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A jam submission

Queen Bubblene Blast!View project page

She's A Mean One
Submitted by Jofes (@jofes123456) — 2 days, 21 hours before the deadline
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Queen Bubblene Blast!'s itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Correlation to theme#414.1494.149
Creativity#703.9863.986
Overall#1513.7343.734
Composition#2553.5273.527
Impression#2583.4663.466
Quality#2793.5413.541

Ranked from 148 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous.

  • What a delightful musical journey! I smiled instantly upon listening. This has a wonderfully playful tone that I found immediately charming. I really like how you’ve set up a clear set of ideas and stuck to them across a variety of different tracks— it can be so easy to allow the music to become unfocused, but I always felt like I was in good hands. It is often very difficult to achieve a sense of *variety* while still holding the entire thing together in a *coherent* way, but I definitely think you’ve achieved it here. I love the bassoon (I think that’s what it is?) in “So You’ve Been Turned Into a Bubble” (also: *killer* track name here!). Your instrumental choices really help you out, and I appreciate that you stuck to the sonic palette you set up in the menu theme. Over the course of tracks for so many different situations it can be easy to “wander”, but you stay disciplined and “on-message”, tonally, for the whole thing— this really helps hold the whole thing together! I would encourage you to write actual endings to your tracks (rather than just relying on a fade out) as this gives you one more option in implementation (you can always fade something out if you want to, but you can’t insert an ending that doesn’t exist). Overall, the word I’d use to describe my feelings here is “delight”— just a really fun, skillfully-executed set of tracks that set a clear musical goal and then achieve it brilliantly. Very, very nice work!

Description
The total length of all the music is 11:08

The style of game I imagined is a precision based fast paced 2d platformer where you die it one hit and have to restart from the start of the stage. you are a bubble so the jumps have a slow fall time allowing for really long stretches of time away from the ground
There would be 8 stages and a boss at the end kind of like a Megaman game in structure
The levels would be kind of like geometry dash but with more freedom of movement but with a constant death wall from behind so you always have to stay on the move.

The tracks in order represent a different part of the game each

Queen bubblene Blast! - Title screen music
So you've been turned into a bubble - Theme of Queen Bubblene
The H2Zone - Town/stage select theme
Nonstopped Unpopped - Level theme
Taking in some air - Pause menu theme
Octo-Popper Supreme - Final Boss Theme
Surfacing - Credits theme

I wanted to compose each track to be fun and easy to lise yourself in. I didn't want listeners to get bored so each song is only as long as necessary since I wanted to make sure people would remain engaged and have good impressions of each song.

many of the songs have intros to really set a mood for each track

I also included a leitmotif in almost every single the a series of 8 notes that goes - High Mid Low High Mid Low Mid Low - with varying tones, distances, and feelings.

I used FL studio to compose and generally started with the bassline and percussion since they were the most important part of the vibe I wanted.

Message from the artist
I'm sorry about the novel I wrote below I just had so many ideas about my music I wanted to share and I didn't want to leave anything out.

I HIGHLY RECCOMEND WATCHING THE YOUTUBE VIDEO as it has animation as well as a lot of worldbuilding for the game I made up in my head that is fun to read.

I will also describe some story elements in the "how does it fit the theme" section as well as explanations for a lot of my musical decisions.

Please enjoy!

Theme

Inside my world
Picture theme

How does it fit the theme?
My interpretation of the theme Gameplay and story wise is that the player character is the bubble seen in the picture and the little girl is the one that brought you into "her" world. As such, I thought it would be a fun twist to make her the villain of the game.

Her name is Queen Bubblene and she is the ruler of this little underwater kingdom. Using her magical bubble wand, She turns lots of people into bubbles for her own amusement since seeing them get popped and die is cathartic since humans keep fishing up all her loyal tax-paying subjects. (the fish)

She of course doesn't just instantly pop the people she brings her though, she makes them go through rigorous stages filled with her fishy minions so she can watch you struggle.

There are 8 stages to get through before she decides to stop the playing and get serious. If the player manages to beat all the stages it is revealed that the pathways leading out of the city to each stage was actually the tentacle of a huge octopus that Queen Bubblene takes control of for the final battle in which she uses all 8 tentacles in a background-foreground boss fight scenario.
The player needs to destroy each tentacle 1 at a time in order to beat the boss.

once defeated you use the Queen's bubble wand to return to the surface and unbubble yourself.


My interpretation of the theme in the music is as follows, First generally, and then each song individually.

The main thing I did to emphasize the "Inside my world" theme was to not use ANY traditional percussion. No snare drum, No bass drum or kick, and no cymbals of any kind.
The only percussion used are things like cowbells, tambourines, cabasas, guiros, claves, Vibraslaps and etc.
I did this to make it seem a bit more alien and a bit more like unfamiliar territory to really drive home the feeling that this isn't your own world anymore.
Most if not all of the instruments have a filter on to sound a tad muffled since everything is taking place underwater and a lot of the instruments I used have connotations to being underwater.
The xylophone and marimba both made of wood already give an underwater vibe especially the marimba with its deep timbre.
The harp is reminiscent of Banjo-Kazooie with how that game uses a harp solo for underwater sections.
The steel drum is heavily associated with the beach and the ocean in general.
The bass has a deep timbre like the marimba and the tubas are also a very muffly but also regal instrument so they fit the underwater vibe as well as the royalty of the villain Queen Bubblene
The high strings give a lot of the songs a great ambience
The bassoon is another low timbre and muffly instrument to provide something a bit more ear catching than the tubas for variety
and the high horns for one song are there muffled to be a climactic new instrument for the climactic finishing part of the game.
now for each song individually

Queen Bubblene Blast! - I wanted a strong and captivating opening song to grab and hold peoples attention and the first verse after the intro prominently uses the leitmotif of the game.

So you've been turned into a bubble - This was the first track I made and it represents Queen Bubblene herself. I wanted it to be royal and naughty at the same time hence the heavy use of tubas and bassoon

The H2Zone - I wanted the town theme to be simple and catchy. bouncy enough to get stuck in your head and simple enough that it feels like a town theme.

Nonstopped Unpopped - I wanted it to be fast but not too fast since it's not meant to be a super speedy game its more like a precision platformer that forces you to not take your time that much.

Taking in some air - Since this is the pause menu theme I wanted it to be simple and short. The bass and strings are the only instruments besides the percussion. and the percussion is meant to sort of mimic menu noises which is why they sort of take the melody.

Octo-Popper Supreme - This song starts at 100 BPM and ramps up to 188 BPM since it is an octopus so I thought that would be a fun use of the tempo to further tie everything together. The song stays at 188 BPM for the remainder but it is played as though it is in half time so it doesn't actually feel that fast since the boss fight plays more like a waiting game of dodging the many attacks of Queen Bubblene before you get a turn to strike so having a to fast paced song would not be as fitting. It is the only song to have the horns since they are regal like the tubas but a lot more leading which fits a final battle as Jazzy as this one.
The rising intro is there as the scene where the boss reveals itself and then does a big scream before commencing the gameplay.

Surfacing - It starts with the leitmotif as a nice sendoff to the game. the harps play upward chords representing your ascent back to the human world. the song is also quite short since the credits would be rather short too for this small little game that I made up.

If you read all of this then thank you! I put a lot of work into making this as good as I possibly could and it means a lot to me that people care about why I made my music the way I did.

Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
LINKS

YOUTUBE:

FULL OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSxOonm2tT0


Queen Bubblene Blast! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZC6signojA

So You've Been Turned Into A Bubble - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo5jz7JjfoE

The H2Zone - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaCi1rxrIHg

Nonstopped Unpopped - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXKACnKocDQ

Taking In Some Air - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mm6wrjzsOc

Octo-Popper Supreme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMx-A2RMiJQ

Surfacing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMw7_ZeuN9Y


SOUNDCLOUD:

Queen Bubblene Blast! - https://soundcloud.com/joseph-black-16953843/queen-bubblene-blast

So You've Been Turned Into A Bubble - https://soundcloud.com/joseph-black-16953843/so-youve-been-turned-into-a-bubble

The H2Zone - https://soundcloud.com/joseph-black-16953843/the-h2zone

Nonstopped Unpopped - https://soundcloud.com/joseph-black-16953843/nonstopped-unpopped

Taking In Some Air - https://soundcloud.com/joseph-black-16953843/taking-in-some-air

Octo-Popper Supreme - https://soundcloud.com/joseph-black-16953843/octo-popper-supreme

Surfacing - https://soundcloud.com/joseph-black-16953843/surfacing

Number of tracks
7

Genre

Orchestral

Soundtrack use permission

Yes (CC BY)

Any project

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Comments

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 104 · Previous page · First page
Submitted(+1)

this is one of the best ones 

incredible example of this whole soundfonty style and its so good, i could see this on a list with so many huge soundtracks

Developer(+1)

Thank You So Much! I am proud to be able to be compared to the big soundtracks!

Submitted(+1)

Ngl I listened to this on SoundCloud first but then I had to go back and watch the video out of curiosity, and WOW thank God I did, watching it was such a cool experience and it helped me get so much more inmersed in your story. While I was watching the video, I was imagining a voice narrating all the text while I read it, and the music sounded so natural alongside it too. The way you interpreted the theme is one of the most unique I've seen so far, plus I love all the little details and information you put in your story! (I personally would attend a Tune-a Fishes concert). The songs you made were very fun! And in my opinion, they all capture the vibe of the ocean very well, they all felt very underwatery (I don't know how else to put it). My personal favorites where Nonstopped Unpopped and Octo-Popper Supreme.

I can tell you put a lot of effort into this, and I can tell you it's one of the most complete entries I've seen! You should definitely feel proud of this. Hope to see you again next jam Jofes!

Developer(+1)

I saw that you had liked the songs on soundcloud and I thought to myself "I hope they watch the video too" and I am glad you did! I had so much fun writing the story and I am glad you enjoyed it!

Submitted(+1)

This soundtrack is definitely one of my favourites I have heard so far - it is so fun, you completely nailed the feel. The animations and humour in the video are brilliant too!

It's difficult to pick a favourite track, but if I had to choose one it would probably be Octo-Popper Supreme for the intro and the brass vibrato sound. Great job!

Developer

Thank you so much! I had a lot of fun with the brass on Octo-Popper Supreme because I don't normally use brass very often and when I saw I could make the vibrato stuff I was so excited to use it!

Submitted(+1)

Super complete OST! Super happy I stumbled upon this submission, and the twist of the theme was so unexpected, great job overall!

Developer(+1)

Thank you! upon seeing the picture I knew I wanted to make the little girl the villain since it would be a neat inversion of how it looks in the picture.

Submitted(+1)

That was a super unique good call. Great job!

Submitted(+1)

This is some really fun music! Each instrument lends well to the whimsical tone of these tracks. Great job!

Developer

Thank you so much! Fun is exactly what I was going for!

Submitted(+1)

A very fun and whimsical soundtrack!  Excellent work on the writeup and art as well!

Developer

thank you! I had a lot of fun writing my game story and my musical decisions.

Submitted(+1)

Very good presentation of the imaginary game itself! Start from the beginning is painful, though. >_<

I feel like there's a lot of OG Rareware in this one, and it's enjoyable just like those games.

The basslines are fun, the general feel definitely reminds me of a BanjoKazooie/Donkey Kong Country sort of game.

Developer

Thank you! I had just finished making a Banjo-Kazooie inspired soundtrack before starting this jam so it definitely seeped into the whole vibe. 

I'm sorry that the start from the beginning was painful. Was it too loud?

Submitted(+1)

No no! Just the idea of dying and starting from the stage start in a Boshy-like game is painful. I was just joking!

Developer

oh ok thanks for clarifying!

Submitted(+1)

Felt like a little kid again playing Kirby. Loved it. Great work :)

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted(+1)

This is definitely a blast. Evokes me when I was a kid playing Kirby 😁

Great work!

Developer

Much Appreciated!

Submitted(+1)

Wow, this is a very cohesive entry. The tracks have a consistent theme but with appropriate variation for different gameplay beats. There's some depth under the bubbly simple exterior. A joy to listen to. Thanks for making and sharing. 

Developer(+1)

Thank you! 

I did my best to make the tracks sound different while also feeling cohesive. Leitmotifs and a consistent pool of instruments to choose from made it so I could mix and match the instruments I wanted to use as well as what would use the motif for each song.

Submitted(+1)

Amazing positive vibe of the music. It reminds me of the childhood, when I was chilling at the beach with parents.

Developer

I’m glad it could remind you of such fond memories! 

I tried my best to use instruments with connections to water and the ocean like steel drums, marimbas etc.

It’s good to see that it has worked!

Submitted(+1)

Had a lot of fun listening to this soundtrack! You had me grooving throughout! Big fan of all the percussion you included and you definitely nailed the underwater vibe you were going for. Well done for also creating the artwork for each track. I love the world you’ve created!

Developer

Thank you so much!


When I saw the theme inside my world I knew that what I wanted to do was avoid traditional percussion and go all out on auxiliary percussion to really sell that throat is an unfamiliar world. 

No kick. No snare, no cymbals. It was a really fun challenge and I’m glad that people seem to enjoy it!

Submitted(+1)

Absolutely nailed the "watery" vibe, very bubbly, I would've love some percussions on the boss theme and make it even more intense, Great job !

Developer

Thank you for listening!

I was experimenting with the boss theme by trying to make a low key intense theme since normally I would try to make a really intense theme. I made the boss theme 188 BPM as a reference to it being an octopus and that meant it had to be either really fast or I had to make it half time so I made it half time.

Thank you for your feedback I greatly appreciate it!

Submitted(+1)

I'll probably say it again...

powerful, stylish, fun!

I like it!

I liked it the most - Nonstopped Unpopped)

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted(+1)

Great tracks! You've got this funky, charming soundscape that's unique yet cohesive, and it comes together really well. I like all of the tracks a lot, but my favorite has got to be Octo-Popper Supreme, not only because the name is awesome, but also because its cute and silly, yet slightly threatening vibe just fits the art so well! I gotta say though, I do feel a bit bad for the Octopus, since it not only had part of its head carved out, but also seems to be left crippled by the end of the game. Poor thing. Regardless, great job with this OST! Really enjoyed it.

Developer(+1)

Oh jeez BodoTheSerf is here! I am looking forwards to your entry when I get to it because I know it will be fantastic!

Thank you for the compliments!

Submitted(+1)

my favorite track was nonstop unpopped. I think the music really fits the aesthetic of your screenshots. I enjoyed listening to it :D

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much!

Submitted(+1)

Hi there ! This is a very complete submission, with a lot of description concerning your intention. I can totally see myself play a neo retro (or just retro) game with your music, and it would feel completly coherent with your descriptions too! And your youtube video, with comments on each track, is also very cool ! (You even made a pause theme !!) Thank you for your submission :D

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted(+1)

I love how dynamic these tracks are. Listening through each track, it always felt like there was something new to keep me interested. Some instrumentation felt a bit stiff, which in this genre, might benefit from being loosened up a bit. Overall, I believe these tracks have been composed wonderfully!

Developer

I tried to add some new instrument or do something different for each track so they would each be distinct. I don't quite know what you mean by stiff instrumentation. Could you explain a bit so I can learn? 

Submitted(+1)

The feeling of “stiffness” is typically caused by notes being aligned to the grid, triggering perfectly on the beat, every time. Humanizing, or moving the notes slightly off the grid in various ways, makes the instrumentation feel more organic, as if a human is playing the instrument. It’s a massive balancing game, especially with stringed/wind instruments. I struggle with it to this day!

Developer(+1)

that’s fair. Some of the instruments I used like the tubas had really awkward starts to each notes so I did actually have to move them back like a sixteenth note for them to start the way I wanted them to. It’s especially hard with the Oboe  I used because of the way that specific VST handled some notes as opposed to others.

Submitted(+1)

The art and animation really makes it for me, ties everything up in a nice little bow and nails the silly

Developer

Thanks! I had hoped the animation would make everything more succinct.

Submitted(+1)

Loved the level theme!

Developer

Thank you!

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 104 · Previous page · First page