Jake Kaufman (born 1981; also known as virt or virtjk) is an American video game music composer. After starting out creating arrangements and remixes of video game soundtracks, he began his commercial composing career in 2000 with the score to the Game Boy Color port of Q*bert. He continued to compose music for games for the next couple of years, working primarily with handheld video games. In 2002, he set up the website VGMix, which hosts video game music remixes, and continues to administrate it. His career began to take off over the next few years, resulting in him transitioning jobs into a full-time freelance composer by 2005. Since then he has worked on several big-name projects such as the Shantae series, Contra 4, Red Faction: Guerrilla, DuckTales: Remastered, Shovel Knight, and Crypt of the Necrodancer.
Biography Kaufman dropped out of high school with what he describes as "a total lack of work ethic and no concept of timeliness or organization." He spent the next few years composing arrangements and remixes of video game music under the alias "virt". In 2000, Kaufman broke into the video game industry as a composer, with his first work being the Game Boy Color port of Q*bert. Over the next few years, he composed the music to several Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games. In 2002, Kaufman was one of the co-founders of the website VGMix, which hosted video game music remixes.
During 2002–2005, Kaufman's career as a video game music composer began to take off. By 2005, he was a full-time freelance video game composer. He continued to compose music to increasingly big-name projects, such as Contra 4 and TMNT in 2007 and Red Faction: Guerrilla in 2009; he described composing the soundtrack to a Contra game and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game as his "lifelong dream". Kaufman contributed a track to the official arranged album of music from Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi. He was a full-time employee of Volition while working on Red Faction, but in January 2010, he left the company to become the "lead audio guy" for WayForward, for which he had already composed several soundtracks such as those of Shantae and Contra 4. For WayForward he first composed the soundtrack to Shantae: Risky's Revenge, the sequel to the game he worked on ten years prior. Original Sound Version named Kaufman their Composer of the Year for 2011, based on his work on BloodRayne: Betrayal and Mighty Switch Force, as well as several other soundtracks and arranged albums. Kaufman lives with his puggle Nugget in northern Los Angeles.
While working at WayForward, Kaufman composed music for the Shantae series, the BloodRayne series, and nearly a dozen other games. During this time he also composed music for independent games such as Shovel Knight. On November 1, 2014, Kaufman announced that he was leaving WayForward on mutual terms to work as a freelance composer and sound designer from his own studio, in order to be able to set his own schedule and choose his own projects. The last games which he worked full-time for the company were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Danger of the Ooze and Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, the latter being composed between 2013 and 2015 but only released in late 2016.
In February 2015, Kaufman collaborated with Jessie Seely, a video game vocalist and professional artist, to launch the Kickstarter campaign of [NUREN] The New Renaissance. [NUREN] was self-described as "the world's first virtual reality rock opera." The project was planned to be a full-length music album, accompanied by music videos that users would experience using a head-mounted display such as the Oculus Rift. The proposed music and videos were set in a post-war future society where androids cater to humanity's needs; two prototype androids named QGK and RIX were planned as the main subjects of the project. In March 2015, the project was successfully funded with $76,950 raised. The project was slated to arrive to Kickstarter backers in February 2016. In August 2016, Kaufman cited "contracting work" and a "ridiculous client workload" as obstacles to completing [NUREN], and it has yet to be released.
In March 2016, Kaufman and recording engineer Robert Altschuler founded their own music label called Mint Potion, based in Santa Clarita, California. It provides music and audio services for a variety of productions, most notably the background music and theme songs for the TV shows OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes and Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart. Through Mint Potion, Kaufman briefly worked again with WayForward as a freelance composer on the games Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche and Vitamin Connection, as well as continued composing for the various Shovel Knight DLCs. Other composers such as Chiyoko Yamasato and Tommy Pedrini have since joined the label.
Works
Video games YearGameNotes 2000 Q*bertMusic DrymouthMusic M&M's Minis MadnessMusic 2001 Tennis Masters SeriesMusic David Beckham SoccerMusic Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?Arrangements of Keith and Matthew Strachan's soundtrack; Game Boy Color version Atlantis: The Lost EmpireMusic X-Bladez: Inline SkaterMusic 2002 The Scorpion King: Sword of OsirisMusic Karnaaj RallyMusic Godzilla: DominationMusic ShantaeMusic Micro MachinesMusic Hardcore PinballMusic Rugrats: I Gotta Go PartyMusic 2004 Barbie as the Princess and the PauperMusic 2005 Spy Hunter / Super SprintMusic Legend of KayMusic Rebelstar: Tactical CommandMusic Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old TreeMusic2006 Miami Nights: Singles in the CityMusic Ibiza Beach PartyMusic 2007 Shrek: Ogres & DronkeysMusic Contra 4Music Petz: Catz 2Music Elements of DestructionMusic with Chad Seiter TMNTMusic; Nintendo DS version Surf's UpMusic; Nintendo DS and GBA versions Cranium KabookiiMusic 2008 Imagine: My Secret WorldMusic Winx Club: Mission EnchantixMusic Pokermillion 2009: The BluffMusic Ben 10: All Out Attack!Music 2009 Mighty Flip Champs!Music Red Faction: GuerillaMusic with Timothy Michael Wynn and others Barbie and the Three MusketeersMusic; DS, Wii and PC versions Virtual Villagers: Erschaffe dein Paradies!Music 2010 Despicable Me: The Game - Minion MayhemMusic Shantae: Risky's RevengeMusic Batman: The Brave and the Bold – The VideogameMusic with Kristopher Carter, Michael McCuistion, and Lolita Ritmanis 2011 Thor: God of ThunderMusic; Nintendo DS version SpongeBob SquigglePantsMusic Mighty Milky WayMusic BloodRayne: BetrayalMusic Mighty Switch Force!Music Centipede: InfestationMusic Otomedius ExcellentMusic; downloadable content addition DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsuBlack Label Arrange version 2012 Retro City RampageMusic with Leonard J. Paul and Matthew Creamer Darkstalkers ResurrectionMusic Hotel TransylvaniaMusic Double Dragon NeonMusic Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?!!Music 2013 Mighty Switch Force! 2Music Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby in 8-Bit LandMusic Ultionus: A Tale of Petty RevengeMusic Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know!Music with Ian Stocker DuckTales: RemasteredOriginal music and arrangements of Hiroshige Tonomura's soundtrack 2014 Shovel KnightMusic Wonder Momo: Typhoon BoosterMusic with Alex Culang Boot Hill HeroesMusic Shantae and the Pirate's CurseMusic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Danger of the OozeMusic 2015 Adventures of PipMusic Supreme League of PatriotsMusic Mighty Switch Force! Hose It Down!Music Legend of Kay AnniversaryMusic Vanguard VMain theme 2016 Crypt of the NecrodancerAlternate soundtrack Pulsar ArenaMusic Shantae: Half-Genie HeroMusic Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-BoucheMusic 2020 Ray’s the Dead Music with various others Boot Hill BountiesMusic with various others Vitamin ConnectionMusic2021 Shovel Knight Pocket DungeonMusic 2022 Shovel Knight DigMusic 2024Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's RevengeArrangement of "It Won't Fly!" 2026 Mina the Hollower Music with Yuzo Koshiro
Film YearTitleDirectorNotes2007Press StartEd Glaser2009RampageÇetin InançEnglish dub
Television YearTitleNotes2017–2019OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroesas Mint Potion Studios2019–2020Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heartas Mint Potion Studios
Web Pilots YearTitleNotes 2026 Gameoverse Composer; with Grant Kirkhope
References
External links