Chris Granner


Christopher P. Granner is a freelance music composer, best known for composing music for video games and pinball games.

Career and biography

Granner's father was an organist/pianist, so he was interested in music since his childhood. He studied composition and computer sound/music at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign under prolific musicians Ben Johnston, Herbert Brün, Salvatore Martirano and Scott Wyatt. After finishing university with a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Fine Arts in music composition he moved to Evanston-located Northwestern University's music lab. There Granner heard that Williams Electronics was looking for a composer, and he took the job and became a leading composer in the coin-op and pinball industry. After leaving Midway, Granner set up his own sound production studio, CGMusic, and produced music and sound for many video games, advertisements and pinball games.
From 2006 to 2011, Granner had retired from composing music for games, after he was finished with Stern / Steve Ritchie Productions' pinball, World Poker Tour. In 2011, Granner came out of retirement and joined the newly formed Jersey Jack Pinball, where he served as the composer and audio director for their first pinball game, The Wizard of Oz. In April 2012, Granner began audio work with Spooky Cool Labs, a Chicago-based startup company developing social games for Facebook and mobile platforms. He joined Spooky Cool, in-house, as Audio Director in October 2012. In June 2013, Spooky Cool was acquired by Zynga; Granner is currently serving as Audio Director of that studio, now known as Zynga Chicago, which produces games for the Hit It Rich! social casino.

Granner's Works

''Note: The titles shown are in chronological order.''

Pinball

Williams">Williams (gaming company)">Williams

  • Road Kings
  • Millionaire
  • Pin*Bot
  • F-14 Tomcat
  • Fire!
  • Big Guns
  • Cyclone
  • Taxi
  • Truck Stop
  • Jokerz!
  • Earthshaker!
  • Police Force
  • Elvira and the Party Monsters
  • Whirlwind
  • Diner
  • Dr. Dude
  • FunHouse
  • Terminator 2: Judgment Day
  • The Addams Family
  • Fish Tales
  • White Water
  • Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure
  • ''Red & Ted's Road Show''

    Midway (Bally)">Midway Games">Midway (Bally)

  • Truck Stop
  • Elvira and the Party Monsters
  • Dr. Dude And His Excellent Ray
  • The Addams Family
  • The Twilight Zone
  • ''Indianapolis 500''

    [Capcom]

  • Pinball Magic
  • Airborne
  • The Pit and the Pendulum
  • ''Kingpin''

    Stern">Stern (game company)">Stern

  • Monopoly
  • RollerCoaster Tycoon
  • The Simpsons Pinball Party
  • Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
  • The Lord of the Rings
  • Ripley's Believe It or Not!
  • Elvis
  • The Sopranos
  • NASCAR
  • The Simpsons Kooky Carnival
  • World Poker Tour
  • ''Dale Jr.''

    Jersey Jack Pinball

  • The Wizard of Oz
''The names in superscript are the designers from the pinball machine, PLD stands for Pat Lawlor Design, SRP stands for Steve Ritchie Productions''

Video games

Williams

  • ''Joust 2: Survival of the Fittest''

    Midway

  • Trog
  • Strike Force
  • Terminator 2: Judgment Day
  • Revolution X
  • ''WWF WrestleMania''

    [Electronic Arts]

  • ''Super Baseball 2020''

    [Atari Games]

  • ''California Speed''

    Incredible Technologies

  • ''Golden Tee Fore!''

    [Microsoft]

  • ''Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus''

    [THQ]

  • ''WWE WrestleMania 21''

    [Zynga]

  • Wizard of Oz social adventure-sim game
  • Hit It Rich! social casino