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A jam submission

Inside My World - OST Composing Jam 7 SubmissionView project page

A collection of soundtracks made for an imaginary game in which you explore a mysterious underwater world!
Submitted by Dontot8 — 10 hours, 4 minutes before the deadline
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Inside My World - OST Composing Jam 7 Submission's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Correlation to theme#2473.6003.600
Creativity#3153.4503.450
Overall#3193.4003.400
Composition#3193.4003.400
Impression#3573.2503.250
Quality#3793.3003.300

Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Description
Note: I noticed in the YouTube video above, there are some minor clipping artifacts, but I think they may have been added on accident when creating the visualizer. The files below and SoundCloud files are more carefully mastered and do not have these artifacts.

Track 1: Overworld theme
I’m a big fan of games where soundtracks evolve as progression is made throughout the story. For that reason, I like to take the stems of each instrument and build loops out of each of them, and introduce them as the player makes progress in the level. If I were making this game, I would probably open with just the piano arpeggiation that plays in the first bar of this recording, and as the player discovers more, or perhaps gains more mobility, through doors opening or access to new mobility equipment/skills, then the glockenspiel track might come in, to symbolize the main character’s newfound delight and confidence in this strange world.
I also have a Cello track that comes in last, and I was thinking that the Cello would be symbolic for the presence of your bubble companion, who is a helpful guide, because the deep, warm presence of the Cello is like that of a companion.
I thought the 12:8 time signature and use of maj7 and dominant 7 chords and voicings with lots of space and interesting chord extensions could evoke a sense of exploration, wonder, and also slight confusion that I would expect of a character in a strange, but fun, new world.

Track 2: Overworld theme - Underwater Waltz
I’ve always been a fan of underwater renditions of music in games. I love the immersion of the muffling of the high frequencies, as it immerses the player in an obvious cue that reminds them of actually being underwater. I also love games like some of the 3d Mario games, where some of the instrumentation and composition elements actually change when you are underwater. As such, I took time to record an underwater rendition of the overworld theme, replacing the glockenspiel with a xylophone with a lot of reverb
However, in this version of the track, no Lowpass filter has been applied yet. I apply that effect in the next track.

Track 3: In and Out of Water
This isn’t really an additional composition, but I did a mockup of what some gameplay might sound like, in which we can imagine the player submerging into the water, or coming out of the water, with splashing sound effects, and then crossfading between the above water and underwater version of the tracks. I would imagine that this would be done dynamically in the game’s audio system.
I also apply a heavy high pass filter and play underwater ambience sound effects when the player is underwater.

Track 4: Menu Theme
When making this track, I thought it might be best suited for a “end of level recap” screen that happens, where it tells you the collectibles you’ve gotten. Or perhaps it could be used in a level select screen. Either way, this was created by taking the chords from the main theme and putting them through a bunch of arpeggiators with a few different instruments and doing some tweaking. It’s also at a slower tempo, providing the player with a relaxed score while they might be making decisions on which level to play, or equipment to take, etc.

Track 5: Adversity Theme
This might be a track that plays when something bad happens, or you have to deal with an adversary in the game. Because I imagined the game to be fairly lighthearted and geared towards all ages, I decided to make it dissonant but not scary, using a minor 2nd sound. It uses a goofy sounding warbly synthesizer, and plays in an uptempo polka sounding style, to characterize the enemy as chaotic.
It also makes use of the leitmotif established in the main theme, but takes advantage of a minor 2nd type sound, and plays the motif “out of key” to make it sound dissonant, to evoke the feeling of the current in game event causing discord in the world.

Workflow:
Made using Reaper as a DAW. Most instruments used were from Native Instruments Kontakt and BBC Symphony Orchestra by Spitfire Audio, played live via midi. Got a few sound effects from Pixabay.

Message from the artist
Thanks for listening! Would be curious to see if anyone can guess which existing game score compositions that I felt most inspired by! If you make a guess in the comment, I'll let you know if you're right!

Theme

Inside my world
Picture theme

How does it fit the theme?
When viewing the “theme” of the Jam, I thought I would view the picture like concept art for an imaginary game. In addition to composing music, I also like to do game development, so I thought to myself, “What kind of game would fit with this picture and phrase, and what kind of gameplay would evoke the same kind feelings that this picture and phrase evoke?”
I took note of the underwater environment, with bubbles and fish, and thought about water elements. I saw the childish nature of the fish drawings and the age of the young girl in the kimono, which made me feel the game would be for all ages. I noticed the sense of wonder and fun that the girl was having, and saw the larger bubble figure standing to the left of the girl, and in addition to the phrase, thought it might be a game that involved a girl exploring an unknown world, a bubble spirit who was guiding her, and the surroundings would be very dreamlike and have magical realism and mystery.
With those thoughts in mind, and such stylized art in the picture, I imagined something like a 2d adventure/platformer/exploration game, where you play as the girl and explore this world, and the world unfolds and new wonders are revealed as you get guided on an adventure by the bubble spirit.
In these kinds of games, there usually isn’t much dialogue, and there are a lot of ambient sound effects, so I felt as though the music has to do a lot of heavy lifting to characterize the feelings of the character. As such, I tried to weave in some of those feelings of wonder and mystery into the harmony and melody of the score.

Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://youtu.be/gIW-qlQlM8s
https://soundcloud.com/dontot-music/sets/in-my-world-ost-composing-jam-7-submission

Number of tracks
5

Genre

Orchestral

Soundtrack use permission

Yes (CC BY)

Any project

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Comments

Submitted

An incredible and fun adventure through the underwater world... Thank you very much for an exciting time!

Submitted

Overworld Theme: Such soothing piano arpeggios. You also have a really nice full sound that completely immerses me in the underwater vibes. The glockenspiel melody keeps the mood free and light. I really like how you use the cello as a countermelody instrument rather than as a bass exclusively.

Underwater Waltz: I think it’s really cool to have variations of the same theme for above and below water. I think it’s awesome as the composer that you evoked the underwater sound so well with just a few instrument changes.

In and Out of Water: Way to show off the adaptive nature of your music variations! This is really creative!

Menu Theme: This is a nice subdued version of the main theme. The mallet instruments are very pleasing to listen to. I could stay on this menu for a long time just vibing to this track!

Adversity Theme: This would be a great “prepare for combat” theme. The whistle is a fun touch that vaguely reminds me of Wario Ware types of goofy musical elements.

Overall: I purposefully didn’t look through the comments, because I wanted to guess your inspirations without cheating! Your gameplay ideas sound like the types of games I always loved to play like family-friendly Nintendo games. The immersiveness and instrument changes for underwater make me think of Super Mario Galaxy or Super Mario Odyssey. The piano accompaniment, high mallet melodies, and waltzy qualities actually remind me a lot of Kirby’s Epic Yarn which is my guess as one of the inspiring soundtracks for what you’ve made! I like the creativity of the variations on the theme you made and the nuanced decisions you made for each add to the quality of each track tremendously. Great work and thank you for sharing!

Submitted

Lovely sense of ambience and atmosphere created here and some good writing shown! Think about how you could vary the textures with changes in instrumental layers in each track, as even subtle additions would add that extra bit of detail. Adversity does feel a bit detached from the theme of the others, but only as the rest of the OST feels so cohesive. Some really nice work :)

Submitted

Very sweet album.

First track Overworld theme:  Good composition and render of emotions. Small thing I would look for at 0:56 when you want to do the rallentendo, its a great idea but you rushed it to go back into the loop straight away, let the music breath for a moment with a little pause then continue I think it would embelish even more your composition.

In and Out of Water : You get the general idea of putting low pass filter but I think you can probably add something to make this very different from when you are in and out of water like an instrument or musical element that will truly indicate the difference on top of the low pass that is not water sound design. Btw the sound design was a nice touch too.

Adversity I think everyone talked about it and you already know what to do.


Good job !

Submitted

Very cool and interesting concept!!

I loved In and Out of Water, very original the sound design of that track.

And the way you treat the motif was very creative.

Great work!!!

Submitted(+1)

Great entries! 

I do agree that "Adversity Theme" does seem out of place. I love the idea of evoking feelings to discord in the story world though :) 

Overworld Theme was my favorite ^_^ Lovely piano sounds,  Good Job !

Developer

I agree about the adversity theme. I didn't have as much time as I would've liked to work on my submission overall, but wanted to submit what I had worked on, so I just decided to finish what I could in the time I had, and put it out there. Thanks for the feedback and for listening!

Submitted(+1)

Excluding "Adversity Theme" (that sounds very out of place and rushed), the main theme is memorable and the arrangments are organic. Good job.

Developer(+1)

I agree about the adversity theme. I didn't have as much time as I would've liked to work on my submission overall, but wanted to submit what I had worked on, so I just decided to finish what I could in the time I had, and put it out there. Thanks for the feedback and for listening!

Submitted(+1)

Very cool concept to add the in and out of water mechanic to your tracks. I really liked overworld from an instrumental, composition, and quality standpoint too! If felt a lot like a the game GRIS. Well done!

Submitted(+1)

The crossfade from in and out of water was a really creative way to show you had 2 versions of a track without needing to play them both in full!

Submitted

Very peaceful soundtrack. I like that you made multiple versions of the overworld theme, but wish that you would have created more tracks to further flesh out the story. Nice job!

Developer

Thanks for listening! I wish I could've fleshed it out more too, but unfortunately I only had a few nights out of the allotted time to work on my submission :( I had some ideas about writing a "flying" version of the theme as well, and would've liked to write some themes that were not as "bgm" style as well

Submitted(+1)

Super relaxing OST! Really nice piano writing I really like when "In and Out of Water" and how it sounds under water for a bit i think its a really nice stylistic choice. My favorite is the Menu Theme. Great work!

Submitted(+1)

amazing work! just watch out for a bit of clipping in the youtube version (though it seems like this doesn't happen in your raw files). i love how cohesive these tracks are. for example, the menu theme introduces the musical ideas in a subtle but effective way, setting the stage for a player to experience the rest of the music meaningfully.

as for a guess about inspirations, maybe some zelda? specifically those descending chromatic notes in the main leitmotif :)

Developer

Thanks! and yes, thanks for pointing that out. I had noticed the clipping in the YouTube version and had posted a note about it on the Project page, but had forgotten to update the submission page.

Also yes, definitely a bit of an homage to the The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time opening theme, you're correct :)

Submitted(+1)

The piano is really nice here, and I really like the gameplay mockup that you made with the character diving in the water! I also like how seamless the 12/8 to 3/4 transition was between tracks. This is a really fun submission!

Developer

Thanks for the feedback and for listening! I'm glad my mock-up is getting some attention, I've always wanted to try setting up a system like that in FMOD or some other dynamic game audio tool

Submitted(+1)

This deserves way more attention, I absolutely love this. It's so relaxing and composed incredibly well! I love the touch of when "In and Out of the water" literally does so, really brings the piece alive. 

Developer

Thanks for listening! Definitely imagined a relaxing vibe when looking at the theme picture.