Play imaginary soundtrack
There and Back Together Again's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #10 | 4.125 | 4.125 |
| Correlation to theme | #11 | 4.083 | 4.083 |
| Overall | #25 | 3.771 | 3.771 |
| Impression | #33 | 3.583 | 3.583 |
| Quality | #57 | 3.292 | 3.292 |
Ranked from 24 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
This is a soundtrack to an imaginary adventure game where your beloved partner helps you safely dispose of your ring of power in a volcano. As you travel through three unique biomes, meeting with old and new friends, you also encounter ex partners who will try and steal your ring from you - if you're not able to hide from them at least.
1 Good morning
you and your partner wake up
2 Time to go!
you and your partner get ready to go
3 Forest Level
you and your partner travel across the forest, have a picnic with some elves and a wizard
4 Low Stealth Blues
plays in each biome when you run into your ex and you try to get away
5 Fight
plays if you ex finds you. you have to fight them, or they will steal your ring of power and use it for evil.
6 Water Level
you and your partner travel across the water on a dolphin, catch up with your partner's merperson fam. (that's why you can ride across the ocean on a dolphin)
7 Mountain Level
you and your partner travel over the mountains, meet up with mountain friends... dwarves and such
8 To Have And To Hold
you and your partner fight over the ring. stress got to you. you break up. you can't remember why you were throwing away the ring.
9 Low Stealth Blues 2
you broke up but you're still both in the mountain biome. gotta try and avoid them.
10 Throw It In The Lava
you made it to the volcano. you and your now ex partner fight over the ring again. they remind you why you need to destroy it.
11 Lava Level (Time to go!)
the volcano erupts. you and your ex partner ride a lava wave on a lava dolphin to safety
12 Together Again
you and your partner make up. now you can have a happy life together with no ring of power to ruin everything
Message from the artist:
This was so much fun to write! I would like to make this game now :).
edit as of June 10: I've uploaded new versions of two tracks to the soundcloud after reflecting on feedback - tracks 5 and 10. If you want to judge based on the originals, they're still available on soundcloud but not in the playlist, and the files you download from this page have not been updated.
Warning, though, please don't listen to the original track five at a high volume. :)
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
I was inspired by the "journey" part of "a journey to remember" and the general aesthetic, plus the mountain, in the picture prompt. (originally there was going to be a meadow level too!)
In more detail: the player and their companion start off at home, make their way over land and water, meet friends, fight enemies, climb to the top of the mountain, break up, destroy a ring of power, get back together again, and then ride a dolphin back home. A journey of epic proportions.
Link to streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/crummingjams/sets/there-and-back-together-again
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Comments
I like how everything is interconnected and gives you the same vibe throughout the soundtrack, but still, each song has its own personality. throwing it in the lava was my favorite and it reminded me of a game I played in the browser quite a while ago (and I loved its soundtrack), but I can't remember the name, it brought me a lot of nostalgia <3
I like how there sometimes is some kind of metronome sound in the background in the 'run away' parts. gives it a very 'limited time' feeling. I like the fact you played around with space in one of the lava parts. flipping sides depending on instruments. gives it a very "looking of your shoulder when running" feeling. the first song would also be a very nice opening tune for any kids program on tv.
Using a music box as the primary instrument gives this whole soundtrack such a nostalgic, childlike vibe. I definitely get Undertale vibes from the super staccato, moody piano chords that play backup for all these playful sparkly bell-sounds.
The stutter-echoes you use to accentuate important phrases really stand out, too – do they represent something specific in your narrative, or are they just ear-candy? :)
If there’s one thing I’d like to hear you polish up, it’s the mixing. Particularly on some of the higher screechy synths and drum parts (as in Battle v2), it feels a bit like you didn’t have time to do a last leveling pass to make sure all the instruments are playing nice together.
I really want to hear “Throw It in the Lava” with a kick-snare backbeat. <3
Thanks! I tried with the mixing, but I don't really know how to fix the problems. I'll try again after the jam. :)
Undertale is my favorite soundtrack, so I'm not surprised you picked up on those vibes. The stutter echos are just for fun, I like how they sound.
"To Have And To Hold" is my favourite track, nice work!
Smart use of the theme from the first and second tracks specifically- but also just in general throughout! Overall the entire soundtrack has a very unique quality to it- nothing like I've quite ever heard- and that is such an awesome thing! Great job!
really enjoyed it, i think my favorite was Stealth blues 2, good job
How charming this OST is! Full of good vibes with those high-pitched sounds, well-crafted melodies and the detailed and rich orchestration. In Forest Level and Battle, the high-pitched sound is sometimes a bit loud, but the whole is still adorable. In addition, no game music is really played at a listening volume: it is common for the melodies to get lost when playing the music file as the background sound. Here, with these instruments, you make sure that the player does not lose most of the melodies that you have created while playing the game. Some strange glitch effects and additions of real sounds sometimes come to add a touch of electro in this instrumental music. Original ideas, therefore, and the whole is particularly well done. We could have feared artistic exhaustion due to the large number of tracks offered, but it is not: the OST remains a very coherent, diverse and particularly pleasant sound adventure.
Really sweet! I am so impressed with how many tracks you have here. Also a huge fan of the water level. Lovely work!
Echoing other comments here, the water level really stands out. Always the best tune on a game soundtrack, even if it has the most frustrating gameplay!
This music is sooo cute! I enjoyed that :) Also it fits for your imaginary game. Good job! :)
This was a lot of fun to listen to, there are a few unusual harmonic movements that were really interesting, and I just really like the style and aesthetic you've gone for overall with this soundtrack the story for the imaginary game to go with it. The whole thing feels very Earthbound-esque, which I love
What a lovely entry!! I enjoyed listening throughout the whole album!
For me the strongest points about your entry are the overall consistency (you can easily tell that every track is from the same game), the musical/melodic content, the instrument textures and the soundtrack planning. After listening all the tracks you can feel the game atmosphere.
There's really just one thing that bothered me, and that was the mixing. There were parts that geniuanlly hurt my ear a bit... xD. Maybe I even shouldn't be considering this, but for me it's an important part of "Quality".
Great job, loved it.
thanks! I'll have a closer listen to the mixing next time i have a chance to do some editing. If you happen to remember which tracks you found to be the worst offenders in that regard, I'd love to know. (I know there were some places I wanted to feel a little uncomfortable to listen to, but certainly not to ear-hurting degrees, so maybe i failed to strike the right balance there.)
The tracks that focuses more on the bell/triangle instrument. Like in "time to go" and "forest level". Also the bitcrush effect in "battle" gets really loud.
Just to reassure - I feel like none of these problems ruins the album experience, I loved your enrty. Maybe my ears are just a bit more sensitive than yours hehe :p
water level (◡‿◡✿)
Absolutely loveeeee the water level theme! Really consistent throughout the album for theme. Awesome work :D
thank you :)