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Retrace's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Quality | #33 | 3.742 | 4.000 |
| Creativity | #34 | 3.742 | 4.000 |
| Overall | #34 | 3.725 | 3.982 |
| Composition | #38 | 3.675 | 3.929 |
| Impression | #38 | 3.742 | 4.000 |
Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Message from the artist
Genre: Lofi/Synthwave
Runtime: 6:32
Software: Ableton Live 12
Inspiration: I recently played through my favourite game of all time again, Celeste. While there is so much of that game that I adore, Lena Raine's incredable soundtrack is unmatched, so I wanted to pay homage to her, and the music that continues to make my life better.
Also, this is my first ever attempt at making game music, so I want to go with something that I knew well.
Creation Process: This game (and therefore this music) explores the idea of learning to accept our past mistakes and embarrassments, and to grow from them instead of fearing them. The player character is exploring a large cave when a strange crystal explodes, causing their past to manifest in the present and try to destroy them.
For this OST, when sounds and tracks are playing in reverse it represents the past, whether the character is reminiscing, or actually sent back in time. In particular, during Track 3, the entire track reverses after the player learns a new mechanic where they can effectively rewind time.
To help in making the reversed tracks legible, I found that layering the reversed drum track on the forward one would mean there could be a beat when played both ways, while still sounding good. It also helps to making lofi music.
By far the hardest part was making the high energy Track 3, which serves as the games climax, and needs to have a driving beat even when reversed. As this track uses a fast, messy, breakbeat drum pattern, the layering trick sounded absolutely incoherent. To combat this, I used an arpeggiator that would play up during the forward drums, and down during the reversed drums. This helps the listener to separate these flip-floppy parts, making the whole track more coherent in both directions.
OK, this is starting to sound like a school report, so I wont ramble on any longer.
Thanks for listening,
Jaz
P.S. Incase it isn't apparent, the entire soundtrack reverses rather than the individual tracks :)
Difficulty
Make something that has elements that can be listened to both backwards and forwards.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://youtu.be/9XrCSEFPjcw?si=ar8s7xJ4U8Oh3q9W
Number of tracks5
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Comments
Yeah it's definitely how I recall Celeste sounding like. The energy of track 3 is great, as a whole the funk chill vibe and chilly atmosphere were really engaging.
Great work.
Some of the reverse sections don't really work to well, I think a lot of people in this jam learned that just reverse something as a wave form you're doing more than just flipping the waveshape, you're flipping frequencies and changing the shape of the wave. There are a lot of points in this soundtrack where everything sounds super nice and great, but some others where the reverse overshadows everything in the mix and comes close to peaking.
It's a really nice soundtrack, but it could have been fantastic with some more mixing and equalizing.
Thanks for the feedback, and you're totally right, I really struggled with the mixing. Aside from the waveform changes, compressors and side chaining were also a pain, as it quietened tracks before the sidechained track even played.
So cool. Didnt even realised the transition to reverse. Would like to see a game with that sound :)
Really enjoyed this, especially the downtempo and ambient parts. Smart use of layered percussion and pads for the C-level challenge, My favourite was track 2.