Dang the battle theme really slaps - also the sheer volume of content is so impressive to me. This submission already sounds ready to be used in a full actual game! ( and would cover all the bases). Great work.
Play soundtrack
Elsewhere - Original Game Soundtrack's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Composition | #72 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Impression | #107 | 3.816 | 3.816 |
| Overall | #138 | 3.751 | 3.751 |
| Creativity | #152 | 3.776 | 3.776 |
| Quality | #155 | 3.776 | 3.776 |
| Correlation to theme | #345 | 3.388 | 3.388 |
Ranked from 49 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous.
- You have a good sense of development, I think-- each example seemed like it always knew where it was going, telling a coherent little mini-story in musical form. Moreover, I didn't feel like you got stuck in a rut-- I always felt engaged and interested in the new textures and melodic ideas that you were bringing to the table. Balancing variety while still keeping the whole coherent can be very difficult, and I think that this is a good example of how to do it-- variety with a core of similar elements that tie everything together. Very good choices and writing. Even with looping music, you can still writing endings for the music-- if you're really clever they won't even need post-editing to make the loop work. I think that it is worth doing because it forces you to complete the musical thought fully and can make a surprising difference on everything leading up to it. Thus I do encourage composers to write genuine endings, even if the idea is to eventually loop the music. Additionally, I think some of the tracks here are a bit too brief-- I think this submission would have been better had it had less tracks with more extended tracks like "Dream Home" which to me was extended enough that it said something substantial but didn't overstay its welcome at all. My only other comment is that the correlation to the theme strikes me as a bit stretched. For all the delightful music here, I struggled to connect it back to the theme except in a very general way. I appreciate that the text is quite open-ended and so I certainly wouldn't say that this "doesn't fit" the theme, but it didn't stand out as very obviously fitting in either. Overall, however, there is a really lovely attention to the sonic palette that really elevates the music here-- I can tell you're experienced with making these instruments and samples gel together, and overall I was very taken with the style and very human feel of the music.
Description
This is a soundtrack to a fantasy life sim with JRPG combat elements, titled "Elsewhere". It's a game rich with mechanics, including farming, fishing, crafting, relationships, and of course combat. The goal is to live peacefully in your hometown, but this cannot happen unless you defeat the Fears - monsters of the mind that spawn so long as the denizens of the world are troubled.
For the music itself, I relied on folksy and acoustic compositions for town life, soaring orchestrations for overworld exploration, and high-energy rock and metal for battles and Fear-related events. These each have leitmotifs associated with them. Woodwinds and acoustic guitar were notable pieces of the puzzle - woodwinds were present in my last OST Composing Jam submission in lesser quantities, but they're everywhere this time around, to lean heavily into the peaceful fantasy setting and provide a sense of familiarity. My previous submission did not have acoustic guitar anywhere in it, though, which I opted for this time around to capture warm homely vibes. For the most part, I also tried to avoid synths and electronic instruments outside of battle and Fear themes.
All tracks were made in Reason 12, my DAW of choice. And a note to those of you who are rating submissions - I know I've made a lot of tracks, but all of them loop, except for one! And I don't believe any loop is longer than 2:00 at most. So feel free to just listen up to the loop, then continue onto the next track. Hopefully that abates any worries with rating this soundtrack.
The tracks represent the following:
1. Utopia - Title Screen
2. Imagination - File Select
3. Past Life - Opening
4. Someplace - Town Theme
5. Dream Home - Home/Farming Theme
6. Phantasy General - Shop Theme
7. Illusion Lake - Lake/Fishing Theme
8. Cloudland Tavern - Tavern/Job Board Theme
9. Elsewhere - World Map
10. Face Your Fear - Battle Theme
11. Déjà Vu - Victory Theme
12. Eternal Sleep - Game Over
13. Fear of God - Boss Theme
14. Well of Wisdom - Ending
Message from the artist
I have been immensely busy with music work outside of this jam, and was worried going into this that I would not have the energy to last the full nine or so days. In fact, towards the beginning of the jam, I was struggling to motivate myself and get excited about my idea. I was concerned that I was just rehashing my previous jam submission, and thought my correlation to the theme would be my downfall. But as I kept pushing forward, I grew more attached to the sound I had chosen and world I was forging, and those worries slipped away. I hope people see the vision in what I've crafted and give this a chance - I really challenged myself and came away with a body of work I'm very proud of.
Theme
Inside my world
How does it fit the theme?
The story of the game, as briefly outlined in my description, revolves around the player's state of mind as well as the collective state of mind of the town. When that's shaken up, the Fears manifest - a physical embodiment of what's inside your mind.
Many of the names of locations in this game also suggest an imaginary reality, something that can only exist inside your head.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/mediamonochrome/sets/elsewhere-original-game-soundtrack
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxqCS6LidLmvuvRYR-45ZYH45A9EX0AJy
Number of tracks14
Genre
Orchestral
Rock/Metal
Ambient
Classical
Folk/Acoustic
Soundtrack use permission
No
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