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Sunset Sands's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Correlation to theme | #1 | 4.556 | 4.556 |
| Did you imagine the town ? | #2 | 4.556 | 4.556 |
| Composition | #2 | 4.444 | 4.444 |
| Quality | #2 | 4.556 | 4.556 |
| Creativity | #2 | 4.222 | 4.222 |
| Overall | #2 | 4.467 | 4.467 |
Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Theme
Correlation to theme
Explore the town of Sunset Sands both before and after the sunset. Feel the gritty sand and the sweltering heat of the day juxtaposed with the the cool breezy nights in the day and night themes. Using traditional instruments from desert locations as well as scales that typically bring to mind middle Eastern images and evoke warm exoticism, I tried to capture the sounds of small desert village that is best imagined in the warm colors of a sunset as the sun sits gently on the horizon. By using both day and night themes, I also added to the "sunset" theme by adding a sense of time and earthly rotation to my submission. I had a lot of fun developing and exploring this lively town and I hope you do as well!
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Comments
I’m always excited when I see that you’ve submitted to the same jam as me, because I know I’m gonna get a treat. You always write great, thoughtful, and catchy chord progressions and melodies, but you also somehow always find a way to make your music have a kind of liveliness and energy that is really difficult to replicate. It goes without saying that you nailed the theme, and made some fantastic music as usual. Thank you for sharing!
Amazing quality!! Loved both themes! In Night theme, the percussion that you used reminded me of the "bombo criollo" that we use in argentinian folklore, even though this one is much softer. Both Day and Night themes gave me the sensation that Sunset Sands is a never ending adventure.
I sure wish I had access to a quality sound of a bombo! I achieved this percussion sound by layering a couple different low drums with the prominent sound being someone hitting the widest part of the body of the guitar coupled with the higher-pitched knocking on the wood of the guitar. Thank you so much for your comment!
They were both great but I would go with the Night version. I can picture the player coming into town at night after a grueling day looking for rest and a place to hide as they've been hunted across the desert. The music makes the town feel like a great place to hide and disappear. Like how sand can hide things that existed long ago.
This is a wonderful textual translation of the imagery I was hoping to convey in the night theme. Thank you so much for sharing!
Professional alert!!
Seriously, I LOVED this! What a great spin on the Sunset Town idea, to make a westerny deserty theme! I can't name half of these instruments, but I wish I could. You nailed this! I loved the song to bits, I really have nothing better to say. And even better... you made a SECOND VERSION! Definitely one of my favorites so far, well done!
Thank you so much for your kind comment! They sure were a lot of fun to make!
Very beautiful orchestrations.
My preference goes to the night version. The chords from 45 seconds are very rich and sound really good.
For the day version (which is very good, it reminds me Gerudo Valley of Zelda Ocarina of Time), the fact that the percussions play permanently gives a feeling of a city in constant effervescence. Nevertheless, I would have liked to have a moment of "breathing" by having a pause on the percussion part at some point.
I'm nitpicking of course, because it's already great.
Thank you for your comment! I appreciate the feedback and I completely agree with you that having some room to breathe in the day theme would allow for the loop to play in the background of my town for a lot longer without getting annoying. I’ll definitely add something like that in!
Whoa! Nice tracks!
You definitely nailed the desert vibes. It makes me imagine a small camp town filled with tents and people riding camels and the likes.
I love the use of castanets in the day theme. It brings to mind flamenco music. Was that intentional?
I like the subdued nature of the night theme. It makes me imagine the people gathering around a bonfire late at night in the desert camp, and enjoying themselves.
Yeah the castanets were meant to evoke a Latin feel, along with the guitar-heavy orchestration and use of trumpet. Thank you for sharing the imagery you received from listening to my music!
The night theme is sooooo goooood! Incredible work here!
Thank you so much! And thank you for hosting this fun jam!