Thanks so much for listening and for the feedback! This is my first time doing a jam of any kind so I think it may be a little rough around the edges but at least I had fun and learned a ton at the same time. I wasn't too sure how much detail needed to be added for the description so perhaps I should update that if possible 😅
Also great question! So I wanted to explore different emotions and different situations that come up in a video game.
The splash screen is just something I thought would just be a fun sound to hear when booting up a game, I grew up playing a lot of Gameboy/GBA games so hearing the jingle when you turn on the console is always very nostalgic for me.
Of little renown is supposed to bring about a sense of resolve and determination. I think these kinds of tracks are something that really pulls me into games and makes them feel more meaningful when I come back to play them later on. This would be something that gets played in the intro to the game, maybe like an opening dialog or something.
Sand Wizard is meant to be a boss theme. I wanted it to sound mysterious and also kind of spooky in a way while also giving a desert vibe. I thought it would be fun to play with the idea of a desert level by using the byzantine scale even if it's a little cliche I think it came out sounding pretty cool. That patch was actually one that I programmed on the Korg Prologue.
I think that game over screens are something that we see a lot of so I feel like making sure that the music sounds melodic and pretty is important. I like the idea of game over being kind of a respite from the challenge but being encouraging in a way. That's what I was aiming for with Don't Give Up.
I had this idea to take a random sound effect and make a bit-crushed sample for it on a song so I sampled this "metal pipe falling" sound effect. It's pretty silly but I think that silliness adds a bit of whimsy to the soundtrack. So this one ended up becoming another boss theme. I thought the idea of a wizard that just uses a metal pipe instead of a staff to cast spells was kind of funny 😆
"New Spell!" is for the moment when you obtain a new ability and encapsulates how it feels when your character progresses. I think of how there's fanfare that plays when you get upgrades in Metroid, when you get an item in Zelda, or when your Pokemon evolves. I just think it's a fun little detail in games like that and it's memorable too.
Teleportal would be something like a hub area for fast travel. There's a motif from the opening track in that song. I was thinking of this as a transitory kind of aesthetic. It's hard to describe the details of it because I was in kind of a creative flow when I came up with it but I really like how it came out.
Thanks again! If you have any more questions, please let me know 🙂