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escapschism's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #42 | 4.105 | 4.105 |
| Impression | #115 | 3.789 | 3.789 |
| Correlation to theme | #115 | 3.895 | 3.895 |
| Overall | #140 | 3.747 | 3.747 |
| Quality | #250 | 3.579 | 3.579 |
| Composition | #333 | 3.368 | 3.368 |
Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
It's a story about struggling to protect your inner world while reality is intent on breaking it to pieces.
The game would see us guiding our protagonist safely through their thoughts as their daydreaming worlds they'd usually retreat to are encroached upon by reality, anxiety, depression and dissassociation.
CW for track 08, unravelling: abusive relationships, implied risk of self harm and implied risk of suicide.
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In beginning, our protagonist faces a sense of rising dread, anxiety and guilt. They've disappointed themselves and their therapist and it's time to handle that. Luckily, icanhandleit by pushing those feelings down and escaping into our head for the first time in the game. Of course, it can't last and we feel the anxiety pick away at them until they overwhelmed and end up losingmyselfinaworldofdreams. I see this being a stage where our protagonist guides us instead - through their pensive meleancholy, the kind of state that can be bought on by just running out of energy to feel bad.
Snapped out of that world by the next message, we find ourselves derailing with our protagonist. Wrapped up in a smothering feeling of overwhelm, shutting down - they're not ready for this level of overthinking so soon. losingtime comes with dissassociation, and our protagonist losing a lot of it here.
When you're crumbling that much, even well intentioned actions can feel alarming. Our protagnist has lost enough time that the people around them are starting to notice, and it's time to get their shit together again. Time for a little escapism to keep reality ticking, they can handle their thoughts later.
Panic. When things we thought we'd buried come back to haunt us. They find themselves unravelling. The seams of their safely marked out zones of thought torn apart. It's time for our climactic finale. Time to fightflightorfreeze. Multiple endings? You know it.
If we guide them to fight or flee, we help them to foundmyselfinaworldofdreams. Things aren't solved by any stretch of the imagination. This is a lifelong fight after all, and we only have this short runtime to guide our protagonist, but things are ok for now, and sometimes that's the best outcome we can aim for.
Message from the artist
This is my first Jam! It's also the first time I've ever really tried to string more than one song together, and now I've got 27 minutes of them?!
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
The theme "inside my world" immediately had me thinking about escapism, daydreaming and using our mind to hide from reality. I've often heard myself described as someone who's in their own world, I wanted to explore what it would look like if that world came under attack.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/jenbles/sets/escapschism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efy68GDJm94&list=PLcF5vYlrWrgZe9e0j53IhDxTghozQLsC0
Number of tracks10
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
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Comments
Why the wierdest covers are always for the best music?
Great work. Just great great work! This works as an album by itself. And the storyline is so good with music, it really fits together!
Right on, you curate a really spooky and alienating vibe (in a good way) while maintaining a consistent overall presentation from artwork, song titles, and OST synopsis. Very impressive overall package!
This is probably the most interesting soundtrack I've come across thus far. It's incredibly chilling.
The heavy use of percussion on "Fightflightorfreeze" is insanely memorable and my biggest highlight across the whole OST. I'd love to play a game that uses a unique style like this for it's battles or even as a chaotic dungeon theme.
The whole soundtrack manages to capture anxiety in a vivid way, and it's somewhat terrifying to listen to. That's very hard to pull off. Amazing work
beginning: Love this atmosphere and sfx.
icanhandleit: Love these chord choices. Bass ties this track with the first. Cool glitchy feel and pitch bending.
losingmyselfinaworldofdreams: Great ambience and piano.
derailing: Cool experimental vibes. Love the constant buildup with the piano still in the back.
losingtime: Cool textures and clock like percussion.
crumbling: Feels evil. Love the bitcrushed sounds.
escapism: Vibes! Love the beat.
unravelling: Interesting vocals in combo with those textures. Ooh the guitar.
fightflightorfreeze: Chaotic finale. Hard drums and cool sounds.
foundmyselfinaworldofdreams: Relaxing end. Loving the unexpected scale degrees in the melody.
Great work!
They were quiet but I heard those bells! That was my favorite part, the bells on the last track because they felt very serene.
So cool!
While a lot of submissions in this type of jam follow a story, yours is truly a concept album through and through.
The story is very relatable, and yet nuanced and interesting, and even though the music isn't what you would typically put on a car-ride or something, it fits the story perfectly.
Great submission!
Relatable premise and great track titles. I like that you're not afraid to drag out a texture in order to set the soundscape. ヾ(⌐■_■)ノ♪
Very intruiging yet intoxicating listen... Every track made me want to hear more possibilities. I liked your use of the textures, garbles, and overall liminal-esque feel. Love how you transformed the theme into something dreary, twisting the "safe place" of the inner world into a torturous experience. Very unique!
I don't know what it is about this entry, maybe it's my own history with mental illness and dissociation that's letting this hit this way for me, and I don't know if this was your intention - this shit SCARED me lol. I seriously commend you for creating such an evocative submission.
Incredibly unique, simply beautiful at times, and incredibly unsettling at others. I've not heard anything quite like it. Well done!
I’m a sucker for the dreamlike sounds you’ve got going on. I’m a big fan of Claude Debussy and I take a lot of inspiration from that type of sound as well! Great stuff and I’m a fan.
I like icanhandleit, it does feel like an upbeat facade that's on the brink of crumbling at any moment, very fitting with the theme you're exploring. I like the creative use of effects and the overall haunting vibe throughout the soundtrack! These songs also feel like parts of a cohesive whole, so good work on that front too!
I'm really glad that comes across - it definitely captures how one of those days can feel I think.
Thanks for listening!
Day 1 of Rating Submissions with Few Ratings
Ever heard of hauntological music? Music that sounds abstract, in that liminal space between being awake and asleep. Your music reminds me of a lot of hauntological music with those slow shifting ambient pads, how meandering the music sounds and how hard it is to grab.
Sounds remind me of older video games. Divorced from their original context, I feel like I am entering a weird, warped dream world of a video game.
Strangely this escapism is not devoid of friction...? The abstract rhythmic density and busy footwork of fightflightfreeze jolts me awake from my dream. Maybe we can only remove ourselves from this work for so long.
Not sure how many games this would fit though. Maybe a weird one like LSD dream simulator or cruelty squad?
I'd never heard of hauntological music until this comment, but I'll be diving down that rabbithole for sure now, thank you!
Weird and warped dream world is definitely the impression I get of the videogame I picture when I made this. I must admit, the game side of the jam wasn't as well defined in my mind as I've seen other people's submissions be - I think one of my first tracks that I discarded early on was starting to sound very earthbound and I never left that space.
If escapism had no chance of being threatened from the outside, we probably wouldn't need to escape.
Love this! <3
Unusual use of effects, curious motives... I love it!
The broken effects perfectly complement the idea of a person who is looking for himself and escapes from this world into escapism! Alternative music is a great way to convey "special" emotions. And you were able to convey these emotions
I want to mention the most liked ones:
losingtime gives an atmosphere of something bubbling and time-consuming... Perfectly!
I liked the fightflightorfreeze the most! Despite the "broken" it rocks!
Thank you! I adore weird & broken sounds interacting.
Very glad that losingtime comes through that way! It was the last track I finished up and I was worried I'd not done enough with it to get that feeling across.
(fightflightorfreeze is my favourite too!)