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Ritornella's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Correlation to theme | #15 | 3.889 | 3.889 |
| Composition | #27 | 3.778 | 3.778 |
| Quality | #36 | 3.778 | 3.778 |
| Overall | #37 | 3.600 | 3.600 |
| Impression | #64 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Creativity | #81 | 3.222 | 3.222 |
Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
A young protagonist, Ritornella, leaves their home one day, accompanied by their cat, and find themselves in an unrecognisable, grey world. As they explore (and solve puzzles) they begin to restore colour and life into the world and they begin to remember and rebuild the world around them.
We learn that Ritornella has shut themselves off from the world for a very long time, and the game follows their journey as they slowly venture back out into the world.
The Main Theme is a title screen piece. The other three pieces are intended to be an adaptive soundtrack that starts muted in a world that is grey and lifeless (Part I) that grows as the game progresses (Part II) before reaching an epiphany before the end of the game (Part III). I've included a 'Longplay Version' to better demonstrate how the music would work in a game setting.
The soundtrack to 'Ritornella' was influenced by games such as 'Dark Cloud', 'Celeste', 'Sayonara Wild Hearts', 'Hollow Knight' and 'Gris', and is intended to evolve and grow as the player progresses through the world of the game, becoming more full as the world begins to take shape.
The music was composed in Reaper, using a variety of virtual and physical instruments, and both sessions were streamed live to twitch.tv/tincanaudio.
Message from the artist:
I decided to challenge myself and stream the process of putting my entry together. I was hoping to do more with the soundtrack and expanding on some of the ideas, however I got ill a couple of days into the jam. I'm still very happy with how it turned out though!
You can find the first session stream here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06ChhzHb6a4
And here's the second: https://youtu.be/HmoGGOW1Zm4
Theme:
How does it fit the theme?
The picture immediately struck me and I wanted to play around with something like an adaptive soundtrack (as much as that can be done in this context) and while initial ideas were more focused on seasons (the myths of Persephone and Ceres came up during the streams) I ended up with a more personal story of re-entering the world after being inside for a long time.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/tincanaudiouk/sets/ritornella
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Comments
I really loved these pieces! I could really connect the story to the music; I can almost imagine the tendrils of color being restored to the world. The pieces had very calming atmospheres and I could definitely see this being in a relaxed exploration game. Great work!
absolutely ADORE a colourless place! the transition from the sparse chords to the wider arrangement a minute in was very nice!
the whole soundtrack sounded very beautiful, good job!
You have some really pretty instrumentation going on, I really like the light strings that come in in the second half of the main theme
Nice to see someone else going entirely off the picture theme, I like your unique take on it! The ambient music made to be dynamically adjusted is a cool idea as well.
That was really nice to listen to. Very chill and the vibes match up with the picture theme so well! The mix is pretty tight too, very pleasant on the ears. Excellent job, I love it!
Really enjoyed that. I totally imagine your game being some sort of mix between Gris and Tetris Effect, if that makes sense. Making simple yet efficient melody layers is harder than one would think and you definitely nailed it.
This is gorgeous! I see a lot of similarities between the pieces we submitted, actually. What you've composed sounds comforting and melancholy at the same time, which I think is an excellent combo for the type of video game you've described in the description.