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A jam submission

LupusView project page

A soundtrack about a stranded pilot and a wolf
Submitted by AudioHazard — 2 days, 10 hours before the deadline
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Lupus's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Correlation to theme#1362.7262.882
Creativity#1383.0053.176
Impression#1432.7262.882
Composition#1442.7262.882
Overall#1462.7382.894
Quality#1492.5042.647

Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Description
The soundtrack I composed for Lupus is centered around genres like indie. I composed each track using the plug-in FLEX in FL Studio, with filters and settings tweaked to be as immersive as possible.

The game I imagined would tell the story of a lethally wounded pilot trying to escape a desert tundra alongside a wolf.

"The Lone and the Wolf": main theme/title theme
"Left": The pilot wakes up in a desert tundra, after jumping from a cargo plane on collision course. They quickly realize that they're in such a grave state they'd roughly have the rest of the day to live, and desperately try to find another human being to rescue them.
"Chant du Loup": After searching to no avail with a great deal of effort, they meet a stray wolf, who doesn't seem to mind the pilot's company.
"Silent Hell": The pilot spends the rest of the day arduously following the wolf, helping each other out however they can, in hope for both to find anything in this icy wasteland.
"Matchstick": The duo eventually stumbles into a dry, empty forest with a trail of smoke in the distance. The pilot hopes for a camp or any form of rescue, and heads towards it, followed reluctantly by the wolf. Upon nearing the source, the pilot realized that they stumbled on their plane's wreck catching fire, and shortly after, it blows up.
"Last Firewells": The forest almost instantly catches fire, and the duo tries to run as the forest fire surrounding them quickly spreads. They find themselves trapped, and pass away quietly, side by side.

Theme:

Tick Tock...

How does it fit the theme?
The Game Jam's theme "Tick Tock...", other than being present in the protagonist's impending doom, is also implemented in the music: The guitar always alternating between two layers depicts ticking, and its strings also resemble a clock's seconds hand. Each individual track also depicts this motive in its own ways: "The Lone and the Wolf" as well as "Silent Hell" use the piano/glockenspiel to represent ticking too, "Left" and "Last Firewells" include gongs in the background (that have their own purposes in their contexts), etc.

Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
Link to SoundCloud album: https://soundcloud.com/fournie_e-etri/sets/audiohazard-ost-composing-jam

Soundtrack use permission

No

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Comments

Submitted

Blues and Ballad, love the vibe and atmosphere ya create.

Submitted

This evokes for me the kind of mid-90's grim aesthetic that led to MIDI soundtracks like the Heretic  OST (shoutouts to the Roland MT-32 and its kin) Sometimes it felt like the high strings were off doing their own thing and it was hard to figure out how they tied into the rest of the track. I really enjoyed the low highly compressed guitar sound, it did a good job of evoking an atmosphere that fit the game.

Submitted

I like the mood of this one. The guitar works well with the wolf theme. Chant du Loup was the standout track for me. That descending guitar riff with the piano hits the spot. I think some more attention to mixing would improve the tracks. For example, one or more of the instruments in Silent Hell are too loud and causing clipping. I enjoyed the listen. Thanks for making and sharing!

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thank you for rating and commenting!

I also am probably most proud of how Chant du Loup turned out. I only noticed the small glitches in Silent Hell now, which is odd because iirc, the volume was scaled to below the standard amount, I'll try to pay better attention to that from now on. Glad to hear you enjoyed it!

Submitted(+1)

Last Firewells: I believe the soundtrack is in reverse order on SoundCloud? Either way, this is a rather somber theme-- fitting for the story as you described it. I will say, the low thirds in the guitar are rather muddy-- otherwise, good job with this track.

Matchstick: love the synths and the distant, wailing oboe-like instrument! The icy, high synths definitely convey the coldness of the landscape-- and the dissonant ending chords, perhaps, signify the 

Silent Hell: the perpetual eighth-notes in the guitar definitely symbolize the slow trodding around that the protagonist and their wolf friend are doing throughout the day.

Chant Du Loup: a solid, quick track-- I liked it!

Left: definitely think the holwing wind is a good addition to this track-- and the lack of any sort of beat, at least at first, is perfect for conveying the confused, lost state our protagonist is in. I enjoy the low, dramatic guitar line. Certainly conveys that feeling of 'oh crap, what am I gonna do now...' that they must be feeling.

The Lone and the Wolf: as the first track, I enjoy that it introduces many of the instruments that will appear throughout the soundtrack, including the synthesizers and guitar (which are really the main two.)

In all, this is a solid soundtrack, and I'm impressed. Good job, and keep writing!

Developer

I did not expect someone to go this in-depth with the tracks, but to me, critique and praise is always welcome, so thanks!

In soundcloud, uploading the tracks in the correct order will make them show up in reverse, I didn't account for that. And I did try to fix the lower parts in Last Firewells, but alas.

Grateful for the feedback, appreciate it a lot!

And indeed, Matchstick's dissonant ending chords definitely do signify the.

Submitted(+1)

I like how ambient this is, and i really like that every track uses acoustic guitar. It really brings it all together. Very cool!

Developer (2 edits) (+1)

Actually, in the screenshot (or a comment further below), you can see I used classical guitars rather than acoustic, but that's not much of a big difference to be fair. Glad you liked it!

Submitted

ahh okay, good to know!

Submitted(+1)

Excellent work! Like c_gurra said, the mood feels very cohesive, even though the tracks are still diverse. The composition is hauntingly beautiful, and I feel like it would be telling more than half the story if it was used in a video game; Honestly, I could even imagine this in a cinematic work.

Developer

Thank you! Appreciate it a ton :)

Submitted(+1)

The soundtrack has a nice and cohesive mood :)
(P.S. You might have made your playlist in reverse order, it starts with credits and finishes with the opening)

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thank you! Appreciate it a lot :)

Also yeah, I uploaded the tracks to soundcloud in the correct order, meaning the first tracks appeared at the bottom. So once I added them to a single playlist, they play from top to bottom, I didn't think about that when making it lol. As for itch, it completely gave up as you can see

Submitted(+1)

Really enjoyed the nylon string composition. Super unique choice and not easy to pull off so well :)

Developer (2 edits)

Thank you so much! :)

I originally planned on acoustic guitar, but the plug-in lacked acoustic guitars. I decided to go for classical instead, despite the fact that it sounded electric without filters. Glad you enjoyed it!