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Somewhere between Yuzo's Koshiro and Dimitri From Paris.

Regarding house music you've done your homework, there's no doubting that. The opening track is insane. 

My bad, lol, "Lunch Sounds Nice" !

"Astral Projection" => this brought me back to the time I played Wild Arms (eons ago, lol), the whistling is the chef's kiss.

You don't shy away from experimental techniques and sound design to bring out your narrative. 

Bravo Peluche !

Personal highlights: 

"A lively catch" => great riffs and dynamic, the tapped guitar reminds me of Andy McKee's work,

"Please don't touch the Electronics" => I love that minimalist and almost trappy beat that drives the pads and synths forward.

"Of All Buttons to Pres" => goes full techno, and great music.

Only nitpick is the gain (I would've push the limiter on the mix), but that's just me and it doesn't hinder what is overall a brilliant soundtrack.

"We're Not Playing Here", love those riffs, and that jazzy break, like wtf !? Awesome boss music.

More broadly, I like the mix between "traditional instruments" like the electric guitar and more chiptuny sounds. It really brings out a Super Nintendo feel. More broadly I'm impressed by the variety on display here and the prog rock sound will always get to me.

Well done !

Thanks for your review Mice ! 

Yeah, they're (AI creations) generally a hit or miss, you'll love em or hate em, haha. Know that it's a tool that I genuinely enjoy using, I'd direct you to some fully generated clip I made here and there, or any short film made by Aze Alter for that matter. In the case of these clips there is about a week or two of storyboarding, a week of prompting and the edit takes forever, lol. 

For Colors & Heartbeat I had to find a proper animation framerate and way to make it loop nicely on DaVinci Resolve.

"Essence" and "Wandering" are Dark Ambient done right. 

"Wandering" has this little something that you can only hear in old giallo movies (Suspiria in mind), with these heavy saturated pads and almost dreamy/unseasy feel. 

Never heard of the Yunost21 but recycling old hardware in modern compositions with modern tech is always a good idea.

"Smell of Iron": Don't throw the baby with the bathwater !

Great Corpse Party atmosphere and going from cheerful melodies to almost Venetian Snares level of chaos is a bold move. Global volume is overmixed, but maybe that was the point ? (it's lo-fi after all)

Five stars for creativity nonetheless. I like where it took me.

There's definitely a story here and ideas worth exploring deeper, especially the coolo wind up toy sounds of "A Cup Of Coffee". 

Here's hoping you'll find more time on next jam, so keep it up !

Some submissions are just, well, beyond.

How you managed to pull this almost Stravinsky'esque fresco under a week is beyond my comprehension. The orchestra sounds so natural and organic, an untrained ear might be fooled. Composition quality is what you'd expect from an already estlished and highly trained professionnal (which you probably are, lol).

Quite an impressive number of tracks here !

My heart goes to "Onward"  and "Love You, Farewell", they really make your main leitmotiv stand out, especially in calmer parts.

Both these tracks work best when you unleash a little bit of the crazyness: Amaya's Overlook makes me wish that the Xylophone came in sooner to give the synth a little pause; and Whiskers Before The Storm hits its highest points during the more ambient breaks.

It’s a solid step in developing your sound — I’d be interested to hear where you take it next.

I can feel the awesomeness of the MiniFreak; if you know, you know ^^ 

The groovy electro you're going for is right up my alley so I'm pretty biased. Plus I love the almost chiptuny retro feel. I can totally imagine a puzzle game using these tracks, especially the ARP on "Summer Stargazing".

Such a lively and creative soundtrack !

Instruments quality is top tier and I'm baffled by the number of different ideas you've managed to explore in just twelve minutes. Never tried my hand at writing "nordic/irish" sounding music (cause it's bloody hard to get it right), but you might just make me want to try.

Also, I want to cuddle that little seal creature, haha.

More of an exercise in foley design than fully realized tracks (except maybe for the entertaining jingles of Sandy Harbor), it still conveys enough atmosphere to stick to the theme. 

This feels like a good foundation, and you should definitely build on it. 

This piece is beautifully crafted. The pairing of music box tones with choir creates a gentle, atmospheric quality that suits your lullaby / overcoming depression theme perfectly. The textures are balanced, and the atmosphere feels both intimate and expansive. 

It’s a simple concept, but well executed. My only gripe is that "I'm Getting Better" ends a bit abruptly: the pads  & choir work well together and could easily go on for a couple minutes more, haha. 

An interesting work around leitmotiv for sure ! 

You took an idea, turned it jazzy, then slightly menacing, then combative, then atmospheric. Some parts touched me more than others: the jazzy intro of One Summer Night and Reflections are clearly highlights.

The singing might be an acquired taste for some, but it has this Iggy Pop feel to it and I definitely dig that.

Sometimes all you need is a ukulele, two maracas, sunshine and an abandoned island. 

The latin & happy vibe would rather evoke the first days of summer haha, but I'm all for it. 

My favourite track might be "A Day On the Island", I just love the way the steelpans intertwine with the bassline. 

Haha, this brought me back to the time I watched Porco Rosso.

One of my favourite works so far; having been to Sicily a couple of times, I can just picture myself sipping un doppio in a café in Palermo. Great instrumentation overall, and I'm a big sucker for clarinets so you got me from the start. Well done !

Your piece shows a thoughtful combination of strings, piano, and foley.

The structure is clear and easy to follow, and it’s clear you’re exploring interesting ideas. At the same time, some sections feel a bit straightforward, and there’s room to experiment further with dynamics, layering, or thematic development and create a more vivid soundscape. Notes can be struck a little out of sync to add a more human feel, for example.

And by the way, last track is bonkers ! it is like the restrain you showed previously suddenly vanishes and all hell breaks loose.

Careful, your streaming link is dead !

Did download all three tracks though and they are such neat little pieces. The Piano on SeaSight sounds so natural. Atmospheric compositions will always get to me in some way, but knowing how hard it is to get them right, you have my congrats !

Just wished you had small flavour text to know what you were  going for in terms of game ideas.

A nice and enjoyable piece of work.

You really did explore a full story; kudos for getting nine tracks out, each with it's own little story to tell. Ballerina, in all its simplicity is probably my favourite track of all and the one that fits the theme to tee.

Would be curious to know what the DAW is ?

Battle theme let's go !

Ready to invoke whatever to defeat that damn final boss. Very ingenious use of orchestration and perfectly produced overall. I could hear some Dark Souls era Sakuraba influence in "Eryndor's Madness".

Really cool.

"Cicada Serenade" => tell me you like Sigur Ros without telling me ^^

I envoy the punch, fun and groove of it all (The Fever Breaks goes so hard); just a question though, as some tracks end abruptly, were they designed to work as automated loops ?

Well done !

I love that you went full sci-fi & experimental on this one. The use of static, white noise and foley is quite a, dare I say, ballsy move. The whole thing goes to places I didn't expect, from dark and atmospheric (Crash Theory) to more chill and hopeful melodies (Desperation Lane).

I've been hearing about BitWig recently as it seems to be Live's biggest competitor right now. Always to hear what comes out of these new DAWs.

A really solid entry overall, congrats !

These guitars... It almost sounds like a chill version of the Beach Boys. 

Love that vibe, both soothing and somehow meditative.

My heart goes to "Side A", I like the story it tells and it fits the theme perfectly. That little skater is definitely going places ;) 

I can hear a Chocobo sneaking its beak in "The Docks", haha.

Such a lovely blend of summer themed instruments and the dialogue between the accordeon, the slightly muted piano and the clarinet perfectly convey the vibe you're going for, both innocent and pure. 

My heart goes The Silk Road duo; such a vibe. 

I love the blend of celtic and more oriental sounding tracks, sorta reminds of Uematsu's earlier works (his Celtic Moon period, I recommend that you give it a listen). I can totally picture these in some quaint Super Nintendo RPG. 

It's your first time jamming you can be proud !

Such a simple yet powerful work of art. 

Funnily enough I'm not picturing an epic fight, but exactly what you chose as a cover art. I imagine story driven graphic novel, where you would follow these three friends, split up by life events, and finally reunited by strange circumstances in a train ride during a warm summer night. 

I'm still surprised by the fact these violons are from a VST, they are very well programmed and sound so nice. Definitely one of my favourites so far.

I had a lot fun playing this. Everything from the level design to the art style (though, as I said in another game with similar pixel art, I do like to have more colors, but that's just my personal taste) is great. It has those VVVVV vibes and made me wish for a bigger games with bosses and all.

So I do get the "turning up the heat" from the fact that we're in lava cave. Does the "multi-use" stems from the shoe that's also a weapon ?

Anyway, I had an awesome time, thank you !

Cute little button masher. And I even managed to escape the dungeon ! It's great that you implemented joypad controls, honestly.

Difficulty and spawning needs a little tweaking here and there (it seemed to me eating also restored your health, and since you eat all you beat, you're practically invincible), but other than that there's a good foundation for a fun game.

Half survival game, half text based story works well, the storytelling is reminiscent of old games like ShadowGate; I particularly enjoyed that all your actions take time and that the character is pretty slow, be it for gathering wood or reloading his gun; the game is on the unforgiving side, I just wished I had a lousy axe attack. Other than that it's hard to imagine this was done in just a week, the game is impressive !

This game's level of polish is astonishing. The level design is intelligent, the game mechanics are awesome and fit the jam's limitations, the pixel art is joy to look at (though I wouldn't mind more colors) and the sound design works well. I'm really impressed.

Would have loved to play this one with a controller instead of my AZERTY keyboard, haha. The game is competently made and I liked this Yuzo Koshiro'esque music loop that plays in the background. The fact that you have to use the bullet time to actually see the projectiles is a pretty neat take on the multi-use limitation. My only complaint are the enemies shooting through walls. Other than that, well done !

The concept works well and there's a nice tension build-up. As with most of these jam games there's always room for improvement so here are my two cents, if you plan on building on this prototype:

- Was it a personal choice not to show how much "health" you got left once in the cold ? Maybe have the character trembling, or just a small visual cue to tell you the player that he's almost dead.

- First enemy wave can be brutal, maybe work on the difficulty increment.

- I found that I was longing for the ability to build other bonfires to progress through the night.

Clever game that makes the best of the jam's limitation by taking them at face value. The sleek and minimalist design works entirely to the game's advantage; It has this Stanley Parable feel to it.

 Just wished you had put the reset button on all puzzles (forklift will soft block you).

It took me some time to "get" the game's flow (namely, you have to take your time, and don't go burning your fuel all at once) but once you're started it's a really enjoyable and almost zen experience. Fuel being a mining tool at the same time is clever and really ties well to the jam's limitations. Well done !

Neat little creepy-pasta game. Reminded me of Lone Survivor in a way. That monster caught me by surprise. The game could benefit from having the sprites guiding the player a little more, I was sometimes lost between what were walkable areas and what were obstacles.

First congrats for doing this solo and submitting your first jam game. There's definetely a lot to like here, from the graphics to the cutesy aesthetic and chara design. Where the game could improve in the future:

- I ended up beating the game (white screen) just planting the lamp and doing nothing. 

- It's not clear for now whether you're hurting the enemies or they are hurting you, but colliding with them, with or whitout the light bulb systematically made me lose.

I see a cool concept here, defending a loading base with the bulb, while it's parts are being attacked, and only being able to defend it with said bulb, thus juggling between safety and danger. 

Letting it run in the backgrown rn as my minions are gathering branches. Wouldn't have thought it could be this addictive. I will not cheat though ! Music is cool too. Might keep it opened for some time in my browser.