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Neon Night's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Composition | #10 | 4.100 | 4.100 |
| Creativity | #20 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Overall | #34 | 3.713 | 3.713 |
| Impression | #39 | 3.533 | 3.533 |
| Quality | #48 | 3.433 | 3.433 |
| Correlation to theme | #62 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
Ranked from 30 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
Neon Night
Opening scene: The night is dark and full of neon lights. You wander the streets of Neon City, a place of a somber beauty, both picturesque and intimidating, the culmination of centuries of industrial development. People go about their business – the City never sleeps - yet an unseen menace seems to lurk in the very fabric of society.
Neon Showdown
Your suspicions proved true and your investigations fruitful. The time has come to face the nemesis, the insidious Schemer. Never one to seek direct confrontation, but you managed to force her hand. The very existence of Neon City is at stake.
Neon Sunrise
Ending Credits: You vanquished the enemy. The the people celebrate while the sun is rising over Neon City, in a clear sky that has not been seen in years. While some obstacles remain, things are looking up for the foreseeable future.
Message from the artist:
For this soundtrack I took the opportunity to make use of unfinished sketches of two themes drafted earlier this year. If I had to give them names here I would call them the Neon City theme, and the Schemer theme (can you find them throughout the soundtrack?). In the spirit of CRUNCHTIME I focused on 3 pieces for a start, hoping to eventually find some time to expand this story further.
Inspiration is taken from diverse sources, ranging from various video game titles, the original Terminator soundtrack to J.S. Bach. The rest is me attempting to find my way around synth sounds :) Made in FL Studio with free instruments.
Enjoy!
How does it fit the theme?
Somber atmosphere and flashy synths are often associated with the Cyberpunk genre. I'm no expert though so this is just what I felt like putting together. ;)
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/michael-meier-597140037/sets/neon-night-ost-comp-jam-november-2022-cyberpunk
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Comments
I never would've thought anyone would go for a classical approach, yet you did and it sounds fantastic!
I really don't know enough counterpoint and harmony music theory to give any feedback - but you killed it!
It definitely was an experiment. Thanks!
This is really cool! The classical influences and the way you combined organ and harp with more futuristic sounding synths really stood out to me! The composition was great, I love your style, Neon Sunrise was probably my favorite one of your tracks^^
Thanks for listening!
Interesting and lovely mix of styles, kinda Gothic-Baroque-Synthwave... reminds me 90s adventure games... good job, indeed!
Definitely inspired by 90s adventure games. Thanks for listening!
Here goes. First listen without reading anything... just stream of thoughts:
Neon Night - Oh I love this opening. Very dramatic. So much character in this. I'm totally expecting our villain to have only half a face. Was half expecting an evil harpsichord for a second. But then suddenly things mellow out for a bit. Only to go back to drama. I really like how this seems like a conversation between a dark and a light side. Back to the light side again. Super nice. Love the drums too. The way they echo into the deep makes me think of long empty streets with nobody there. It seems almost like the sides to this story are slowly reconciling? The dark is back, but it no longer sounds as evil. Great!
Neon Showdown - Gorgeous opening. Oh cool, some very cool synths on top. Love that chittering LFO-like thing flying around. It feels like some sort of small insect-like creature is flying around.
Neon Sunrise - Opening harkens back to the night theme. But this time around, it sounds far more ... victorious! Cool. I see what you did there. :D
My favourites are Night and Sunrise, but they are all great really. I'm thoroughly impressed.
Thanks for the in-depth analysis. Reflects my feelings quite well. Glad you liked it!
These are lovely! I love the rythm and flow of the tracks, they truly feel like they're telling a story, and they fit your premises very well! Personally I really enjoy classical-inspired tracks with synth sounds à la Wendy Carlos, synths can work very well like this and you did a very good job with them. Great entry ^^
Glad you liked it and thanks for pointing out Wendy Carlos. Some really cool stuff there!
She's a legend <3
I love the classical music influences in this soundtrack, combining synths with more traditional instruments like harps, organs and such! It’s an interesting combination, one which I wouldn’t have come up with myself, definitely! Really like the organ + drum combo in Neon Showdown!
Also, general props for the amount of music you’ve done!
Thanks! I definitely got carried away here. Glad you liked it!
It's really impressive your ability to compose counterpoint. And it works well with the percussive sounds like in Neon Shadow.
But I think it's a bit of a pity the way you use effectors, like the panning for example, compared to your high compositional quality. I think you can find another way with other effectors for your works. I think if you have more possibilities on effectors, your composition will be even more beautiful :)! Good job !
Thanks for that feedback. I really appreciate it! Forgive my ignorance, but what are effectors? The panning and other post-processing? I haven't given this too much thought, and to be honest I don't really have a clue what I am doing there. ^^ It felt right to do something with panning, I just barely know how or why (I only started using DAWs this year). Any resources you could recommend to learn to use effectors more uh... effectively?
I'm not a professional in DAW, so there's a risk that I explain you wrong... but I try my best :)
I’d like to know your tool exactly. I use Ableton Live(a Daw) with Macbook pro. I connect my Mac to a sound card to connect to 2 speakers. (I don’t have yet monitor speaker :’o) What about you?
And can you speak in French by chance because I speak better than in English to explain, if not it's ok, I'll continue in English :)
I use FL Studio & Mac and do not record anything (just midi input).
Pas ma première langue mais Français va bien! ;)
Holy crap right out of the gate I love this! There is a tale of epic proportions being told here in just the first song and I'm riding the chord changes like a rollercoaster.
Ok the second song is amazing too. Even as a solo piano piece it would be a really great song so musically it's phenomenal. And then the organ synth fits so perfectly!
And the last song has a whole story to tell too. This soundtrack is really amazing! The composition seems classically inspired like your last soundtrack and yet a totally different style. This has to be one of my top few favorites from this jam. Nice going!
Thanks! I'm impressed you remember my last soundtrack. :)
wow those harp sections are beautiful I love em, composition on these tracks are great. I really love the motifs between neon night and sunrise, really good job on this one!
Harp is my favorite! Thanks for listening.
I really like the composition. It really generally paints a complete picture, and is so nice to listen to. Also wanted to ask whether you ever heard of Keygen Church. Their stuff is a quite intense, but it's mostly organ-heavy synth metal, and your music reminded me of them a little bit. Nice stuff!
We live in the same city btw haha
Woah I looked up Keygen Church and was blown away! Thanks for introducing me, fellow Neon Citizen! :)
Wow that's some awesome organ work! Loved all the Picardy thirds in the first track. Never would've thought to bring Bach into cyberpunk. Very creative! The contrast with the synths was neat, though personally I think at times the synth choices were a little distracting.
Ah, the Picardy thirds. I ended on the natural minor first but it felt like something was missing. I found these particular synths fun but definitely have a lot to learn about how to actually put together a combo that sounds smooth. Thanks for listening!
Chord progressions and arps are super cool. I like the retro game style with the classical inspiration. Super fun. I could see this working for some kind of side scrolling beat-em-up like Golden Axe.
I grew up in the retro age, and I agree that this would be totally fun in a scrolling beat-em-up. Thanks for listening!
I love the classical and futuristic mix, it's such a cool take on the cyberpunk feel but it definitely fits. I also like the organ work in neon showdown, super cool stuff!
I tried synths only first but got bored quickly (mainly because I suck at synths), they are absolutely needed for cyberpunk tho, so a mix felt right. Thanks!
Great work, Neon Sunrise is my fav espicially once it kicks off at 1:20 in
Thanks!
Big fan of the mix of harp and cyberpunky sections in track 1. 2nd track absolutely has that Bach sound to it, love the mix of that classical feel with the synths. Great mix of two different eras of music, and great composition throughout, lots of clever chord use.
Definitely some of my better chord work here. Thanks for listening!
Cool soundtrack! I can definitely hear the Bach inspiration in Neon Showdown. The "Neon City theme" sounds familiar, did you share them in the devblog discord channel?
Not that I could ever come close to big B, but his style is so timeless and epic I can't help but trying! I made a short sketch of this theme earlier in the year. I think i shared it on Facebook somewhere, never on discord tho. Glad you liked it!
Loved the harp sections! The first bit in Neon Nights reminds me of Awake from the Celeste OST. Overall, well done throughout!
Harp is one of my favorite instruments. Thanks!
Whoa, these fluttery butterfly synths are super cool, I don’t think I’ve heard anything like them before!
Enjoying the mix of classical and electronic instruments, lends the former an innocent, Aeris-in-Midgard vibe.
I know next to nothing about synths, so these are generated more or less by chance. Just stuck to this fluttery one because it sounds funny and adds a dimension that the classical instruments can't. I looked up some Aeris cutscenes and can definitely hear the connection there!
I liked the ominous nature of the organ bits you used. I definitely see the value, too, to not lean into the classic synth sounds we see with cyberpunk, though I think adding a few more instruments to offer some variety could help give the tracks more impact!
Thanks for the feedback. I do think I could add more variety with the synths. Not my strong suit and I wanted to focus on the composition here, but I'm motivated to learn more!