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danieljmcintoshcomposer9 days ago

This was fun! Loved the little details, zebra removal lol. Could of course have used a little bit more, but focusing on the polished experience was the way to go.

The music worked for all three tracks, but they didn't feel like they fit together very well (three different games, almost). The texture of the main menu track and level track were similar, but the timbres were so different that they felt divorced. I really liked the instrument choices in the level music, consider reusing more instruments across the various tracks to help tie them together. Also, don't be afraid to have more variation in your chord choices for each phrase! Once you've done the same progression twice (I-V-I-V...) it's time to switch it up on the third time! The listener starts tuning out if they hear the same thing three times in a row.

Excellent work everyone!

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Aster Kanke9 days ago(+1)

Thank you so much!

While Sommerville is a (very) seasoned coder, this was our first jam as a team where hachitomo did the coding and I did the music. So it was a massive learning experience for all of us. (The group Discord chat was EPIC.)

Also, thank you a TON, literally, for the music tips. The first piece I wrote was the main theme, which does eventually switch progressions but I doubt anybody spends that long on the main screen. I had originally thought that would be the level music, but they decided on that for the menu and needed new level music. Hence me breaking out the violin to try and spice things up! Perhaps I’ll modulate to a relative key in the future if I don’t want something dramatic that takes away from the scene. The victory scene music started off as some sort of odd Monster Mash like thing, and I’m still surprised they put it in. I’d cut that one first and make something new. 

I’m also still getting re-used to my DAW (literally made this on Logic for iPad) so some of this was experimentation on my part. The SFX were literally recorded on my iPhone and then mixed. I literally cannot wait for the next jam where we can make some new cool stuff. I’m looking forward to what you do next as well!

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danieljmcintoshcomposer9 days ago(+1)

You're welcome! Good job if this was during a period of DAW adjustment (that's always scary).

Yeah, it's a good idea to do that kind of cohesion planning in advance when you can, but it isn't always in your control. I always write up a specific doc for the devs and ask them exactly what tracks they will need, that way I can start making connections from the beginning between tracks.

And just to be clear, I wasn't talking about the need for dramatic changes in the progression EVENTUALLY, but rather changes within the progression specifically after two repetitions. It's called the rule of three in classical composition (or a "sentence" in academia). It gets ignored all the time in modern pop music choruses, but ignoring it in instrumental music really doesn't work most of the time. If you have one subphrase, you can repeat that subphrase once, but the next time you repeat it, you better change it up or the listener is going to start tuning out. Here's a video for more explanation: 

 
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