Play soundtrack
…and life goes on (a collection of ideas over the seasons)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Composition | #28 | 3.765 | 3.765 |
| Creativity | #31 | 3.706 | 3.706 |
| Impression | #37 | 3.588 | 3.588 |
| Overall | #51 | 3.518 | 3.518 |
| Correlation to theme | #69 | 3.176 | 3.176 |
| Quality | #71 | 3.353 | 3.353 |
Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
These are a collection of ideas I dotted down over the year, I planned on starting from scratch at the start of the jam, but I just didn’t have enough time to develop those ideas further. So I decided to use this jam to dig up and “finish” the old stuff. Most of these uses midi piano, so I would say this is quite a step back from my last submission. I just had a lot less time (basically I procrastinated a lot these past few weeks watching YouTube T^T) but I still want to submit something as a small accomplishment. So yeah, enjoy!
Message from the artist:
Enjoy! The tracks in the downloads are not properly named btw, sorry!
Theme:
How does it fit the theme?
The tracks were supposedly made for a game set in the countryside/a farming game, they were also literally composed in different seasons.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/alonerabbit/sets/and-life-goes-on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn4_MtDFyTc
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
An excellent example of layering melodies and harmonies to grow and develop a track - for pretty much all of these tracks! The standout entry to me is The Seasons Never Change. I could listen to those three melodies at 0:52 play on top of each other all day, and pretty hype when the synth bass comes in. For some reason I keep expecting the song to transition into Hopes and Dreams from the Undertale soundtrack, maybe its the chords... not sure tbh. Also for some reason A Joke is one of my favorites too :D
Anyways you have a great ear for layering things harmonically and also rhythmically. I love it when games use vertical layering and I could picture your songs working well for that type of soundtrack - when different sub-tracks of the full track fade in and out depending on the situation.
I'd say all you need is some more variety in the samples/instrumentation, maybe a bit of post processing effects like reverb or delay, and you've got yourself a game-ready soundtrack! Great work this past year :)
That so much is able to be expressed within a relatively limited palette of sounds is a great achievement, and the sounds that are used are definitely reminiscent of games I have played and loved before. A really solid and impressive entry - great work.
My song 176: Who knew you could expand so much on just four notes! I love the way this track builds up throughout and then comes back to the simplicity of the original idea. This track really embodies the feeling I get when I am trying to write music where I get sucked into the music that I hear in my head that sounds amazing and exactly how I want it to sound, only to snap back to reality and realize I only have four notes down.
My song 241: This is a really pretty idea for a melody that doesn’t seem to follow conventional harmony. I think the uniqueness of it would make it a really nice main theme for a game because it sounds nice, but it’s far from cookie-cutter and people would recognize it even if you changed it based on the situations that arise in the game.
My song 285: What an interesting set of sounds you have here! I imagine this track playing in a quirky magician’s shop in the back alleyway of the village who sells you all the weird seeds or farming equipment or something.
My song 289: I’m noticing a theme with your music that when you find a cool arpeggio or sequence of notes, you like to dive into the depths of it to see just how much you can create with the simple idea. I think that is an excellent skill for a musician to have. Being able to pick apart something simple and milk it as much as you can is how many of the greatest compositions in history are still remembered today.
My song 334: I love this track. This gives me Kirby’s Epic Yarn vibes (a very underrated soundtrack). If you were going to assign your songs to seasons, I think this one would fit very well in the Spring season.
My song 336: This is a very nice synth variation of the previous track. This would allow for some great adaptive transitions in the game, such moving from daytime to nighttime.
My song 345: The minor march-like feel makes me think of some sneaky neighbor farmer who thinks he’s better than you and will do whatever it takes to get ahead in the agriculture business.
My song 354: I like this track because the bass is a pedal tone that doesn’t change. That leaves the melody and the high register off-beat notes to imply all the harmony. I think that technique is something I associate with autumn music and imagine this being the fall theme for your game.
My song 367: The pad swells in the background give the sense that the landscape looks different now. The calm and reverby sounds make me think this track would be a great winter or nighttime theme.
Overall: Thank you for sharing all this music! I think a lot of it fits together very nicely and could totally exist within the same world despite having such a variety of musical styles and being written over such a large period of time. I would totally play this game!
I downloaded your tracks instead of listening on soundcloud and I totally just realized that I listened to your tracks in the wrong order and didn't know they had names. Sorry! All my comments still apply!
Woah, thank you so much for the detailed feedback! Just for the sake of it, here are the tracks' name corresponding to the number in its order^^:
334 - Life
354 1 - Forward
176 - The Seasons Never Change
345 - Think, Think, Walk.
285 - A Joke
367 - Tranquility
241 - Remember
289 - Way Back Then
336 - Life (Reprise)
Thank you again for writing such a detailed feedback, sorry for the inconvenience as well haha. Yeah, basically whenever I found (or think I found) something that sounds nice or interesting I would just loop it and build on top of it, then repeat. Maybe it's because rarely would I find something good/interesting and that I'm able to work with, and sometimes
(most of the time)I'ma bittoo lazy/had no idea how to change things up in the track lol, that's why most of the tracks I do doesn't really follow conventional structures or melodies. The reason why it's mostly piano midi as well is because for most of the tracks I do, I start off with playing around with the midi piano until I get the base melody/pattern/chord/etc. I then stick with the midi piano throughout and then change the instruments later. This of course, didn't happen for this one, I tried using different instruments but it doesn't really give off the same vibe so yeah that's how this turns out the way it does now.I don't think there's anything wrong with piano midi! Part of music is choosing the right instrumentation (which I am also still trying to learn as much as I can about), but a lot of it is the process of creating and seeing if it feels right. I think that based on the description of your process, it sounds very similar to my process which is more of a composition through discovery method rather than having blueprints ahead of time. Both are perfectly valid forms of composition, but I like the ability to be more flexible and creative in your way!
Thanks for sending the order of your tracks. Now I get to listen to it again and hear an entirely new story progression!
This is nice! I like how there's a slow, constant shift from entirely acoustic instruments to entirely synthesized ones from the start to the end of the soundtrack, especially considering that these were originally composed over the course of a year.