many perspectives within the field.
My presentation received great feedback from the audience, with a collection of thoughtful questions during the lively Q+A session. I fielded questions on determining the uniqueness of the Japanese indie game industry in comparison to the UK, and identifying where Japanese grassroots communities of game creators and creatives are located.
The act of creating, framing, and communicating my research to an unfamiliar academic audience was a very useful activity, giving me further experience in producing coherent and engaging interdisciplinary work.
As a direct result of participating in the conference, I have also had follow-up conversations with scholars encouraging me to adapt my research for the Journal of Sound and Music in Games, a globally recognised and renowned journal for ludomusicology. I am excited about the potential for future collaboration in this field.
This funding allowed me to present my work to audiences who have substantial knowledge and interest in the dynamics of sound preservation and documentary approaches with digital games. These opportunities to disseminate research to audiences are invaluable.
Finally, I would like to thank the team at Ludo25 for hosting a fantastic conference. I am eagerly anticipating the next iteration and would recommend the event to other researchers interested in this engaging and varied field.