Play soundtrack
(Haunted) Sea Cave's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Quality | #13 | 3.636 | 3.636 |
| Adherence to Theme | #13 | 3.818 | 3.818 |
| Overall | #17 | 3.591 | 3.591 |
| General Impression | #19 | 3.455 | 3.455 |
| Creativity | #20 | 3.455 | 3.455 |
Ranked from 11 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How many tracks did you submit?
1
If you uploaded to a streaming platform, please drop the link here!
https://soundcloud.com/dreat_nihil/haunted-sea-cave
Explain your hypothetical game concept & how you interpreted the theme!
My entry to OST Minigame Jam #1
Theme was Hero Journey, challenge was whole tone scale.
Almost half of a track uses whole tone scale for unsettling, "haunted" melody.
I had an idea for location that is visited early in a game, that is a sea/beach cave. At this point in game it's haunted (so first part of a track would be playing ). As a part of a quest, player would "clear out" the cave, so it would no longer be haunted, yet would leave some inaccessible treasure. In true Metroidvania fashion player would return to this cave at later point in a game as an optional reward. Then, the more calm, second part would be playing.
What genre is your soundtrack?
Electronic, ambient, chillout, downtempo
Anything else you'd like to add?
I did some research on whole tone scale. After getting some most common use cases, I tried playing a simple melody over music I made; this gave me a vibe of a sea cave, so I immediately went into that and when it "clicked" with more spicy/spooky sounds, I leaned heavily into the haunted cave idea and moved from there. Afterward I came with idea of revisiting the cave (Hero Journey part) with explanation (Metroidvania trope of backtracking) to create second, more calm part
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Comments
This is really well done. You made a clear effort to incorporate the challenge, and executed it really nicely as well!
Personally I didn't feel that I had returned to the cave (or at least, that it had changed significantly/cleared-out). While the melody was less dissonant and had changed sound, I don't think that was an obvious enough change, it just felt like a B section to the same song. A shift in the main pad/keys sound (brighten it up with an EQ/filter sweep perhaps) might have transported the listener into a more dramatically different space.
I can see this working for a moody hero in a story where right and wrong aren't discernable. Not necessarily an anti hero but a hero that contemplates the philosophical aspects of his actions and those around him/her. Nice work
Perfect title for this track!
It's good at the same time reassuring and alarming...what is it? :D
Good ambient!
Good use of the scale, it establishes some creepy atmosphere well. Maybe bridges into a little too dissonant sometimes, but I think it's more interesting to lean into the prompt anyway, so I didn't mind. Nice job!
Good job using the whole tone scale! it fit the vibe of this piece well. I liked the synth you added halfway through as it kept me engaged. The ambience you created with the track was well done.
If I could suggest one thing, it would be to make that second half more noticeably different than the first half. I think it would bring home your idea of back tracking more!
Great job on the song! Keep it up.
Relaxing. Very nice.
Very chill. I could see this working very well as an exploration theme. Well mixed, each part stands out, and the reverb creates a nice sense of space.