Description
A girl lives by the sea.

Her single mother is always busy with work, and the girl, Mei, constantly seeks her attention. Mei is often left alone to her imagination and uses it as a way to escape her circumstances, pretending to be a hero in a mythical, underwater world.

What she doesn't know, though, is that her world will always be tainted by her emotions.

Mei's imaginary world, through puzzles and challenges, reflects the confusion and difficulties she faces when thinking of her mother. And worst of all, a malevolent force is taking over her world: Loneliness.

Join Mei on a metaphorical quest to make things right, using her magical abilities to travel through her underwater kingdom and learning about all the things her mother does for her behind the scenes.

The tracks, explained:

- Leitmotifs

The first leitmotif played is the Mom's Theme. You can tell that it's significantly more complex than the others, symbolizing the complex factors that drive her life.
The second is the Girl's Theme, a simple but sad melody, symbolizing her yearning for attention and a positive relationship with her mother.
The third is the Loneliness Theme. This theme plays when the root of the parasitic fauna growing all around Mei's imaginary world is discovered, a symbol of loneliness. It fills her world with a dreary mist of spores, making her once beautiful getaway a place of sorrow. The theme is loosely based on the Girl's Theme, showing how loneliness is slowly becoming a part of her personality.
The fourth is the Ending Theme, a happier variation of the Mom's Theme intertwined with other parts based on the Girl's Theme. This demonstrates the happiness they bring each other and their victory against loneliness

- Out of this World (Mom's Theme)

A sad, intricate melody meant to convey the complexity of the Mom's life and emotions.

- Away from Here (Girl's Theme)

A sorrowful but simple song that plays as Mei transports herself into her imaginary world.

- Pretend (Exploration Theme)

A calm but seemingly irrelevant theme which plays as Mei tries to replace any thoughts of her mother with the thrill of her adventures.

- Lush (Fight Theme)

Mei might be trying to ignore her problems, but they still lurk within her world. Lush plays when she faces the dark, fungal-looking creatures which represent her loneliness. She fights them using her imaginary powers, and journeys deeper into the safety of her imagination, growing more distant from her mother and worsening the problem. All the while, though, she thinks that she's fixing the issue. This song contains adaptations of Mei's leitmotifs since the song is primarily about her increase in confidence as she fights.

- The Creature (Loneliness Theme)

This theme plays when Mei discovers the root of the parasitic fauna in her world, a horrific fungal plant that's slowly taking over her imagination. Symbolic of loneliness, the fauna is too strong and far too large to fight alone. Again, this theme is loosely based on Mei's.

- Revival (Boss Fight)

After leaving her imaginary world to reconnect with her mother, they enter their imagination together. They work together to fight the creature, loneliness, and begin to succeed. In this song, you can hear the leitmotif for the girl intertwine with parts of the Mom's Theme as they begin to reunite - this time against a common enemy.

- New Beginning (End Theme)

In the epilogue/credits of the game, Mei and her mother have reunited and are shown doing miscellaneous happy things together. The song playing in the background, New Beginning, consists mostly of the Mother's leitmotif since the story is from Mei's perspective, and she's seeing her mother in a new positive light for the first time. Mei's own leitmotif can also be heard throughout the melody, further solidifying the idea of harmony between them. The silence at the end allows you to linger with the thought while taking a bit of a breather.

As for DAWs, I used Logic Pro for the songs and Bandlab for some help with mastering. When composing the tracks, I began by coming up with some leitmotifs I liked. I then experimented with different combinations, adapting them to form melodies. Then I added other instruments to create the meat of the songs, and focused on making the different sections of each song feel strung together well, but loosely. The reason for this is that in the actual game, I'd have loved to create a dynamic soundtrack, with each new part being introduced at the player's pace. Despite that, I still did try to add more coherent musical progression that might not have existed in the actual game.

Message from the artist
Hi there!

Theme

Inside my world

Picture theme

How does it fit the theme?
"Worlds Apart" fits the "Inside my World" theme due to the storyline orbiting around Mei's imaginary world and the tracks' slightly alien and adventurous undertones. It fits the picture theme due to the game taking place primarily underwater, and the instruments occasionally reflecting that. Additionally, the bubble next to the girl resembles a woman, which I interpreted as her mother and tied into the story. The mother seems to be hardly a part of the world, only a translucent figure, so I tied that into the story, too, with the limited attention that Mei receives from her.

Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/techno-253204148/sets/worlds-apart

Number of tracks
8

Genre

Soundtrack use permission

Yes (CC BY)

Any project