Play soundtrack
SOMNUS's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Quality | #77 | 4.039 | 4.039 |
| Overall | #81 | 3.914 | 3.914 |
| Creativity | #93 | 3.902 | 3.902 |
| Impression | #97 | 3.843 | 3.843 |
| Correlation to theme | #106 | 3.922 | 3.922 |
| Composition | #117 | 3.863 | 3.863 |
Ranked from 51 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
https://soundcloud.com/scarletknife-570246388/sets/somnus
15 YEARS AGO
YOU COULD NOT SAVE HER
THIS TIME,
IT CAN BE DIFFERENT.
SOMNUS is a survival horror game, heavily inspired by the likes of SIGNALIS and Resident Evil, which explores the depths of a shipwreck-- the same one your mother was lost in 15 years ago. Guilt and grief have shackled your soul, and ever since then, you have struggled with sleep. Stuck in another endless night, you pop in an old VHS tape, hoping the sound of your mother's voice will lull you to sleep.
But sleep will bring no comfort on this night. A shipwreck, a familiar one---the same one which took your mother on that fateful day. You can hear your mother's voice; maybe, you can save her. Maybe, you can save yourself.
In the delirium of night, the doomed bargains of grief seem possible.
I made this OST with a mix of ambient and orchestral elements, with certain tracks leaning more into the other depending on their role within the game.
1. VHS DREAMS (MAIN MENU) (LOOPABLE)
2. HIDING / PURSUIT (LOOPABLE)
- A more tense track for when you are trying to hide from (or being pursued by) the ghosts and corpses of the ship.
3. SAVE ROOM (LOOPABLE)
- A brief reprieve. The innocence of a child. A ghost of what you used to be.
4. BECOMING YOURSELF
- In the final sequence before you can finally reach your mother, you must face an onslaught of the final enemies: yourself. Shadow selves overrun the floor, a manifestation and catharsis of the fight you've been fighting for fifteen years. Will you win the battle of believing you are worthy of your mother's love? Of being saved?
5. THE FACE OF MY MOTHER (MP3 FILE CORRUPTED - LISTEN ON SOUNDCLOUD)
- There she is. In the flesh. She is silent, and greets you with a smile. She is exactly as you remembered---a flood of memories returns: the tears in her eyes as she dropped you off for your first day of school, her warm smile as she carried you to bed, the frizz of her hair on a humid summer's day. This track is heavily orchestral, a change from the primarily ambient preceding tracks. I wanted this track to feel more real, more intimate. In my own dreams that I've had of my grandmother, they never feel like dreams, but as if the legitimate manifestation of her soul is visiting me. I wanted to capture that sense of real in this scene of the game.
6. ASCENSION
Goodbye, again.
"It's time for you to go home now."
"I don't know if I can."
"I know you can do it,
you're my daughter."
As for the previous track, I also wanted this track to use a bit more "real" instrumentation, in order to symbolize the realness of your interaction with your mother, the end of the dream, and return to wakefulness. The goal was to capture a sense of simultaneous heartbreak and hopefulness; your grief will always be there, but when you wake up this time, you will carry your mother's love instead of your own self-hatred.
(This one is my favorite track!!! <3)
Message from the artist
My music inspirations for this were primarily SIGNALIS, Akira Yamaoka, and specifically on "Ascension," Radiohead's Motion Picture Soundtrack (which had harpwork inspired by Alice Coltrane!!)
Story inspirations include Celeste, Signalis, Futaba from Persona 5.
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
Your mother was lost in a shipwreck many years ago. One night, when falling asleep to an old VHS tape, you fall into a dream in which you can save her. I was inspired by the image of a child with a ghostly outline of her mother, surrounded by water. For "Inside my world," the dream takes you through the inner world of grief, self-hatred, and survivor's guilt that the protagonist has been suffering with ever since.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/scarletknife-570246388/sets/somnus
Number of tracks6
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
Any non-commercial project
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
Excellent job! I honestly think that "Becoming Yourself" Might be my singular, most favorite entry in this entire competition.
oh my what high praise!!! thank you so much!!! that was one of the last minute tracks i made in like the last 24 hours before the jam ended, i'm glad so many people seem to like it :)
Very atmospheric and fitting, I think this would work really well for the type of story you're telling. The final track is my favorite, the breathing adds to it immensely, gives it this human element that's really nice.
Listening to this music with your eyes closed recalls the feeling of being asleep. I really like it, I find that your proposal stands out from the other submissions and it is particularly appealing. Good job !
This is so good!
Can really feel the Signalis influence, but it's not to the point where it becomes derivative and not its own creative thing. The last track especially was beautiful, and the sound quality throughout was spectacular. Only real criticism I have is that it ends a little bit abruptly.
Remember our promise
The artwork you used for this instantly caught my eye and had me intrigued.
Main Menu track feels very appropriate and very nicely put together.
Hiding and Pursuit has exactly the right threatening and menacing atmosphere, very Silent Hill but not too much of a pastiche.
As I've said on another survival horror entry, a key element to survival horror is a good save room track and you definitely didn't disappoint with yours, very nice calming instruments with a hint of menace from the noise underneath.
Becoming yourself really nails that emotional moment of adversity towards the end feeling.
The final two tracks also really capture that feeling of love and release from torment perfectly.
All in all great work throughout, good use of noise & ambience and synthetic & orchestral instruments to create just the right vibe throughout, as well as some very nice musical ideas, melodies and harmony.
Very soothing! This kind of music isn't usually my style so I tried to listen and focus real hard. The string duet and harps in the last track stood out to me the most as a highlight!
What a trip... every song fits so perfectly with each scenario you described, I felt lost in this made up game idea you had while listening to some parts, especially "SAVE ROOM". The ambience feels so beautiful and melancholic, its got my in feels haha
I also really liked "HIDING AND PURSUIT", kind of reminded me of the game OMORI (one of my fav games of all time) so that was super cool
I'm such a huge fan of story heavy horror games so I felt really invested. Fantastic work!
thank you!! sometimes its hard to know if other people will see what you see in the soundscapes you create so its always reassuring to hear comments like this <3
Nice ambiences and choices in the instrumentation! It fits well in an horror game :D
tasteful textures for a tasteful soundtrack ヽ(￣ω￣(￣ω￣〃)ゝ
wow.........
Absolutely beautiful work! Just came from the OST SoundCloud compilation list to find this entry :)
So many cool little SFX touches everywhere, and rich compositions. Really enjoyed this submission!
I'm a sucker for survival horror OSTs and you captured the essence of it perfectly! You did both creepy/erratic and melancholic/nostalgic styles really well, amazing job!! :)
The piece contains a lot of irregularity, environmental noise and hazy feeling, I really admire how you achieved this style of music. In short, it’s truly impressive and refreshing!
Horror soundtracks have been some of the most captivating in this jam, and your piece really impressed me. The blend of orchestral and electronic creates a truly eerie and immersive atmosphere. Great job—loved the mood you set!
It felt so eerie going through your submission. Really cool ! Nailed the sounds and the panning, I really felt like I was in a vast piece the whole OST. Loved it !
I think out of all the genres I've listened to in this jam, horror has been the most interesting thus far. It's so far from the type of music that I'm comfortable making that I always feel like I'm learning so much listening to these entries; and the same can absolutely be said for this soundtrack. I think you've nailed the eerie and tense atmosphere this type of game would demand, along with the more sorrowful/melancholic tracks. This was a great listen, awesome soundtrack!
Wow, just wow, it's something similar to what I was trying to do but I wanted to make it more psychological (although I didn't have a lot of time and I couldn't do anything I thought Dx) yours is a 5 star job, good job!
scarlet, im embarrassed to say, but you must know, that your ost broke me. music has not made me cry in a good while. the face of my mother and ascension are my favorites. just beautiful. and reading along with the song descriptions you wrote is what finally got to me. in the face of your mother, you said you were trying to capture the feeling you get seeing your grandparents in your dreams, and how they feel more real than just dreams. and you nailed it. overcoming the grief of you mothers death... becoming worthy of her love again. man. usually, horror osts bore and deter me. this is different. massive props
oh man... thank you so much for saying this. i struggled with wanting to include the last two tracks because i knew they were stylistically different from the other 4, but i also still wanted something that fully keyed into the grief and love i wanted to channel. it's hard knowing if your music will have the impact you want it to have, so your comment means the world to me and made me a little teary eyed :') <3
Your track was great. I'm leaving my reply here because you were worried about the stylistic difference.
To me, sadness and horror are inextricably linked as genres. The Orphanage is my favorite example of this in a movie. Pan's Labyrinth is also like this. I think this is one of those cases where intuition trumps the logical sense, and it definitely paid off.
Keep going with that intuition. It is where the real music comes from. Excellent work.
I was completely in a trance while listening. A hell of a OST I could definitely playing a game with!
Amazing job, nothing really to say other than amazing! So much breath of different themes explored, with very different feelings to them, quite impressive! Followed!
I don’t have much to say other than I love it! As an enjoyer of Farewell, I can definitely see the Celeste inspirations for the story. I also totally hear the Radiohead influence, both in ASCENSION and some of the other tracks. Great work!