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Verdant Escape's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Correlation to theme | #96 | 3.577 | 3.688 |
| Impression | #105 | 3.395 | 3.500 |
| Quality | #114 | 3.456 | 3.563 |
| Composition | #121 | 3.335 | 3.438 |
| Overall | #130 | 3.335 | 3.438 |
| Creativity | #186 | 2.910 | 3.000 |
Ranked from 16 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
Genre:
Orchestral
About the game:
I imagined the game to be an adventure/exploration game.
Story-wise, the player character must navigate through a forest wilderness in order to flee from an oncoming threat.
Gameplay-wise, the game would be focused more on platforming, exploration and puzzle-solving with some combat elements.
About the tracks:
Wilderness Waltz (Track 1) is intended to be played in an exploratory part of the game where the player would be navigating throughout an environment which is free from most threats. I imagine the gameplay would involve platforming and/or puzzle solving.
Fight or Flight (Track 2) is intended to be played at a point when the player encounters enemies. I imagine the gameplay would involve either fighting the enemies and/or a chase sequence.
Moonlit Reflections (Track 3) is used as a backing piece during a cutscene/dialog which takes place at night in the forest after the player character has escaped an imminent threat.
Composition method:
I started with the idea to use string instruments and piano which was inspired by the picture prompt as I felt it made for a "forest-y" vibe. From there I tried to compose somewhat of an orchestral string arrangement.
DAW used:
FL Studio 20
Message from the artist:
I look forward to feedback from listeners! I always enjoy hearing what people think about my work, so feedback is greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Theme:
How does it fit the theme?
I went with a instrument choice that I felt worked for a forest/wilderness setting and tried to compose rhythms that gave a feeling of constant movement to fit the prompt.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02QJlF9V8kU&list=PLW2ZkThPsXhMNLyxQpS0xPXXXdZnEMszQ
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Comments
Love the use of a chromatic mediant progression in Wilderness Waltz! Gives a movie OST kind of feel. Definitely my favorite. I find the strings to be just a touch dry though, but the composition still shines. Reverb or a short delay doubling effect of a few milliseconds could possibly work to make it fuller.
Moonlit Reflections makes me think of Hollow Knight. Very nice piano work.
Really loved this OST!
Thanks for the feedback. I agree that I could have done more in terms of mixing and effects to improve the overall sound of the instruments. Its something I will definitely be keeping in mind going forward. I'm glad you liked the composition overall, though!
Thanks for listening!
I love the melodic style interspersed with percussive sections. Fight or Flight made me pant, very energetic! I'm still shying away from using drums in FL studio. you seem to have figured it out. moonlit Reflections is my favorite. I'm a sucker for these arpeggios, very nostalgic feel. Really well composed pieces. Thanks for sharing!
Hey glad you liked it! Thank you for the kind words and thanks for listening!
Hey there! this is a nice composition. My only bit of critical feedback is that the strings sounded really dry, would have liked some verb on them to help glue it all together :) Wilderness Waltz is a catchy tune! well done!
Hey thanks for the feedback! Definitely something I will keep in mind for my future work.
Thanks for listening!
I loved the piano section that came in at 1:10 in Fight or Flight, the shift made if feel like there is a moment where mid-level, there is this pause where you have to make a decision (fight or flight). It was just a great compositional moment. Overall, well done!
Hey, glad you liked it! Thanks for listening!
Verdant Escape - I like it. The melodies are quaint and whimsical. I quite like it. The only thing I was missing a little bit was some velocity automation. The melodies are great and I wonder if they could be lifted even further by punctuating some of the notes to make it feel even more alive. That said, it's already amazing work!
Fight or Flight - Nice! Things are getting serious now. This does indeed sound like battle music. I think the melody is very cool. One thing that might have been cool is to add a little bit of high frequency content in the drums every now and then. For example, some cymbal when you switch between sections, or some other details. Still a very cool track, and I think it would have been effective in a game for what you set out to do here.
Moonlit Reflections - This feels like a moment of reflection. Quite fitting for an ending or post-battle theme.
My favourite is probably Verdant Escape. I just really like that whimsical melody. Great job on the soundtrack man!Thanks for the feedback! I definitely agree with your suggestions; Its something that I will be keeping in mind in the future.
Thanks for listening!
Wilderness Waltz: You captured a magical and whimsical feeling with the waltz-y texture and the use of the mediant in the chord progression. I like the addition of the bass and drums - I was certainly grooving along at this point! I think that the bass added a layer that I initially felt was missing from the piece. It was like the glue that gave your track a solid foundation and I loved it from then on.
Fight or Flight: This track has great battle music suspense that I think is worthy of that Fire Emblem games. I think use of a snare drum to help drive the rhythm with the bass drum to add a little variation in the rhythmic interest would help add to the intense marching battle vibes you’ve created.
Moonlit Reflections: This is a really well-crafted pensive piece of music that I think would work very well behind dialogue as you described or in a place of resting within your game. I like the warbly instrument you used that changes the timbre a bit which I think is a great way to help add variety so that a piece that is intended to repeat does not end up sounding static.
Overall: This music would work very well in a JRPG and I am certainly a fan of all three of these pieces. Great work also creating a variety of different moods and player experiences that all blend very well together and make perfect sense being played one after another in the same game. Keep up the great work and thank you for sharing!
Thank you very much! I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed it and I really appreciate the in-depth feedback for each track as well as the overall submission. I think you're right about the addition of a snare to the percussion of Fight or Flight helping the rhythmic drive of the piece; Something for me to keep in mind in the future.
Thank you for listening!
Really competent tracks that are dripping with character which could easily lend themselves to either a game or film soundtrack. Of the three my favourite was 'Fight or Flight' but honestly it could have been any of them (and might change with each re-listen). Super solid entry - great job.
I appreciate the kind words! Fight or Flight was the track I spent the most time working on as it was the first of the three I made and it took a while to figure out how I wanted to arrange everything and the sort of tone I was going for so I'm glad to hear you liked it.
Thank you for listening!
The first notes made me doubtful at first but I was surprised by how great your soundtrack was! What I mean by that is that mixing wise, it would need a lot more reverb and modulation especially on the strings (adding variations in their timing would be a plus too). But the composition was absolutely spot on!
I think if you just correct the 2 issues I mentioned, your music will jump in quality.
Other than that really great job!!
Thank you for the feedback! Mixing is something that I could definitely improve for my future work, however I am glad to hear that the composition of the pieces stood out to you as that was what I ended up focusing on over any sort of mixing due to being pressed for time.
Thanks for listening!
Nothing like my submission, but one of my favorites of the whole jam. Songs were very balanced and perfectly fit my mood, somehow. Great work!
Thank you for your kind response and thanks for listening!
Solid work and good use of strings! I would have liked to see some more velocity changes and a little bit of imperfection or variation in the timing of notes just to make it feel less stationary/straightforward. But overall I like this submission, good work!
Thanks for the feedback! This was my first time doing any sort of string composition in a DAW and I know exactly what you mean about adding in imperfections to make the string sound a little more dynamic. I would have liked to work a bit more on that aspect of the composition, but I ended up being a crunched for time towards the end of the jam and decided to leave it as is. This is definitely advice I will keep in mind for my future work.
Thanks for listening!
Lovely soundtrack! You did a great job of channeling that lush forest-like quality through the strings.
I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for listening!