itch.io

Thanks a lot for your comment !

When I think of what summer inspires me on a musical standpoint, surfrock pretty much comes to mind in priority so I'm glad that it came through in the final product.
And thanks for the recommendation, I didn't know about the game before but I've started listening to its soundtrack and it's pretty nice also (has some pretty similar vibes to what I had in mind) ! 

Thanks a lot for listening, glad that you enjoyed it (and especially the second track too) !

Very soothing and chilling soundtrack, really unique it was really well done !

I quite liked the assortment of instruments you've used on the various tracks, it all sounded really good and felt quite cohesive throughout (a lot of them sounded like LABS instruments, maybe they were, and it always feels great to the ear).
The vibes of the tracklist felt very ethereal and it was quite a journey to listen to, 

In the selection, although all tracks were pretty solid, my favourites must have been Ceaseless Searing (has a very nice progression and chilling atmosphere), Cyclical Severance (felt very emotional with the melodies gated in reverb, and the percussions bring a lot to its emotive power), and Transcendence From Chains (is a great conclusion to the album with its triumphant-like arrangements).

Overall awesome job and awesome soundtrack, congrats !

Pretty nice submission, was very pleasant to listen to !

The vibes and instuments make the tracks pretty cozy and nostalgic to listen to, definitely reminds you of the feeling of a warm summer night.
I would have liked maybe the two tracks being a bit more distinct from each other (maybe incorporate more melodic moments in the second track for example and make it have a vibe a bit different from the first one for a bit more variety), but it is already nice as is so good job !

Thanks a lot for your comment, glad that you enjoyed it (along with the art too) !

Glad also that I picked partial parts from my inspirations and didn't go in the exact same direction, usually I tend to gather inspirations a bit from everywhere in my musical library to make a final result that doesn't sound derivative from the source material (with guitar focused instrumental groups it can get a bit overbearing by itself I agree, but there are lots of ideas here and there that you can get inspiration from and get pretty different results).

And yeah also it's really nice to play real instruments more and more with each jam, this time also I used a bass pedal instead of going exclusively for amp sims which is nice because it makes you focus a lot more on composition itself instead of spending hours to get THE perfect tone (and also with the different instruments I used it provided nice ideas due to the playstyle I tend to use for each).

Anyway thanks a lot for listening !

Thanks a lot for your comment !

I indeed had a bit of Twin Peaks in mind for the second track (with the swingy vibe of the drums, the bass line and the bright keys) and a bit for the third one too (with some percussive parts and the Bass VI line).

And thanks for the compliment about the art too !
I wasn't exactly sure at first what I could go with for the artstyle (lighter brush strokes, pastel colors...) then I went for this style because the black and white harsh strokes felt right at home with the detective theming of my soundtrack (and also I was running a bit short on time since I began the illustrations like 4 hours before the deadline, but I'm glad that it came out well).

Pretty nice soundtrack, has a very nostalgic vibe that is quite pleasant to listen to !

The instrumentations and arrangements are nice to listen to, I could easily picture them in a 1st person narrative game like Stories Untold (where music is more based on ambient tones that support the main narration).
Maybe I would have liked a bit more melodies and variety between the tracks since they blend a bit between each other, but it fits with your concept so pretty nice overall !

Thanks a lot for your detailed comment, glad that you enjoyed it !

Very nice soundtrack, enjoyed a lot its catchyness and sound variety !

The instruments chosen for the tracks is very nice (loved the Yes-like B3 organ sound on Whimsical Ferrous Blossom for example), and the tracks, although quite short, have a lot of great sounding variations throughout.
It reminded me of the musical style of tracks from Mother 3 which works nicely for the rhythm game you had in mind (I can imagine doing the rhythm attack combos from Mother 3 while listening to your tracks).

I liked all of the tracks and all of them are top notch, although I feel that Whimsical Ferrous Blossom is the standout track for me (has a great rhythm and intensity), so great job for your album !

Thanks a lot for listening (and for checking out the project page), glad that you enjoyed it !

I'm glad that the variety that I had in mind for the base of the musical ideas came through, and in pretty different genres also (although it seems like the second track had something a bit more special among the selections).
Maybe I should continue in the style of the 2nd track for future works to see where it could lead to (since I had a lot of ideas for it that I could implement pretty seamlessly), could be a lot of fun !

Thanks a lot, glad to see another Hotel Dusk inspired submission around here too !

Since creation is built on available resources and limitations, it's pretty interesting to see that from a same mutual inspiration our final results end up quite different (which is nice to see different flavors and different interpretations since yours was very great to listen to also !).

But yeah, if you have the occasion, bringing in real instruments can drive your creativity and music ideas in pretty different ways so I can really recommend it at some point !

Extremely impressive orchestral work, what a great album !

I don't know what needs to be said that wasn't said already about the greatness of the orchestration and the arrangements in the other comments, but the whole album is very cohesive with the quality of its production throughout : everything feels very melodic and emotive with great orchestral variety to back it up.

Like I said, greatness is plenty to be found among the track selection, however I must said I really enjoyed Our Parasitic History on the top of my mind : great melodic and soulful intro, very intense and impactful rise in intensity later and then many variations brought throughout to keep the music fresh and exciting to listen to.

Excellent work, congrats (and very impressive artwork for the album cover too) !

Very fine soundtrack, very well done !

I can easily hear the Hotel Dusk/Last Window influence (especially in the last two track, with Discovery reminding me of So Noted, and Half Full, Half Empty having moments reminding me of Rachel's theme Serenity) and it worked out very well with your retro detective setting.
Speaking of influences, Midnight Rendezvous reminded me of Paradise (Stay Forever) from Paradise Killer (Nina from the excellent artwork from your album sort of reminds me of the protagonist from Paradise Killer also now that I think about it) so great to see !

Speaking more about the tracks themselves, all of them are very delightful with their jazzy ambient style, it really immerses you in this setting you've built, I really enjoyed it a lot.
My favourite tracks (if I had to choose) would be Discovery (very great melody throughout and nice variations throughout) and Half Full, Half Empty (with that very soothing rhythm and arrangements, very great work on that one).

Overall excellent work, congrats !

Thanks a lot for your comment and your feedback !

For the game I had in mind I didn't plan to have a full-on text based game (maybe something a bit similar to Hotel Dusk where there are huge narrative portions punctuated by more involved gameplay sections) so I wrote the tracks leaning a bit more on general feeling and melodies here and there to keep the listener's interest.
However you are right about the melodic writing that I could have incorporated in my tracks (I usually wrote music that blends more in the background without clear obvious melodies to have some breathing room for the gameplay), I could lean more on this aspect next time (a bit like you did in your submission with a clear driving melody that is built upon throughout the length of the track).

Anyway thanks a lot for listening, I'll try to keep your comment in mind for the next songs I'm going to write !

Very nice submission, I enjoyed it a lot !

The instrumentation, although pretty simple, works greatly with your arrangements and how you make them evolve through time : each track has a base melody for which you bring evolutions and variations progressively, and it felt very endearing to listen to throughout (never felt boring, there always was a nice thing to appreciate during the playtime).

Great job, well done !

Thanks a lot for your comment, glad that you enjoyed your time listening to the album !

Very nice soundtrack, the setting and the concept make this pretty original !

With the retro-typed soundfonts, the bluescreen on the projet page along with the pixelated images on the project page, it reminded me of a webpage that I could have seen playing Hypnospace Outlaw (which isn't that far off from your game concept, so it works pretty greatly).
The type of retro instrumentations also works pretty nicely for suggesting that you are playing a videogame inside a videogame (like in the episode Reality 2.0 of Sam & Max : Save The World), so it works nicely with your ingame setting too.

Concerning the tracks themselves I quite enjoyed the variety of them (it helps building distinct setpieces mentally along with the page's description) and they all flow pretty nicely into each other. I think my favourites were Big City Lights (it has a great mood to it) and Arcadia, Arcade Of Light (really enjoyed the energy on that one).

To conclude, very nice soundtrack and game concept (that might come to life now that Nintendo announced Virtual Boy games on the Switch Online !), well done !

Very impressive soundtrack, such a great amount of tunes, I didn't feel the time passing by while listening to the album !

The summery beachy vibes are immaculate in the first half (reminded of the OSTs from Flower Sun & Rain or Paradise Killer) and the switch to a more eery electronic style worked very well. I felt that each track worked greatly on their own (could pretty easily envision them in situations of a visual novel where they are triggered at certain points of the story) and the whole thing also felt very cohesive when listening back to back throught the album.

I really liked the guitar playing in the various tracks, it brought a lot of energy and smoothness depending on the tracks so well done on that ! I'm not sure I can pinpoint a clear favourite from the selection since all the tracks were really great.
If I had to choose I'd pick Welcome to Port Corella (very catchy, energetic and works greatly as an opener), Your Search Begins (has a Layton vibe with the accordion and reminded me a bit of Windmill from Killer7) and I Wont Forget You (Reprise) (the live interpretation gives the track a lot of soul I feel).

Overall excellent submission and a very memorable one, congrats for your work !

Thank you very much for listening !

Thanks a lot for your very nice and thorough comment !

I was indeed more under a stricter time pressure this time around (at least compared the OST Comp Jam 07 where I pretty much had nothing to do except working on music) because I worked mainly during the weekends and in the evenings of the week when I got home. However I feel that this album is stronger than the #07 I did even with the fewer time spent, so more time doesn't necessarily equal a hugely better final product for me I guess (having more experience now helps also of course).

I did use this "layering" thing quite a lot on gère now that you remind me of it, I had quite a lot of ideas so taking the time to bring them one at a time for the different instruments made sense for it (and it's pretty nice to have something evolve over time to not be too repetitive I feel). And because of this layering I did run into some issues like you pointed it out, at first the melodies were way louder than the rest but it would have been pretty uncomfortable for the listener to adjust the volume back and forth so I tried to make the volume a bit consistent across the different sound devices (I could have managed this a bit better though, better luck next time).

Anyway glad that you enjoyed it so much, it means a lot !

Pretty nice tracks, very soothing and nostalgic I enjoyed them very much !

The bass and drums groove with on top this very pretty vocal synth has a great mood to it, I certainly wouldn't mind listening to a full album in this style.
Summer's Last Night feels very nostalgic, Same Place, Years Later has that bittersweet ending credit style to it that brings a great sense of closure to the album, and to the reminiscences of the protagonist going back to this place she had fond memories of, it works very nicely so great job !

Very nice soundtrack, it has a lot of very interesting textures and sounds throughout !

Even with the minimalism of the ambient style, I felt that every track represented its story intent very efficiently (especially with the gloomy melodies in Mark... that represent very well this moment of the story for the protagonist).
I also really liked Nkumo Atoll, the style with the percussions and the track's progression was very unique and contrasted a lot (in a good way) with the calmer sailing tracks before.

Overall excellent job, congrats !

Very impressive body of work, I had a great time listening to your tracks and reading through the story imagined for each !

The instrumentation was really pleasant to listen to and, with the arrangements and great melodies that you came up with, it has that whimsical energy found on Ghibli music for example that immerses you in this fantastic world and makes you want to go on an adventure.
All tracks were very solid and consistent while being varied in setpieces so you did a great job tying them together (eventhough you seemed to have worked on them separately in a incremental manner, which is impressive too along with the great illustrations to visualize better your story).

Overall very memorable work, it was a pleasure to listen to so great job for that !

Very great soundtrack, with a lot of though and work put into it !

I really liked the intensity of the instruments and arrangements you've used throughout, it really did a lot for the theming of your game. Among the tracks, Overcharge was really nice with its many variations and high-adrenaline energy, and At Last provided a nice breathing room after all of the intensity of the previous track.

I quite liked the thought you put into your worldbuilding on your page and it's really well done, however I must say that reading through your descriptions and listening to your music at the same time was almost impossible, due to how busy and intense the tracks were and how compact and blocky the descriptions were.
This is not a problem at all since I read back the description after finishing your album, but maybe some shorter sentences and a lot more line breaks could help with the readability of your synopsis (because I felt that it has a lot to offer with the illustrations that are also very nice, you can compliment your friend for them) ?

Anyway very great experience, I enjoyed a lot being immerged into your worldbuilding along with the great music/story/illustrations to represent them, so well done !

Thanks a lot for listening and for reading !

I indeed wanted each track to have a distinct style for the kind of scenery I had in mind (like with "At Dusk" having that sense of calmness yet semi-exhaustion for what is yet to come), so I'm glad that it came through by listening !
For the fretless bass lines I used (not very surprising I think) the Jaco Pastorius preset on my Zoom B1XFour bass pedal (with some additionnal filters) because it felt just right for this kind of music with that "mwah" sound.
I actually haven't listened to the discograpy of Weather Report (with or without Jaco in the band, I should do so at some point), only Jaco's solo album which is very influential for me for fretless bass playing, I also had in mind Jim Matheos (the guitarist from the prog metal band Fates Warning) Away With Words solo album for the fretless bass lines style and use in a guitar driven environment.

Thanks a lot for your comment !

Pretty nice tracks, they were pretty enjoyable to listen to.

With the black cat on the cover and the sailing adventures theming it reminded me of the movie Flow which is very nice.
Concerning the tracks themselves the melodies and synth sounds were well arranged and pleasant to listen to throughout, maybe a bit more on note dynamics and some different sections in the tracks could make the listening experience a bit more lively, but it was already very enjoyable as is so good job !

Thanks a lot for listening, glad that you enjoyed it !
You are right for the use of guitars, I brought them more and more to the front along the different jams interations, firstly because most of my musical influences outside of game music are rock/metal adjacent (so it makes sense to lean on what I know best), and also because it's nice to bring exterior influences outside of game music to make the final result a bit more fresh, so using real instruments I feel.
And for "Guilty ?" I wanted that mysterious vibe too, with the surf guitar it brings that touch of anticipation, and the Bass VI line starting from 55s in the track was meant to replicate the feel from some spy music (in terms of sound and melody).
Anyway thanks for your comment !

Thanks a lot for listening and for taking the time to take a look at the story of the game !
I was in quite of a rush for this one (the benefit of having a full time job for once compared to previous jams haha) so to adjust the mixing I listened to the tracks back and forth on different devices (monitoring headset, phone speakers, bluetooth loudspeaker) and modified the volume when it got too loud on one specific device.
Next time I should look at it more on the frequencies side instead of just a volume one I feel.
Anyway thanks a lot for your comment !

Hi thanks a lot for your comment !
Glad that you enjoyed "Guilty ?", it indeed had this intent of having moments of intense stress while having a constant vibe of unease and anticipation (like you said in this moment of the story where Melinda is in a state of shock for what she's seen and what would be the consequences for her if she doesn't act fast and efficiently to prove her innocence).
Thanks a lot for listening !

Pretty nice soundtrack, the minimalist approach makes this soundtrack feel pretty intimate.
I quite liked the somber mood and expressiveness of your string instruments (especially on the 2nd track), reminded me of the Rule Of Rose soundtrack a little bit, so good job overall !

Thanks a lot for your kind comment, glad that you liked At Dusk also (it has not been on a lot of people's radar among the past listeners but I quite like this one too, it provides a nice breathing room after the previous tracks) !

That soundtrack and visuals on the video were quite something on this one wow !

There is a hugely tense mood throughout with the style of the tracks and the narration being very cryptic, sort of reminded of the sort of dread I felt when playing games like Milk Inside A Bag Of Milk (very hard to pull off in this manner).
The tracks are very varied in styles, however they keep that sort of mood throughout and it was very endearing to sit through the whole experience (especially Bloody Red Moon Ritual).
Speaking of moon, the visuals of the moon in various colors with text displayed over it reminded of the end of chapter screens from The Silver Case and The 25th Ward, for some reason the moon has that aura of mysteriousness that is very evocative in art pieces like yours.

I'm not sure I grasped the true essence of the story in details (and I'm pretty glad I didn't since I prefer having questions than definite answers in this context), however I can quote The Silver Case by saying "You can understand even without understanding".

Overall extremely unique submission, I'm glad I could sit through it so congrats for creating such a memorable piece !

Very unique OST with a lot of great content, pretty impressive !

It really capture that 90s horror point'n click vibe of games like D, Phantamasgoria or  Clock Tower with the mood and instruments chosen (and with the great cover also, the logo's texture reminds me of the one from Illbleed too).
I quite enjoyed the story told through the variety and quantity of the tracks, you can easily imagine a bunch of different sceneries in 3D prerendered environments with it, you have done quite a good job on the setpieces !

My favourite of the bunch has to be Passageways, with the voice lines and the bells it feels very haunting and memorable, I liked it a lot !
Maybe with the concept of your game I could have expected the music quality to be a bit more lo-fi (like it was the ripped soundtrack of a game from this period) but having music sound good and not being overly compressed is an understandable motive.

Excellent soundtrack, congrats for your work !

Very diverse and cohesive soundtrack, very impressed by the quality and variety of it !

It has a very cozy vibe on certain tracks with the acoustic guitar sections that translate the nostalgic elements of the picture very efficiently, and even with the more dynamic tracks it all flows together in a very natural and organic way.
I wanted to listen to each track individually to get a feel of how each situation was represented but I'm glad I listened to the compiled version instead because of the quality of the transitions (also the soundwave on Soundcloud has pretty clear delimitations between each track so I wasn't lost, pretty funny to see). 

Overall excellent job, congrats for your work (and for being able to manage to deliver this great piece in this short amount of time) !

Very nice soundtrack, it feels very eclectic I enjoyed its variety a lot !

All tracks were very pleasant to listen to, although my favourite has to be Haunted Island Boardwalk, it has a great energy and flow throughout (the beginning kind of reminds me of the Beach Theme from Plok), very nice job overall congrats !

Thanks a lot for your comment, you're pretty spot on with the narration (pretty much what I envision when I think about what the game could be) !

Hotel Dusk/Room 215/Wish Room is indeed a gigantic influence for me, when I was elaborating the theming for my  project this was pretty much what I had in mind the entire time (such a good game with its sequel too, with the great Another Code remake I hope we'll see another game from the series like the third game that was supposed to happen at some point).

Anyway thanks a lot for listening !

Thanks a lot for listening and for your very kind comment, glad that you liked it !

Very great atmospheric tracks (warning for people listening to this, wear headphones, the work on the panning on here is gorgeous and should be listened in the most optimal manner) !

The quality of the mixing and of the instrumentation is truly out of this world,the theme of finding fragments of lost memories is extremely well conveyed in this manner, and the tracks happen to be mellow while managing to stay very interesting throughout.

Excellent work, congrats for your submission !

Very complete soundtrack, very impressed by the amount of work that went into it (gets a 5 star in storytelling without a doubt) !

The detailed Google Docs truly does wonders to get to know what were your story and musical intentions for each track, and it does elevate the whole experince substantially (especially with a piece of work as complete as this one).
Concerning the music itself, there were a lot of variety on display and it remained pretty engaging throughout. 
The musical style reminded me of Earthbound with its jazzy 16bit inclinations, with the soundfont of Mother 3 with the compression (Loulou on the cover does ressemble Boney from Mother 3 quite a lot, maybe it was an inspiration at some point ?). Maybe a bit more work on note dynamics could have been used at some points (I thought the track was skipping at 1min26 in Maritime due to it for example).
My favourite tracks overall were Decrystallized (the percussions and the melody on top of it are very pleasant to listen to, sort of reminded me of music from Ecco Tides In Time), Triquetra is very intense and well done, and One Summer Night concludes the album very satisfyingly with its sort of pensive and bittersweet nature.

Excellent work overall, congrats !

Very eclectic soundtrack, l found it very interesting and enjoyable to listen along with your quite unique theming !

Among the selection of tracks I really enjoyed Crashing Waves, it has a great energy and flow to it along with great guitar instrumentation, very delightful to hear so great job !