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Book Town: The Observatory's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Quality | #1 | 4.667 | 4.667 |
| Correlation to theme | #3 | 4.333 | 4.333 |
| Overall | #3 | 4.200 | 4.200 |
| Did you imagine the town ? | #4 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Composition | #4 | 4.222 | 4.222 |
| Creativity | #6 | 3.778 | 3.778 |
Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Theme
Book town
Correlation to theme
I tried to make it sound “thought provoking” which I thought would be appropriate for a place centered around books:)
Streaming service
https://youtu.be/1Zv1yzitbj0
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Comments
The Observatory: The modal interchange sounds so cinematic and exudes whimsical energy straight from the start. The reverb on the low drone creates imagery of an expansive place like a very large library. The use of winds with the sparse piano gives a sound that is very palpable and almost antique-y which I think works really well to sell the “book” theme. Your music ebbs and flows using lots of quiet and calm space, just like a person sitting in a quiet cozy room reading a book only to occasionally move to turn the pages, all while quietly imagining lively tales that are curiously out of reach to on-lookers. You capture the mood of a book town with your compositional style well. Excellent choice of theme!
Did I imagine the town?: Yes. As noted above, the composition creates great imagery of a town with large halls and old hidden rooms with wonderful secrets within them. In the intro, I imagined a central building that seemed to be a unifying structure for the town that seemed to hold the most knowledge, which I imagined to be the observatory as your title suggests. Overall fantastic work and wonderful quality as well. Thank you for sharing!
Such a thoughtful and thorough response as usual! Thank you for listening, and for your kind words:)
Very nice! I was immediately impressed, it almost sounded like some official movie soundtrack! Then, at 0:30, you switch to the 'main course', a mysterious and indeed kind of 'booky' theme. I do find each measure to be a tad bit too long, given that you end up barely hearing the music for a long time (you do improve on that at 1:02, by having a continuous part, and at 1:34 even more). But overal, the song matches the theme surprisingly well, and it was real nice to listen to. Congrats!
Thanks! My intention was to leave the main section very open and ambient, with lots of space between chords to build some anticipation, which, to me, felt like pondering, wondering, thinking, etc. But, I can definitely see how it could maybe be a little too open. Thank you for both the feedback, and for the praise:)
Jaw wide open with the quality of the song. I can picture a lot of things with this song, but I also imagined myself being this little creature that lives among piles and piles of books. Really thought provoking!
AHHH! I'm so glad the intended feeling landed. I can also totally see this being a theme for a little mouse or creature or something in an abandoned library. Thanks for listening!
I felt like I was listening the trailer of game the way it opened up. When the music became calmer I could envision text telling the story and lore of a game. The town was rich in knowledge and wisdom and held answers to secrets lost long ago.
Thanks for listening!
Wooooow! This is great! I don't know what kind of sound bank you're using but besides being of high quality you know how to use it very well! I put 5 stars everywhere !
I listened with great attention to your composition and thanks to you I learned a new harmonic progression. Already, thank you for that! It is complex and yet easy to listen to.
Tell me if I'm wrong : C5b7M | D | F2/Ab | D/G | C13
Your music sounds like a movie or a triple A game.
Peaceful but heavy. The weight of knowledge?
I like the silence of your music, you take the time to install each chord. One can imagine the time passing and the time to think.
Wow! thank you for the praise. I can send you what instrument libraries I'm using if you're interested. I'm not using anything terribly unaffordable.
Good ears! That's pretty much spot on. I had to go back and double check tbh haha. I wound up with this chord progression by switching between Lydian and Aeolian.
Thanks for listening to and analyzing my music so thoughtfully! Definitely brought some joy to an otherwise mundane Monday:)
Oh ! Excellent !
I have some knowledge of music theory but I am not familiar with orchestral/filmic music.
I didn't know you could make it sound so good with a mode change. So if I understand correctly, you alternate between Lydian C and Aeolian C. That's great! I'm going to have a blast on my piano to discover these new possibilities. Thanks a lot.
Ps: which sound bank do you use?
Glad to be helpful! The libraries I used are:
woodwind section- 8dio intimate studio woodwind
Strings/harp- performance samples Vista
Brass- 8dio Century Solo Brass Solo Horn
Pianos- Native instruments The Gentlemen & Spitfire Labs Soft Piano
Pads/Synth/misc.- Native Instruments Kinetic Metal & Spitfire Labs Foghorn
I loved it! At the beginning, it was a bit too chaotic and I think it could have used a bit more mixing with all the violins. But right when the piano kicked, that was so cooooool!
nicely done, gg!
thanks! I sorta set it up like a stinger/intro and then the main loop. I agree that it definitely could have benefited from more time mixing though. Thanks for the feedback:)