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A jam submission

The world behindView project page

Submission for OST Composing Jam #7
Submitted by Decadentia — 1 day, 2 minutes before the deadline
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The world behind's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Creativity#284.1744.174
Overall#1073.8353.835
Quality#1223.8703.870
Impression#1493.6963.696
Correlation to theme#1803.7393.739
Composition#1903.6963.696

Ranked from 23 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Description
Music Genre: Orchestral/Dub Techno/Noise/Ambient/Jungle.
Run Time: 13 Tracks - 27 Minutes.
Process: After defining the theme, I composed a motif, identified the chords and scale, and derived the game's vibe, envisioning the game itself. There are both ambient background tracks for exploration and songs for cutscenes. All the tracks are designed to be looped in different sections.

Game Genre: Psychological Horror.
Visuals: Hand Drawn textures on 3D models, isometric perspective.
Protagonists: Ghost (twin brother of the girl) and the girl.
Mechanics: The player can switch between the ghost and the girl. The ghost materializes the sister's thoughts, while the girl moves and interacts with the environment.
Story Engine: As the ghost gains more power, the girl disconnects from reality and isolates herself in her own world, which becomes increasingly real.
Soundtrack: Includes songs for cutscenes and character dialogues, as well as adaptive ambient compositions for exploration that change based on choices made during item interactions in story moments.

Plot:
1# Song - Bedroom
The game starts with the brother in what looks like a hospital bed, his eyes closing. The sister is outside the door, and she is not crying. Some unrecognizable figures are moving frantically around the bed. The scene smoothly transitions to the ghost waking up alone in the bedroom he shares with his sister. He knows he is dead. He begins a brief monologue, questioning his situation. His monologue is interrupted when his twin sister enters the room. They both realize that she can see him. A dialogue follows between them. The girl then leaves the room to explore the house, with her brother following.
1# ambience - Home1
Ambient music plays during the house exploration. The girl collects toys, clothing, and memories of her brother while he follows her. The mood is neutral, with ceiling fans active throughout the house.
2# Song - The Door
Once they reach and open the door, the visions and memories collected inside the house take shape in the real world outside. The ghost realizes that it can materialize the mental images it has gathered.
2# Ambience - Out1
The siblings are drawn by a sensation and head towards the source. During the walk, the materialized images become increasingly distorted.
3# Song - Psyche
They arrive in front of the hospital. Inside the building, the image of their brother as he was in life materializes before them and invites them to follow him. He leads them to the room where he was hospitalized (meanwhile, the hospital is deserted and there are no further visions). At this point, the image of the brother screams and transforms into his monstrous version. The two siblings run away, but the path they came from is blocked, and they are forced to find alternative routes while, in the meantime, the hospital starts flooding. They manage to escape.
3# Ambience - Parking Lot
After exiting from the back, they find themselves in the parking lot and realize that water is coming out of the building. Upon closer inspection of the liquid, they see visions of the little girl's pet fish, increasingly monstrous. They flee again in a stealth section.
4# Song - Returning Home
Having escaped from the fish, they begin to discuss where to go to return home. In desperation, the brother materializes the increasingly unsettling thoughts of the little girl. Among these, a fish starts moving and takes a specific direction. They decide to follow it.
4# Ambience - Out2
They follow the fish towards home, pursued by increasingly deformed visions, but these visions become more identifiable as figures related to the brother's death.
5# Song - Curfew
They reach the door of their house. There are no more visions. After entering, the brother talks to the little girl, explaining to her that he has understood that the visions are linked to his death. He realizes that if they continue to materialize them using this power, the consequence will be total isolation in the trauma. The little girl convinces herself she hears the voices of their parents.
5# Ambience - Home2
They explore the inside of the house: the visions have returned, increasingly aggressive. Gradually, they realize they can follow two paths.
6#A Song - Rejoice
By going towards the bedroom, the little girl will confront her traumas, freeing herself from the brother.
6#B Song - Disappear
By going towards the parents, she will fall completely into the traumatized vision of the world and disappear with the brother.

Message from the artist
Thank you for listening!!!

Theme

Inside my world
Picture theme

How does it fit the theme?
The story fits both the theme's image and text as the protagonists are inspired by the image and the game's mechanics revolve around exploring the world through the girl's mind, materializing her imaginary and traumatized depiction of it.
From a sound perspective, it fits the theme through the use of contrasts between synthesis, orchestral composition and resampling (used to distort musical instruments, parts, and motifs from previous scenes). Compositional counterpoints highlight the inner world's growth.

Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/livindeepdj/sets/the-world-behind
https://decadentia.bandcamp.com/album/the-world-behind

Number of tracks
13

Genre

Orchestral
Electronic
Ambient
Experimental

Soundtrack use permission

Yes (CC BY-NC)

Any non-commercial project

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

A long soundtrack? I love long soundtracks!

WOW... incredibly beautiful and large-scale ambient, where an incredibly large number of different effects, techniques and ways to set the atmosphere are used, that makes my jaw drop from its scale. Popping, gurgling sounds, breathing, humming, friction, water... and I also didn't mention the absolutely magical work on musical instruments!

Cool! I love it!

P.S.... I'm sorry, please. Usually, when I comment on long soundtracks, I try to describe my emotions from each track, but due to the time frame, I can't afford it :_(

Developer

Thank you! Yeah I know the length of the soundtrack is a bit too much for the rating time frame of the jam but I still tried to do my best ahahah!

Submitted(+1)

I rather meant that I don't have much time to comment. I listened to your soundtrack in its entirety)

Developer

Yes I understood correctly, i was just awake so I didn't explain myself well lol (I'm Italian)

Submitted(+1)

The scale of this OST is very impressive, with a really interesting balance between sound design and musical ideas. The sense of ambience created is really atmospheric, and there is a real cohesiveness to your story arch. Well done!

Developer

Thank you for listening! Glad you liked it

Submitted(+1)

I can’t really find the words to describe your OST. It really had everything. From sweet sounding spaces Atmospheres over gloomy and engaging sound worlds to desolate soundscape or chaotic dark dance hall like themes. You definitely know your craft and how to use it to build an intriguing ambiance. I can do nothing more than tip my head and say awesome work!

Developer

Thank you very much, I hate to admit it but your comment made me cry a bit!

Submitted(+1)

I love this track, you change moods in a very smooth way and all of this is so experimental but understandable by anyone! the sounds are so good and I think the track fit perfectly the theme! My compliments!

Developer

Thank you very much! 

Submitted(+1)

Great to hear something drawing inspiration from some of the best areas of dance music.

Love how you've grabbed sounds and styles from a bunch of different places and put it together into something that feels very coherent and also like a soundtrack. 

Can't really pick out a favourite, all great stuff!

Developer

Thank you for the feedback. I'm very glad you liked it!

Submitted(+1)

I like the way you used ambient noise elements to make the tracks blend one after another! Great variety of mix and ambiences, well done!

Developer(+1)

Thank you very much! The seamless connection between tracks was one of the main challenges I set for myself in this jam.

Submitted(+1)

High quality sountrack! I save it!

Comment on my favorite so far: Psyche...The slow development of it is 10/10. I absolutely love it!! Plus the different moments that portraits...very well crafted!

Awesome work!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for the save! Psyche is my favorite to! I put like 6 hours on the second part only so it's like a child.

Submitted(+1)

Really sick man! Every track communicated a very anxiety-inducing feeling which was cool to listen to. The standouts for me are Out1 and Home2. The story also adds so much context which makes me enjoy these tracks even more! Keep it up. 

(btw the SoundCloud link only links to the first track when I think it should link to the entire album. I thought there was only one song for a second and had to read the description to find out there are 13. So I had to do a bit of searching to find the full album on your profile.)

Developer

Thank you for the advice; I fixed it! By the way, I'm glad you liked the more ambient songs, which I was a bit more worried about.

Submitted(+1)

Horror ambience vibes are on point, and it really fits the narrative. Adding some techno influences was a genius move and builds tension wonderfully. Very cool overall.

Developer

Thank you very much. The techno influences i think are inevitable in every soundtrack i make lol!

Submitted(+1)

I felt like the music complemented the progression of the story really well. Really rich narrative.  I like that the tracks are split between ambiences and more defined songs. It makes sense for any good game to have a mix of those styles. Overall really tight and cohesive entry!

Developer

Thank you! I started using the division between ambient and more "fleshed out" songs during past projects in other game jams, and I saw that it complemented the game design really well. So I thought about doing it here to follow the usable-in-a-game concept of the jam.

Submitted(+1)

Very gripping story and it works really well with the music. I like psyche the best with its change halfway through. It reminded me of the true lab in undertale.

Developer

Thank you! Psyche is my favorite one too for the same reason. I hope to take this approach to composition more in the future.

Submitted(+1)

I'll admit, I was initially turned off by the length of this submission, but I'm glad I gave it a listen. Overall I love the addition of the non-instrumental sound effects that gave it a real feeling of ambience. Listening through the whole piece really felt like a complete game soundtrack. I also really enjoyed the fact that it's intended to be for a horror game - that felt unique and you really sold it, especially with things like the whispering sounds during Returning Home. At times (such as in Rejoice and Disappear) it sounded reminiscent of the Binding of Isaac (the original game's soundtrack, not the chiptune Rebirth soundtrack, which I'm not as familiar with). Awesome job overall.

Developer

Thank you very much for listening all the way through and for the feedback! I didn't think about BOI, but now I can hear it too, lol.

Submitted(+1)

This was really interesting listening experience for me. Definitely on the experimental side! Nice and spacey, evoking vast places...

Submitted(+1)

That is super super experimental, very different from any other submissions. Well mixed, good job !

Submitted(+1)

That's really an all encompassing work that deserves a ton of praise. Awesome job here, it fits the theme quite uniquely, an a lot of thought has been given for sure on the game underlying the OST. I like it very much thank you!!

Submitted(+1)

I like how you put a lot of thought in the actual game. Your music is immersive and at times positively creepy. Fits the description well!

Developer (3 edits)

Thank you! By experience i like to have a well detailed context before composing to make music interact well with the game so I tried to do the same thing here