Play soundtrack
MonoWall's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Quality | #42 | 3.697 | 3.697 |
| Creativity | #68 | 3.515 | 3.515 |
| Overall | #70 | 3.467 | 3.467 |
| Impression | #80 | 3.455 | 3.455 |
| Correlation to theme | #81 | 3.303 | 3.303 |
| Composition | #89 | 3.364 | 3.364 |
Ranked from 33 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
The game is a top-down 2D RPG with battle elements.
You are put in a detention center for unknown reasons, and you must form a group with other inmates to plan a breakout out of MonoWall.
Tracks:
the Chamber: intro, being sent to the Chamber for punishment in
MonoWall. (electronic / dark ambient)
crackles: main theme, inside the prison (ambient with a bit of noise)
scentofthesun: final battle, breaking out of the facility (IDM)
DAW: REAPER
VSTs: Helm, Vital, DecentSampler, kiloHearts, Drumatic, etc.
Theme
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://alpikespot.bandcamp.com/album/monowall
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
Any non-commercial project
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Comments
Super nice tracks! I love how you explore a minimalistic feel in a way that develops the idea, and explores different places, making for a very cohesive sound. It's interesting to see how you approach structure keeping some elements in and phasing others out, especially as me being someone who isn't as familiar with this genre. Each of your tracks bring their own gritty feel, which I feel very much puts you mentally in a kind of "facility" "chamber" like place. Awesome job!
Really accurate to the theme, as soon as I started this, I questioned myself that I feel like I'm in a damn prison listening to this haha. Loving the breakbeats used in scentofthesun, gave the perfect feel of desperation needed to escape. Well done.
I really like the Chamber and the narrative of scentofthesun, the mix is pretty clean as well! I'm a bit less fan of crackles, I think because it has a lot of resonance and reverb but it's probably subjective. I really like how it ends, good job ! 😉
Thanks, also it's nice to see someone comment about the ending of crackles, I'm very proud of that. I'm also surprised that a lot of people enjoyed the mixing lol.
I think scentofthesun is fantastic, the drum loops sound great and I love all the little details that come in and out throughout the song. I love the distorted, saturated, bit-crushed sound you were going for! I also like how the Chamber has some story-telling, it definitely sounds like you're being sealed away in some horrible prison when that bit-crushed noise comes in. Great work!
The soundscapes and sound design in this submission are really well done, they were nice to listen to and evolved well throughout the tracks! Your technical production skills are strong. But I have to agree with Nuageux in regards to the composition. It stays in a similar mood and tone throughout the whole soundtrack, so I can't get much of a story out of just listening to the music. The first two tracks sound like they are from same level/area. Still, it was a great submission that I enjoyed listening to. Good work!
So cool! The scentofhtefun is definitely my favourite. Btw - it's just 3 songs but it already feels like a full and finished soundtrack - very cohesive with the vibes! Maybe the second track sounded a bit too resonant to me, but this might be just the matter of taste. Overall the soundtrack is awesome!
Very nice use of the synths, I like the vibe and the cohesion between the tracks. It realy fit the scenes you imagined from the description. Some of the sound palette reminds me of Portal especially the 3rd track. Great work, well done !
Hi again!
Yep, we are indeed the opposites, hahaha.
Your production and processing are strong, my respect for that. Everything sounds clean, polished and intentional. But personally, I've felt that something was lacking emotionally.
For example, "scentofthesun" didn’t evoke a clear mood for me. It didn’t feel hopeful, tense, or immersive. I didn’t get the sense of escaping or battling, it felt like it was circling a single initial mood without evolving.
With that said, I also checked out your "post.mortem" project. "Saving your life" is my favourite song of yours, as you've allowed it to just be.
If you are open to suggestions, I would recommend to experiment with other plugins and textures, maybe some orchestral sounds, or perhaps acoustic, whichever feels more interesting to explore, if you are up to that.
Your production IS great, but larger palettes allow us to create some things that were impossible before.
Imagine that any given track is a painting, and that you were trying to paint a sunset, yet you only have blue colors. Sure, you could do that, and I bet that it would be fantastic, because your technique is great.
Then imagine that you've decided to paint a forest... blue again.
It certainly creates some style and grabs attention, but while blue is beautiful, there is still this silent longing too see some burning fire, or fresh grass, or perhaps some dry blood. And you can, your brush strokes are wonderful already.
Obviously, this is just my opinion, but I hope that I was able to convey my impression. You can always reject it too, after all, everyone is different and that is beautiful on its own too.
Overall 9/10 submission, great job!
This is the best feedback I've got, really thank you for that also the fact that you actually listened to my other submission lol. Thanks for the compliment about the production!
I tend to use the same key and the same chords (Dmin and Gmin) even if I try to stay away from using the same thing over and over again. I focused more on the sound design on "scentofthesun" and less on the feelings I searched to evoke. I wanted to make a final track with drums so that the submission wouldn't be too boring, while I was messing around with the synth I stumbled upon something I really loved so I built upon it, made the intro, drums, effects, end, and boom, done. The track does give the feeling of hope for me, personally. I could have put more time on the chord progression and the overall composition.
I'm personally not that proud of my post.mortem submission since I always strive to make my best sound design and dynamic music as possible and find that this isn't the most sonically interesting for me.
Pleased to know that your fav track is "Saving your life", I'm proud of the wobbling bass for example, but I find that the breakbeat could be more dynamic with more effects. It's one of the tracks on the submission that I'm the most proud of, along with "Waking Up" and "Going Places" (I also find this to be too "simple").
You're very right about the palette, literally 90% of the instruments I used were synths and synth drumkits and a good two thirds of the synths are made on the same Helm VST. I was even a bit intimidated to put the guitar on "crackles" because I thought that it could make the track feel more generic. I tend to stay away from acoustic sounding instruments (and when I do, I heavily process them) because then I feel like that the music becomes less original and more distant from the synth sounds that I personally like. I prefer to make my own sounds, when I use acoustic I feel like I'm a bit cheating. Also since I tend to try to imitate the artists I like the most, that being electronic and ambient artists. You've opened up my mind though, I will try to expand my capabilities by trying other things.
Yep, 100% opposite approaches. Fascinating. You know what? If you are up to that, we could try to do like two tracks together, I am thrilled to find out how it might turn out, only if you are interested, of course.
Actually it would be very interesting but I have never made a track with someone else before so I have no idea how it's done lol. But if you want to, why not? It would be cool I suppose. My disord username is antonl1kespotato, you can add me.
Fun tracks! Im also a fellow reaper user!
Liked your sound choices, keep up the good work!
oXb.... It's time for synthesizers!
the Chamber - Enticing chaotic-structured melodies... yum! I like to listen to this kind of music sometimes.... it calms me down.
...AND THEN THERE'S THE CREEPY BEATCRASH! (I love it!)
crackles - Creepy ambient, guitars dissolving through my consciousness.... bitcrash melody playing in the background and as if-it's not a musical instrument-but an incredibly melodic press for the destruction of sinful souls ... I can also mention that I really like it when synthesizers play the role of “rhythm” - cool!
scentofthesun - Mixture... total? Well, a mix of all my favorite elements, of course! Killer rhythm, deformed rhythm instruments, echoes of something melancholic, but at the same time “it” can't afford to be calm - it wants STORM!
8 minutes of soundtrack? Awesome! I enjoyed your posting very much. I'm very happy to have found another lover of the doom-dance tone!
P.S. Do you use Helm as well? Bro!
P.S.S. RAWR
I appreciate that you enjoyed the soundtrack! Pleased to know that you use Helm too lol
There are a lot of little bits of ear candy throughout all of these. I'm not surprised, as I do remember your entry from last summer's jam (post.mortem). I really dug the almost breakcore, DnB track you did back on that one!
the Chamber has some really interesting textures running throughout. Big fan of the bass patch despite it being rather simple - something about LPF blips just hits hard. Nice processing going on as well, with some elements getting kind of bit-crushed and disharmonic.
crackles by comparison is rather dark and moody. Cool core sound to keep the piece plodding along, and some interesting percussive elements to support the kind of distorted, filtered droning going on. Very ambient piece that I could see fitting into a variety of games, but still remaining rather unique as well. It has this distinct visual imagery associated with it that I can't quite put my finger on.
Finally, scentofthesun seems to be in a similar ballpark; deliciously moody and expansive. Those noise washes during the opening do wonders for setting a kind of mental "space", and the use of those crumbling samples really bring said space to life. This track is probably my favorite of the bunch for how much it evolves and how heavily and unapologetically it leans into how moody it is. Solid percussion and some really nice synth patches and voicings throughout.
All in all, great work! This was really enjoyable to listen to and the mixing/production is on point, so kudos for managing that in the short jam period. Best of luck!
Thank you for your detailled review! Kinda surprised that you remember my othrt submission lol
This is a blast to listen to with headphones, the elements moving around the stereo field is used really well here to the point where it creates this unique feeling of washiness that I can't really put into words. The overall consistency and quality of these is really great, especially love the feel of those crushed sine waves. The percussion on scentofthesun is just chef's kiss. Only potential small thing I'd personally look at a bit more is varying the guitar pattern for the first ~1min 20sec of crackles as it felt like it got a bit repetitive. Definitely could just be a creative difference though as it is an ambient track, overall really great!
YEEES that's exactly what I was aiming for! I put a bunch of effects and subtle changes to make the tracks feel more dynamic and more atmospheric. Bitcrushing just adds something I can't describe to sounds, it makes it sound soo good. I didn't really touch on the guitar that much to make it kinda more "hynotizing", if the noted changed I thought it could be disorienting.
Very nice vibes with the choice of instruments on this one (reminded me a bit of the soundtracks of MegaMan 8 or Umurangi Generation on the third track) !
All tracks were solid, however my favourite was Scent Of The Sun, the instrumentation and the flow of it were really well done, so nice job !
Cool! The ambience is intriguing, with a nice harmony between the very clean synths and the distorted / bitcrushed ones. And I like the progression of the mood through the 3 tracks. Nice job!
wow we did a very similar theme in my project lol!
This is super cool i love the vibes so much! ambient tracks are some of my favorites so this hits pretty well for me
thanks!
I liked the way they sounded crunchy like from a radio. It was a cool vibe.
The last track was my favorite with it's funky bassline that shifted around!
very interesting soundscapes. definitely picks up for me on scentofthesun with those drum machine sounding percs, the break, and the idm-inspired patterning and distortion, that one's a real highlight for me.
Thank you! I love IDM, it's my fav genre of music so I really tried to put that feel into it by varying the drums so that it doesn't sound too static.
I liked the evolving sounds in The Chamber. Very interesting sound design choices throughout, the variations keep the listening experience fresh (especially in scentofthesun).
Nice work!
My personal favorite is scentofthesun, it has a really nice flow, love the percussion on it. It feels really original, great job on it.
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Thaanks! Glad you liked the percussion since it's one of the parts I'm the most proud of.
i love how you play with the envelopes of the plucked synth in "the Chamber"! makes for an interesting texture that leads into the gritty end of the track. "scentofthesun" is a FASCINATING track name; it works with the ambient-esque but more upbeat nature — the outside is so close, yet there's just one more barrier to break through... i can imagine myself in the game having to take my time to think through my strategies to escape. tension, but with forced calm as i try to logic my way out...
the variations of the FX throughout your soundtrack are cool! i always find myself scared whenever i hear some heavy distortion though :0
Thank you! I love automating everything, I can't stand having static instruments when I make stuff. I didn't put too much thought in the names, I tried to make them sound original and interesting instead of putting something like "the exit". I guess I succeeded my goal if you were spooked.