The Everending Waterways: This track is unique and is an excellent level-based background song. I love the ritardandos used to mimic the eb and flow of the water. The high piano melody is intricate but not distracting. The neo soul-sounding synth chords are the perfect soft yet present harmonic accompaniment for this. I love the percussive nuances that add extra character to this piece!

The Wheel That Never Stops: The emphasis on the off-beat in this track is the biggest factor that makes me imagine a perpetual motion that doesn’t seem to ever quite reach the intended goal. The lead instrument that enters after the drums and bass enter is perfect to represent what I interpret as the koi fish. This is an excellent dynamic track that would work well in-game to have a second layer added on after you reach the particular checkpoint in the game.

Small and Insignificant: I’m listening to your soundtrack on a nice sound system and the subwoofer is shaking the room I’m in and I absolutely love it! The end does feel a little abrupt and I wonder if a transition in your loop back to the beginning without the drums would really add to this track’s emotional impact.

Palace of Despair: I love that the first 2-3 chords made the despair palpable so quickly into the song. Great harmonic composition. The non-diatonic tones that the violin runs add interesting colors that tend to draw the emotion away from despair and more into fear or anxiety. This is great musical representation of the bats as they emerge in the story.

Patrol of the Underdogs: I love when this turns into the energized battle theme! The automation of the high-cut in the percussion feels really satisfying. The transition into 8-bit sounds is also quite smooth, as is the transition out of it. This is a really awesome dynamic battle track! The only drawback is that it ends quite abruptly. Overall you have a really cool collection of songs. I am not finding many obvious connections to the themes of the jam, but I really do love the story you’ve created. I would be really interested to hear it when it is expanded into the full story/game that you are envisioning it to be! Thank you so much for sharing!

Love the piano jazzy expressions in The Ever Ending Waterways, and the high energy in Small and Insignificant and Patrol of the Underdogs.

Great work :))

Good job ! I tried to write as I listen to try giving more detailed moment-by-moment impressions :

The Ever Ending Waterways :

I like the texture from the start, very well produced ! The piano part feels very delicate and the whole piece makes me think of a chill night scene with some melancholy 

The Wheel that Never Stops:

Similar texture to the last piece, changed towards a less serene and more tense harmony and overall feel. A mysterious synth goes wild and suddenly slows down into a sort of drop. A new lead synth plays a more determined melody and a modulation gives some dramatic intensity to the last section with an unresolved ending that leaves me wondering what is going to happen next !

Small and Insignificant:

String synth sweeps and a piano playing harp figures creates a beautiful harmonic texture that then serves as the backdrop to a lonely flute staccato melody. A synth with a strong character joins with drums, until a dramatic moment where things become serious ! We shift to a military 2/2 metre and a low synth feels me with anticipation while the flute comes back to tell us that now it's ready to roll !

Palace of despair:

Extremely low strings strings set an ominous tone, with a piano melody that is oddly serene in comparison, but occasionally deranged by an unresolved accidental. Ostinato violin feels a bit weak, which could be meant to add to a sense of despair I don't get, or just be that this particular violin sample is a bit too weak to be alone like that.

Patrol of the Underdogs:

Ah, A battle theme :)

Intro follows the last track and now the orchestration works for me and then... 

Boom ! we're fighting, marcato string ostinato and energetic drum-and-bass drums tells us it's not gonna be easy. But a synth comes tell us it's gonna be fun !

Then the instrumentation shifts completely to chiptune, with syncopated rythms and a melody that succeeds in keeping rythmic momentum and energy, until a more techno-inspired 4-on-the-floor comes back with the strings to really push us to our very edge against our enemy.

Overall :

The material is very solid and the orchestration / instrumentation work is really great. But your form tends to always build up and build up and just abruptly stop at the end, which can be fine, but seems to be your default. It's okay to build down you don't have to constantly build up.

Other than this very minor nitpicking I really enjoyed the soundtrack, Great Work ! 

Those synths fit soo well !

I love the piano and the story that goes along with the tracks! I'm not sure exactly how this fits the theme but everything is well composed and produced.

Very pretty music.

The synth addition that comes in on "The Wheel that Never Stops" is so well blended ino the composition. It's so easy for a distorted sound to have too much squelch. It's just right.

Patrol of the Underdogs does such a great job of building tension with the tempo and the gradual upshift in keys.

Enjoyed the story that you developed for this soundtrack, too. The songs match the action well.

This is great stuff!

so let me know when this game comes out please, I’m sold! I listened to each track as I read each description and you nailed it, amazing story telling through music.  

OMG I love it !