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Floating Through Life's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Correlation to theme | #72 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Overall | #300 | 3.421 | 3.421 |
| Creativity | #301 | 3.474 | 3.474 |
| Composition | #385 | 3.263 | 3.263 |
| Impression | #401 | 3.158 | 3.158 |
| Quality | #416 | 3.211 | 3.211 |
Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
This soundtrack does not have a relative genre, the music is tied together more with motifs. The game that this soundtrack represents is a game where the main character is on their deathbed, and the gameplay is the player playing through the main character's memories as they remember them. Each song in the soundtrack other than the main theme correlate to each "memory" played through and play during the cutscene in each. I composed each track with VST's and FL Studio.
Composition: All of the “Emotion” tracks start similarly to signify going into the memory.
Main Theme - I wanted this theme to feel “floaty” and “melancholic” to represent the fact that main character is at the end of their life and reliving their memories.
Glee - I wanted this theme to sound happy and triumphant, almost with some adventurous notes.
Grief - This theme is the opposite of “Glee”. It represents the sadness and anger of grief, like losing a loved one, being betrayed, etc.
Loneliness - This track is exactly what the title is. It embodies the loneliness of the main character at a point in their life. The instrumentation is very simple, open, and non-convoluted to further the message.
Love - This is the opposite of the “Loneliness” track. The instrumentation is meant to sound happy with bits of dissonance to show how love is not always happy, but also comes with its challenges. The instrumentation of the second half of the song is supposed to represent that “Euphoric” feeling when you fall in love.
Message from the artist
Thank you for listening to my work!
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
The main theme is going for that "floating/melancholic" feeling in the picture theme while the rest of the songs represent the "In My World" theme by representing different emotions in the main character's world.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/luke-gerguis-shotgun192/sets/floating-through-life-soundtrack
Number of tracks5
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
Any non-commercial project
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Comments
Nice combination of chiptune and experimental layers here, especially in the track Grief. Don’t be afraid to ad a bit more depth to your the orchestral moments, with a bit more dynamic shape to really support the more epic moments. Great work overall :)
I’ll definitely do that! And I just found some new orchestra VST’s, so we’ll see if I can do any better with that I guess lol.
You really mastered the "floating" impression! Really liked "Glee" with it's rythmic and melodic ideas!
Thank you! I didn’t really know where I was going with it at first, but it worked out!
The last chords of loneliness are tragic. Theres a ton of variation in this OST and it's impressive how well you manage to glue the whole thing together. Amazing work!
Thank you!
I enjoyed your overall sound; the chiptunes and strings blend very nicely together. The title theme is powerful and really stands out for me as the strongest track here. The offbeat snare drives the melancholic chords extremely well and the simple rhythmic synth that stays consistent for the whole song plays its role perfectly. This is also probably the "safest" track, as the rest of the album has some moments that are definitely pushing the envelope in terms of overall song form and structure. I love hearing those risks, and I feel like some of them work well and some of them don't quite land. Some of the latter could be my personal preference, but I'll give you the play by play for how my ears perceived it:
In "Glee," for example, the main lead feels like it could have benefited from "less is more." The lead plays such a long string of notes that it feels like it has lost some impact by the time we get to the end. The opening organ sounds are a strong intro, and the strings that come in as the song picks up pair well with the synth lead. The strings are playing such short notes here that I would have given them a bit less attack to make them play more of each note - as it is, the faster bits feel a bit unnatural. The synth is very punchy, which works great on its own, but it makes the shorter notes of the strings feel like they are lagging behind a little bit.
For "Grief," the intro is well done, especially the panned plucking sounds and the little bits of dissonance that come in before the song picks up. I like the chaotic synth that's introduced around 0:39, and the rhythm here is pretty non-standard which helps to drive the intended message of the song well. It contrasts nicely to the intro and the abrupt ending with just that little bit of echo leftover is a strong finish.
I enjoyed how you switched up the instruments in "Loneliness," the strings are very pretty and, together with the choir, create quite the melancholic feel. The sudden shift into acoustic guitar for the outro was unexpected and does a great job delivering the intended emotion of the song. This was definitely my favorite track.
"Love" has some very lovely sounding chords. It almost felt like a musical without the lyrics, in the overall structure of it. The climax of the song is properly cheesy in that regard, in a good kind of way that matches the tone of the song. There are a few notes in this song as well where the strings could have done with a bit less attack, IMO.
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The same melody being used in every song comes across nicely. Instrumentation works pretty well with each other for the most part, with my only real complaint being that the attack is a touch slow on the strings in those two songs. I would have loved to have seen some more musical tension to help drive home your intended emotions, especially in "Grief" and "Loneliness." While "Grief" was a cool track, "Floating Through Life" and evoked more emotion through my ears. Overall, solid work!
Thank you for such an in-depth review, I really appreciate that! I’m glad you enjoyed it and I hope to do better with your comments!
I liked your interesting use of the chiptune style in grief with the weird off notes it was cool.
Thank you! I focused pretty heavily on the rhythm in it!
Interesting style. The pieces each have their own character, and the chiptune works with the story idea. Nice work!
Thank you!
I liked your usage of leitmotifs to connect everything together. The variety from track to track was nice as well. Good work!
Thanks!
Interesting style...
...and very beautiful! I love stylish chiptune)
I can say for sure that this soundtrack would be perfect for the game)
P.S. Grief is cool!
Thank you very much! I’m glad you liked Grief!
very interesting listen, it sounds like you took a lot of musical risks which I always respect and I think it paid off. Good work dude.
Thanks! This was definitely more of a different style than I’m used to, so I’m glad to see that it worked out!
Really like Loneliness. The arrangement was fittingly sparse and the somewhat dissonant sounding choire gave it a fitting lamenting quality. Reminded me something of the old Ghost in the Shell OST.
Yeah! Thank you for the description! And you’re right, it does kind of sound like an old Ghost in the Shell OST :)
Great use of chiptune sounds throughout, as well as combining them very smoothly with the non-chiptune sounds.
Loved Grief particularly, some especially great drums and sounds on that one.
The final section on Love I thought hit particularly hard as well.
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the composition! I was hoping it would not be too weird when there are multiple elements with the songs that are not similar.