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Beyond the Meadow's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Composition | #27 | 4.217 | 4.217 |
| Overall | #30 | 4.109 | 4.109 |
| Impression | #32 | 4.109 | 4.109 |
| Creativity | #41 | 4.109 | 4.109 |
| Quality | #44 | 4.217 | 4.217 |
| Correlation to theme | #127 | 3.891 | 3.891 |
Ranked from 46 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
I approached 'In my world' from a fantasy perspective. The story premise is about a girl named Elara journeying through an enchanted meadow to discover a mountain that she must traverse to reach a beautiful sight. The main track ‘Beyond the Meadow’ conveys her journey through discovery and emotional connection to this land, as she finds it becomes 'her own' to explore. I orchestration to convey the grandness/wonder of it.
Along the way, she encounters various challenges and magical creatures that test her courage and resolve. ‘Weathering Trail’ conveys the more intense and difficult parts of her journey, representing the obstacles she faces and the determination required to overcome them. Instead of say a darker boss or action theme, I kept the tone focused on exploration and adventure.
I'm really happy with what I got to in the time I had. I struggled finding an idea for the first half of the jam, but found a four chord progression to base the song off of. Having that base I was happy with made it a lot easier to add detail, vary it, etc. If I had more time, I'd want to expand, especially towards the climax at the end and polish dynamics.
Message from the artist
Thanks for stopping by! I had a lot of fun writing this. Any constructive feedback would be greatly appreciated, but hope you enjoy the music! It's been great seeing as many submissions as I've been able to get to too, and how supportive people are of each other's music.
EDIT: Thanks all for the feedback so far! It's helpful to know what works and what to change. I'm really honored by all of the kind words here, especially because of how impressive many of the submissions are. It's so cool to see how different people's approaches are, even in the same genre.
Seems the melody and cohesiveness may have gotten lost with variation and more spontaneous writing. I like writing that way to be organic, especially on a film, and I'm glad that seems to be creating interesting bits, but I may have overshot here. This project has given me many ideas I want to explore or refine for my next work, so I appreciate all the insights!
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
'Beyond the Meadow' takes place in a fantasy area that the player privately adventures through, as their 'world.'
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/wtlo/sets/beyond-the-meadow
Number of tracks2
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
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Comments
I've watched multiple Ghibli movies recently, so I can really hear the inspiration! Very pretty, I can imagine this as a movie soundtrack... in terms of games I can imagine this in something like owlboy. It does a great job of evoking imagery of nature and weather
Interesting to hear, I just took a listen to owlboy, I see what you mean! I'm glad to hear how it resonated for you, thanks for the kind words!
Nailed the Japanese orchestral, dead on. Gorgeous composition and orchestration, nice arrangement. The only thing to say is especially for the first song Beyond The Meadow, at some point it felt a little long with the strings swell at around the same range like everything was mid and high range for longer than i expected I wanted some change of pace in the mix, the compositions is marvelous only in terms of dynamic, my opinion btw its sound absolutely fantastic, wonderful job !
Wow, really kind words, thank you! That's a great suggestion, hadn't thought about the string swells by range before. I'm going to play around with that on my next jam! Appreciate the input!
Very nice stuff. The songs reminded me a lot of Masashi Hamauzu's work on Final Fantasy 13.
I'm such a big fan of Hamauzu, that means so much ;v; thank you!
This is masterful I wish I could come close to this someday. Beautiful beyond words, have a follow mister!
Okay third replay, I'm downloading this and cherishing it forever, this is beyond anything i have almost ever heard.
My god the talent and pure commitment, I'd pay you if I could, I feel like I'm stealing a gem or something!
Wow... I don't know what to say to that, this seriously made my week ;v; Thank you so, much!! The track culminates a lot of what I've learned from others, I'm honored to have it passed down. I'd definitely recommend Final Symphony and Cynax--two of my biggest inspirations! Their work is incredible :D
Oh my god thank you for the resources. I'm beyond blown away by the quality of your work. I genuinely can't wait to see what you'll get out next! You got full 5 stars, it's flawless to me!
Just quickly adding, glad those resources helped!! Feel free to dm if there's any more tips or whatever I can offer somehow. But thanks again! (And before I pass out for the night, I took a lil peek at your music, I really like it!! Can't wait to review it more closely tomorrow along with the other awesome entries you mentioned >:))
Excellent composition and orchestration, the piano REALLY gave me Final Fantasy 10 vibes, and I think you nailed it. Both tracks sound super busy, but not in a distracting way, and the complex layering doesn't take away from the overall quality of the pieces.
Excellent work, one of my favorites!
Wow, thank you so much! I put a lot of effort into balancing the layering and studying the FF sound, so I'm honored to hear that!
Rich themes and good composition, and everything is quite diverse. Thanks for sharing!
Really appreciate that, thank you!
The OST for the video game, Flower, came to mind while listening to this. Beyond the Meadow is organic, vibrant, and expressive. Great work.
Thank you! I love Vincent Diamente's music, so really appreciate hearing that
i loved the vibe here, it felt so adventurous, and the quality was very good! plus all those piano sections just make me happy! great job here!
Happy it made you happy :3 Thanks so much glad you liked it!
These pieces are indeed very cinematic, I enjoy all those intricacies that you made in your compositions!
Thank you so much! I'm really happy about how the detail came out, so I appreciate hearing that :)
The Ghibli influence is very noticeable. I liked how layered the instrumentation was. It sounded like all the sounds you'd hear in a nature settings being represented by the instrumentations. If there was more time, it would be cool to see those textures being played out at slower tempos with more time to explore different elements.
Glad all that came through for you, thanks so much :) Slower textures is a great idea! I went with what was most polished, but had a string harmony bed that would've been fun to include
Really good job! really nice magical adventure feeling,also I feel the inocence and curiosity to explore that magical world.
The quality of the mix and the balance of the orquestra feels very well. I really enjoyed the experience, nice job!!
Thank you so much!! I'm glad all that came across for you and that you enjoyed it :)
Hey hey, awesome pieces! Your orchestration is super impressive, keep up the good work!
Well that's super kind, thank you!!
Very good work!
Means a lot thank you :)
wowww the instrumentation and voicing on this is great!! I can definitely hear the ghibli and FF inspiration in this, you nailed the "wonder" vibe so well
Hey that really means a lot, thank you! Glad you enjoyed :)
Wow this is exceptionally cinematic. I love how much is going on in this. Great attention to detail in both pieces. Really enjoyed this!
Thank you so much!! Appreciate the kind words :)
This is some quality composition! Very well done! And in such a short time. Both pieces continually change, which I LOVE. Piano parts are incredible. Much respect my man/woman/everyothergendertheremaybe!
Wow thanks!! Def noticed change in your tracks too, you have the same respect from me too :) (oh and he/they's what I go by)
all the instruments r so pretty in this! very clean production, the mix is well balanced and the sound choices r fitting for the fantastical orchestral vibe ur going for. there r many interesting moments in the harmony as well, made the whole thing not repetitive at all. i can definitely see the ghibli inspiration, tho im less familiar with ff so idrk about that. moments like 0:58 r rlly beautiful and nice
on the other hand, i personally found that the lack of repetition made it somewhat hard to follow. although the variety of different harmonies is cool, the sheer amount of variation along with no easily recognizable/catchy melody to latch onto made me feel a bit lost. another very specific nitpick i have is that the string swells' release feels a bit too short all the time. sometimes i felt like it was catching up to the rest of the song due to how it gradually comes in then disappears suddenly so ofte. i think there are parts where having longer, more sustained notes wouldve helped
otherwise, nice job on such a detailed and varying soundtrack
Thank you so much for the detailed feedback! Really glad the mix / vibe came across and you enjoyed it :)
All great points. I do think the melody got lost as I relisten. I like writing kind of spontaneosly, esp for a film, but the structure can fall behind. Good catch on string swells. I cut them short as a workaround for the 'soft sustain' patches cresendoing, so I'll want to revisit that
I thought you had lots of compelling motifs and progressions, (e.g. the brass motif at ~1:20 of 'Beyond the Meadow' was very interest-piquing).
I think my constructive criticism would be that there were actually too many ideas for a given piece. I remember hearing and enjoying several distinct ideas, but I couldn't recall hearing any of them twice (and consequently, remembering what they were afterwards).
All-in-all, great job!
Appreciate it :) and thanks a lot for the feedback! Balancing variety and memorability has been a big focus for me, so it's very helpful to know how it came across, and what stood out to you
it's amazing 😍, I was touched, these well-chosen instruments made my skin crawl, beautiful
Woww, thank you so much!!
Love the piano and strings combo you've used on these tracks.
Amazing compositions!
Thanks :) Glad you liked it!