Born to a mother who was a fan of theatre and ballet, and a father who introduced her to new genres and artists, Novakovic studied
piano,
church organ, and
violin. She first studied music at
Durham University, then pursued a Master's in Medieval Music at
Newcastle University and a
Postgraduate Diploma in Electroacoustic Composition at
Bournemouth University. Novakovic joined video game developer
Rare in 1993 when the company was transitioning from the
NES to
SNES. At that time, the British company had only one composer,
David Wise, who worked for the company as a freelancer. As one of only two women working on the development teams at that time, and the only in-house musician, Novakovic described the initial experience as "daunting to begin with," but eventually noted, "what I found though was a genuine camaraderie from the top down." Her first project for the console was
Donkey Kong Country, alongside
David Wise and
Robin Beanland, where she was responsible for seven tracks, including "Simian Segue", "Treetop Rock", and "Voices of the Temple". Despite the "overwhelmingly positive" critical reception to
Donkey Kong Country soundtrack, Novakovic moved on to work on the soundtrack for ''
Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run for the same console. After the success of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest'', Rare greenlit a
sequel, and Novakovic was called by Wise to handle most of the soundtrack, including tracks such as "Nuts and Bolts", "Water World", and "Mill Fever". Following
Double Trouble!, Novakovic worked on titles for the
Game Boy console. She arranged and implemented
Robin Beanland's score for ''
Conker's Pocket Tales for the Game Boy Color and also converted her own Donkey Kong Country 3
soundtrack for the Game Boy remake: Donkey Kong Land III.'' After her work on Game Boy, Novakovic began to explore her increasing interest in sound design. She contributed voices to a number of
Nintendo 64 games over the next few years, including
Perfect Dark, where she voiced the main character Joanna Dark. In 2005, Novakovic left Rare after completing voice work for
Kameo: Elements of Power for the
Xbox 360 and eventually retired from the games industry in 2007.
Influences Novakovic has described her music tastes as a blend of
jazz,
blues,
medieval music and
percussion. She has cited major musical influences historic artists such as
Sergei Rachmaninoff,
Francis Poulenc,
Gabriel Fauré,
Franz Liszt,
Bach,
Charles-Marie Widor,
Carl Orff,
César Franck, and contemporary artists like
Marie Claire Alain,
Ella Fitzgerald,
Nina Simone,
Duke Ellington,
Oscar Peterson,
John Williams,
Hans Zimmer and
Amadinda. == Personal life ==