itch.io

Yes, there will be more like this one! They will be a little infrequent but I will remember to notify you when I host one again, eventually I'd like to create a discord server to make that easier too. If you are looking for music jams in general there is the Impressions Composing Jam currently going on too, it runs a bit longer than this one. You might also want to be on the look out for OST composing jam (largest music jam) and the ScoringTech jams (music jam I see frequently here)

Yes, it is completely ok to get feedback from people who aren't jam participants before submitting

Thanks for letting me know! I accidentally had it set to checkboxes instead of single choice, it should be fixed now!

I will check them out tomorrow morning (It is late where I live currently)! And no worries about the time of post, suggestions close at the end of the voting period!

I will add this to this list! I have never played this game but I saw my friend play a bit and I remember how unique the soundtrack was and how it fit the gameplay really well, so I feel like it would make a great addition to the list!

I think those are some good choices! Those are perfect for some of the electronic subgenre holes I had in the list too

I would consider a song that borrows a significant amount of the composition from a song of the franchise as a remix. Harmonic elements can be similar, but direct melodies/melodic motifs should be very minimal. A similar (or even the same) sound palette is completely fine.  I think one way to look at it is: If your song can be considered an "alternate original theme" over a "remix" for a concept in the franchise, then it is considered ok! An example of "similar but not a remix" can be found in the final fantasy franchise, the battle theme in Final Fantasy 1 is very similar to the battle theme in Final Fantasy 4, but they are different enough to be their own unique themes 

I'll add it to the list! I listened to a little bit and I think it is a very nice soundtrack

This thread is for suggestions of future styles you'd like to see in this jam if it is hosted again. I am looking for game soundtracks that have a fairly unique style. My knowledge of game soundtracks is pretty limited so feel free to suggest soundtracks you like! A mix of games with simpler music theory (like Yume Nikki) and complex music theory (like Zelda TOTK) would be nice to have

Some examples of potential future themes:

• Zelda BOTW and TOTK
• Nier: Automata
• FURI
• Borderlands 3
• DOOM
• Ace Attorney
• Street Fighter III
• Silent Hill
• Earthbound
• Yume nikki
• Omori
• Skyrim
• Cuphead
• Minecraft
• Persona
• OFF
• Journey 
  

For now it will just be itchio forums, I might make a discord server in the future if I end up hosting a jam like this again though! I mostly want to see how everything plays out first, and see what changes I might need to make to the jam before making an official server

Hi, with the theme revealed (Pokemon). Here are a few resources and references for understanding the style and composition techniques.

If you have any resources you would like to add, this is the place for it.

-A few concepts to pay attention to while listening

Panning:

The panning in Pokemon music can be incredibly unique at times, I don't really know how to describe it, but there's sometimes so much going on in terms of stereo movement it is unlike much I've heard before (even from game soundtracks on the same game systems). Pay attention to it in the reference tracks

Bassline:

While pretty important for most music, it is a really important element often forgotten in fan tracks. Very often used for groove/rhythm rather than for just extending a chord

Motivic elements:

Pokemon music has a formula to it at times; Certain chord progressions are everywhere, variations of a distinct melody appear often too (you'll see more information about it at the bottom). Not always necessary though (especially in more modern stuff)

GENRES:

Genre isn't too important for making a song feel like Pokemon. There are a wide variety, from the original chiptune, to hardcore EDM, folk orchestral fusions, and even experimental wolf howling funk(???)

Prominent Genres:

Most prominent: EDM and JPop/Pop (These genres not only have instruments/sounds from the genres, but hold most of the common song-writing structures found in the music of the games)

Less common (but still fairly prominent): Jazz (music theory) and Orchestral

Common fusions with the most prominent genres: Rock, Orchestral, Funk, Jazz (instruments and music theory mostly, but tends to lack longer-form structures or solos seen from these genres)

Less common fusions: Folk (from any culture really), Ambient, and DnB

Generally genre shouldn't matter too much, but you might want an element from the structures of EDM or Pop/JPop 

ERAS

Chiptune Era (Pokemon red/blue, gold/silver):

Music born from limitation, you do not need to limit yourself to 3-4 sound channels if you decide on this era.

• (Iconic theme, very common motif) Opening (Pokemon Red/Blue)

• (Chiptune area theme) National Park (Gold/Silver)
  
  

Synthesized Instrument/Midi Era (Pokemon ruby/sapphire, diamond/pearl, black/white, sun/moon):

Some live instrumentation here too, but the design philosophy is pretty consistent. A shift to more orchestral and jpop/rock elements, and a wide range of electronic subgenres. Many instruments usually come from Roland or Proteus sound banks (of the early 2000s). Motivic elements are very prominent

• (Beginning Town, Orchestral influence becomes more obvious) Littleroot Town (Ruby/Sapphire)

• (Jazz theory influenced) Lake Theme (Diamond/Pearl)
• (Japanese Folk-influenced battle theme) Ho-oh's Battle Theme (Heartgold/SoulSilver)
• (The famous opening motif is back) Victory Lies Before You/Last Pokemon Theme (Black2/White2)
• (Similar to opening motif and common rhythm) Zinnia's Theme (OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire)
• (Groovy Slap Bassline) Gladion's Battle Theme (Sun/Moon)

Modern Era(Pokemon Sword/Shield, Legends:Arceus, Scarlet/Violet):

I feel some of the philosophy has shifted to "feel like you are there in the moment" style themes, meaning lots of dynamic music (music that changes real-time depending on the situation), and music elements that literally highlight the environment itself. Instruments are often live or imitate live instruments, electronic synths and distorted guitars become much more prominent than orchestral elements before (but they still exist, especially in the legends games)

• (Pop/Orchestral theme, with some "wolf elements") Slumbering Weald (Sword/Shield)
• (A bit more ambient take on an older theme) The Heartwood/Eterna Forest Remake (Legends:Arceus)
• (Incredibly Dynamic battle theme, a little minimalist too) Paldean Gym Leader: All parts (Scarlet/Violet)

Music theory resources:

8-bit music theory (The creator responsible for this video) is a good channel in general for music theory of video games 

Listen-along channels that tend to cover theory (THAT ARE ALSO HELPFUL IF YOU DON'T KNOW MUCH THEORY. Search for Pokemon specific videos):

https://www.youtube.com/@DaviVasc

https://www.youtube.com/@MusicTheoryforGamers

Ask any questions you may have about the jam here!

** I am no longer accepting team invites but feel free to reach out if you ever want to work with me on a jam in the future

Hi, I am a composer who specializes in rpg-style music! I love the rpgmaker horror genre and I would love to work on a project with someone!

Here is my latest jam submission if you'd like an idea of how my music sounds under a crunch. It is inspired by Pokemon and the Mother series (mostly earthbound):

Why The Stars Remain Silent

Or here's an example of my recent music made to fit common RPG themes. It is inspired by OFF (which is an RPGmaker game with a dark tone):

Tearing Down Sticks and Straws

Contact me on discord (tossdacook) or email me (tossdacook@gmail). I look forward to working with you on a team!

** I am no longer accepting team invites but feel free to reach out if you'd ever want to work together in another future game jam

Hi, I am a composer! I've been really excited to compose for a game and I am really looking forward to working with a team! Some of the genres I am most comfortable with are Retro VGM (nes to ds-style music), Hip-Hop, and Industrial (and I love doing experimental stuff too). I can do a bit of sound-design, but mostly for digital sounds (I also have a tiny amount of experience in python, but it'd probably only be helpful for checking code logic rather than actual coding)

My latest jam submission (If you'd like an idea of how my music sounds under a crunch): 

Why The Stars Remain Silent

Or my latest album (Composed to have 2 battle themes, 2 area themes and a boss theme):

Tearing Down Sticks and Straws 

Contact me on discord (tossdacook) or email (tossdacook@gmail)

Thank you! I'm glad you like the time signatures, and I would highly recommend looking into metric modulation as you practice odd time signatures too (which I don't think it is necessary to learn but I personally found it to be helpful for practicing, but I mostly did that because I wanted to make similar music to Mother 3 which relies heavily on metric modulation for it's time signatures)! Also, I haven't heard of StarBirds before but I'll have to check it out, I can't believe I never found out Kurzgesagt was involved with a game!

This is a really lovely soundtrack! I always enjoy music written to a story and I think you communicate it well through the soundtrack! Some great choices of instruments as well! I love story-driven soundtracks but for some constructive criticism, I feel the main motif could've been developed more for the purpose of breaking ambience for character association, but that's pretty subjective and mostly a personal preference when it comes to the ambient cinematic-style music attached to meaning (like a story), and I still think you communicate your story well!  Nicely done!

This is a cool soundtrack! I like your instrument choices a lot, and the synths are very very nice! I also like the cohesiveness of how you structured your soundtrack! A little bit of a subjective criticism, I love the drum timbres you've chosen but I would've liked to see a bit more variation in the drums patterns given the more ambient structure (especially in track 1 and 2), but that is just a matter of personal taste, and I don't dislike the drum pattern you have currently - I still think they are nice. I also really like the interpretation of the theme and your progressions highlight a vastness with a hint of eerieness which I think fits perfectly for space! Very nicely done!

This is a really cool soundtrack! I love how you chose to compose for the theme, everything feels "cosmic dreamy"! I also really like track 2 it feels very imaginative and awe-inspiring and the vocals are some nice touches. I also really like the layering you did in your tracks. I have a couple small constructive feedback; I like how you use the crashes throughout your tracks to give them some more impact, though, I feel the crashes could be a little bit quieter or they could use a high shelf filter in all the tracks, or maybe even a reverse crash (or another sibilant texture) to crescendo into it to ease into a bit (but that'd kind of ruin the impact a tiny bit). I also want to emphasize the hat in track 2 like FoxHyode mentioned, I really really like track 2 but the hat poking out in the treble is the main thing holding it back I feel, but I still think you've composed these wonderfully and the whole soundtrack feels very wondrous, like exploring the vastness of space! Very nicely done!

Thank you! I am glad you enjoyed it!

This is a great soundtrack! I love all the different mix of timbres you've chosen and I think they fit well. This is a great space journey too and I think you capture the theme well!

For one small constructive feedback, I like the tone of the first track and it feels like a great start to a journey, however I feel like the lower synth pans too far into the left or right sometimes, mostly because it is holding the "weight" of the track (sub/bass frequencies) and the mix feels uneven when it goes too far in the panning at times (I also listen on headphones so it is a bit more sensitive there), but despite that, I like the addition of the bass and I think it adds a nice energy to the track and conveys what you want to very well! I enjoyed the story-telling especially and the piano really ties everything together, very nicely done!

I think this is a nice soundtrack! This is my 3rd attempt at leaving a comment cause itchio flagged me as a bot the other day but I was able to comment on someone else's post today so I am hoping it goes through. I mostly wanted to say that I think the lack of time signature in the first track worked really well and there's a very nice sense of atmosphere in it, it is also my favorite of the 3! I also really like how you used the stereo field! and idk what or how you did to the piano in the second track but I like how it sits very, very pleasantly in the mix! I can't remember what else I had to say from the other day but those are the main things I wanted to express (maybe you'll get a couple surprise notifications if my comments didn't end up getting lost to the cosmos), You highlight the theme very well and it was nice listening to this!

I love the ambience you have created here, I like venus especially I think it is my favorite one out of the bunch! I like your progressions of harmonies in the tracks as well and I think you capture space really well here! I ended up listening to whole thing throughout 3 days so my feedback might be a bit spread out (also I hope itchio lets me leave this comment too cause I got mistakenly post flagged as a bot the other day, probably because I take too long to write comments or something haha)

For some constructive feedback, I will focus mostly on the Uranus track as an example; I really like the calm nature and the warm-timbred synth with the wind-like fx playing in the background offering a nice and simple atmosphere, I believe the textures could've evolved a bit more for the duration though. There's many different ways to approach that but I have a simple example that wouldn't require any extra instruments, one approach I can think of is an automation of sweeping an EQ on the noise/wind every now and then, almost like a non-traditional "Call and Response" between the sine wave and the noise/wind, but there are many other ways to develop the textures as well! That aside, I still think you did a great job highlighting how Uranus feels (as well as the other planets)! Ambient is a really difficult genre (I personally think it is one of the most difficult ones), so I wish you luck as you continue to explore that area! Nicely done here!

Thank you and I appreciate the feedback! I am glad you found the soundtrack fun to listen to! Also I mentioned this to someone else but since you liked the glitchy aspect of the second track, if you haven't heard earthbound's battle themes I would highly recommend checking them out !  I think the technical term for the time signature stuff I did is metric modulation (but the tempo shifts are a bit rougher than what is traditional for that concept)

I agree that the tracks could use more development! (Especially the first track haha, I didn't want it to have a chorus while I was writing it, well at least not in the first 2 minutes of what a full version could look like)

I also agree that the cosmic horror elements feel lacking too! The main "dread" track (I called it Dread Man's Switch) I had to scrap before the jam but it was a cool concept (like a mix of the prowler theme from Spiderverse and "Air Raid" from LISA: The Painful), I even felt like I was going insane making it because the chords felt like they shouldn't work at all:

Here's one of the progressions I had for that dread track in mind, idk if they conveyed dread well but they were made by taking a normal progression and then adding notes that relate by 4ths

I will try to take your advice with darker tones in the latter tracks though, the last track is sort of supposed to represent a very subtle grim return to ignorance and I think your advice could especially help with conveying that fully!

Thanks again for the feedback and thanks for hosting this, I really liked the longer style jam!

Thank you! I am glad you like the jerky style, you might like the earthbound or mother 3 battle themes if you haven't heard them before! I didn't even notice the similarities to Aphex Twin while making this (I need to listen to them more often), that is a nice observation!

Thank you and I appreciate the kind words! I am especially glad you like the trumpet too because that was the part I was most afraid of how it would sit in the mix (mixing instruments with really bright timbres scares me haha)

Hi, I mostly wanted to share my somewhat recent discovery of NASA's sound data of planets, stars and even galaxies collected through radio wave interpretations, sonifications or some other method. Here's a youtube video that compiles some NASA audio of the milky way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQL53eQ0cNA A lot of the audio is pretty much atonal ambient noises  My personal favorite sounds are of Jupiter (also saturn is one of the scariest things I've ever heard in my life). You may have to do some digging to find certain audios, but they exist somewhere! The easiest way to find sounds would be on the website of NASA (https://www.nasa.gov/). Also the Sonifications page is pretty cool https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/multimedia/sonifications/ 

I think these resources could be helpful if you need some cosmic related samples or references! Just make sure to check the rights; Most of the stuff is public domain and completely safe commercially as long as you don't convey NASA or it's branding to have any endorsement of what you've made, but there's sometimes (rarely) a few exceptions. Here's the rights page: https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/ 

Edit Sep/10/2025: changed "as long as you don't endorse NASA in your audio" to "as long as you don't convey NASA or it's branding to have any endorsement of what you've made". Was maybe a little tired when I wrote that haha

I found Woldo but I unfortunately had to leave him to the dragons so I could escape the forest

Thank you a ton! Realistic elements mixed with electronic has been one of my favorite things to do recently, so I am glad you liked that! Thank you for the kind words!

This is really cool! I like all the different percussion you used, and the instrumentation captures the desert well! I have some subjective feedback regarding the track, I get an ambient vibe for the track (which this is a really interesting ambient track!), but I am exactly not sure if you intended it to be ambient-like. I can go further on that point if you'd like me to, but overall what genre the track is doesn't matter much to me; I mostly just wanted to point it out just in case that isn't the direction you wanted to take with your music! This is still an incredibly cool track, and I enjoyed all the elements you've added into it! Glad you were able to make this despite not having much time! Nicely done

Thank you! The feeling of the story was the most important part for me so I am glad you felt I captured it! I am glad you liked the variation too, I feel it sort of came from a shifting of musical ideas haha; I was originally inspired by "Attack on Vah Naboris" from Zelda (I started with the piano chorus area when composing) and then the rest of the ideas sort of shifted to Mexican-Folk and Chiptune inspired (and probably some other genres). That instrument at 0:24 is a trumpet soundfont, I think it might be based on a C trumpet though! Your comment is very kind, Thank you again!

Thank you so much! You articulated the feeling I wanted to capture in others with this track exactly, so that makes me very glad!  I am also glad you enjoyed the pitch slides too; It was one of my favorite things to implement into the track!

Thank you, I am very glad you liked it!

It's nice to see the Namib desert covered in this jam! I really like all the string instruments you've used, some nice strumming in there as well! For a little bit of subjective constructive criticism, I like that the reverb gives a nice sense of ambience, though I feel the reverb (or the decay) could be turned down a just minor amount to reduce some of the overlapping (like in the segment starting around 1:48 for example), but despite that I do like how it feels reflective of the longing feeling of the desert if that makes sense. Great atmospheric track as always though, especially liked your choice of ambient sfx!

I like the distorted sounds you've chose and there is an impressive loudness in your track (that's not easy to do)! For a little bit of constructive criticism, I really like the selection of sounds you chose, but there is a tinny quality that I feel dominates over the rest of the frequency spectrum; I think an EQ cut in the high-mids/presence range (or potentially even the 1k-2k region) could really benefit the song while still keeping the vibe you were going for! I really like your interpretation of the theme, I could imagine the wide grin of the cactus as I listened (in a good way)! Really cool submission!

Thank you!

This is really cool, I especially like your interpretation of the theme! The vocal chops are a nice touch, and the percussive sounds are satisfying. Nice choice of sounds all around!

This is really cool... and intimidating! It fits very nicely as a mummy boss theme! I like how the track progresses and I think all the instruments fit well. To wrap things up, I think this sounds great, well done!

I was hoping to see a submission on Antarctica, very cool! I like the mood you chose to capture with your track,  I also really like the bell-like synth you used, I have small a criticism regarding it too though; Sometimes it feels like it rushing ahead of the tempo, mostly when it plays along with the kick. I would recommend offsetting the synth a little bit further back off grid in the playlist, but I still really like the mood the synth sets, and it sounds very pleasant! Nicely done!