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BLACKHEART's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Composition | #117 | 3.353 | 3.353 |
| Correlation to theme | #135 | 3.294 | 3.294 |
| Creativity | #139 | 3.412 | 3.412 |
| Impression | #143 | 3.176 | 3.176 |
| Overall | #150 | 3.224 | 3.224 |
| Quality | #177 | 2.882 | 2.882 |
Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
Genre: Piano/Strings
Runtime: 5:33
DAW: FL Studio
1 - Dramatic Escapist
First encounter with the main character and a variation of themself. It comes as a surprise to both, and the player version would have to run and avoid the variation's attacks and projectiles (all while the variation keeps a distance, cautious and afraid of the player).
2 - Heart Aching Distress
Second encounter with the main character and a variation of themself. The variation is overwhelmed and unstable, withholding a breakdown within them. The pressure and high paced platforming is ramped up during this.
3 - The Joy of Misery, HA HA HA!
Third encounter with the main character and a variation of themself. The player makes an downward escape, all while the variant often grabs the player to try and perform a dance.
4 - Meaninglessness
The main character soon runs down a spiraling staircase. It does not end.
Theme:
How does it fit the theme?
An interpretation of running away from yourself.
This soundtrack focuses on battle themes of variations of self.
Gameplay focus would switch between traversing the main character’s thoughts (represented through a purgatory-esque landscape) and battles between the main character and variations of themselves (who show up during traversals randomly, or when memories are uncovered).
The main character tries to escape their mind-world and fights their own identities, never coming to terms with their behavior and flaws, thus running away from their true self. They are always on the verge of stress, fear, and anxiousness. All the running and fighting only makes their blackheart consume their mind and body more and more.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx5joR1ISvY
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Comments
I like those piano arpeggios in heart aching distress, very classic! Joy of misery kept me on my toes, great sense of urgency. Also creative use of distortion in the last piece. Thanks for sharing!
Great OST, with how you used the piano, it sounds like the character is always on the run! Good effort of making your project page look presentable.
Nice work with piano! Reminds me OST for first Alone in the Dark game ^_^.
Loved the drama in the first track! Would have loved to hear an alternate version with some drums and some driving bass, could hear it making a really cool battle theme. Same for the 3rd track. Either way, they're just fine as piano compositions as well. Cool stuff! Love the detuning in the 4th track.
Dramatic Escapist - Nice! Love the drama here. I really like the melody. It's very cool and has some nice variations throughout. I could imagine this one would be even more awesome with some more velocity automation.
Heart Aching Distress - Cool! Again, you manage to bring out some dramatic melodies which I think would be excellent for storytelling. I almost feel some vibe of a recluse who has his privacy perturbed and he is really not happy about it.
The Joy of Misery - Again, really great work on the melodies! The melodies in this are so cool. It really feels like the villain is chasing you here. I also really love the quite note trills every now and then.
Meaninglessness - Oh no. This sounds like we're in trouble. I really like the use of the de-tuning here to nail that unsettling vibe. You can immediately tell things are not going to plan thanks to that.
I think you have some really great melodies in this work. I feel with a little extra velocity automation, this could go from great to amazing. I think the melodies are definitely there already.
Awesome work! Really enjoyed listening to this one. Thank you.
I enjoyed what you did here - there is a neat flow through the tracks thanks to similar instrumentation, and where the movements in the music do the heavy lifting in terms of conveying feeling/theme. Well put together - congratulations!
I really do like the composition of the first track, the 2nd track I know is supposed to feel unstable though the odd bass string doesn't feel right, that could just be me! 3rd Track has a classy piano vibe and I do enjoy it! The final song is unsettling in a good way! Great stuff!
a common critique I can find to all your tracks is that they would really benefit from being performed by humans or by behind humanized, maybe a more realistic piano sound and having rubato / slight tempo variations would help a lot the piano-heavy pieces come to life
Track 1 and 3 in particular have passages that would rooock in a real performance