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- finely beveled platforms with alluring die-like carvings and mesmerizing UV texture animations, a modeling and shading MARVEL

- flying squirrel wall jump mechanic very cool and fun, EXCELLENT mechanics coding

- walk animation too slow causing GLARING foot slippage exacerbated by the feet barely capable of lifting from the ground, an animating EMBARASSMENT and veritable utter gutter garbage trash

Nonsensical and specific and yet nebulous.  More themes should be like this.  I wasn't planning on joining the jam before I saw it

Thank you!  It's a Kontakt-based plugin so it took care of the heavy lifting of the cool pluck patterns, though it can be finnicky and I spend a while fine tuning the chords and voice leading that played nicely with it so I will take the compliment!  Here's what the midi looked like for the intro

I'm sure it's exactly like you'd guess, I forgot to make/choose an image until the very last second and so I found the first image on my computer that looked relatively unique.  Come to think of it, I should have cited the creator.  It was in a friend's PhD thesis and I'm 90% sure she made it herself.  Her name is (now Dr.) Emma Van Burns.  It's meant to illustrate plasmons in metal nanoparticles resonating with the electric field of light

And thank you for listening and your kind comment!

I knowwww it's the curse of the jam where my brain built a wall between all the individual ideas and only right after I clicked "submit" did I think of a million ways I could've made it all cohesive.  SUCH PLANS.  Thank you for your listen and comment!

these were definitely not the sounds passing through my mind looking at that picture you sicko.  But the vision you write out is undeniably fitting and the sounds are tight.  It's actually really wild how you manage to make all these in-your-face metal and acid elements so understated and ambient and loopable and compelling.   Not to mention the absurdity of 20 unique tracks sprinkled with fun samples and story cohesion.  Definitely going to listen to past work on the page as well and follow for future stuff

I know everyone else already said it but it's really cool you actually pointed a camera at yourself and performed your  pieces live.  And harp is one of the coolest live instruments it could've  been.  I hope we get to see more stuff like this from you!

My favorite bit in the first track was with like *bass diad diad rest* repeat stuff at ~3:40

Aw jeez and then there's a vocal part in the second piece!  Very evocative!  Definitely full points for matching the theme, this feels like the truest theme song/credits/whatever I've heard from the jam so far.

Even insofar as some of the tracks are basic, they are very cohesive and adhere vividly to the theme which is something you honestly did better than me and a lot of the experienced jammers.  

Battle, in particular, was really delightful.  Like one of my favorite tracks of the jam.  It pulled off that absurd motif and had really a catchy melody and bassline and the layering was restrained but kept it interesting. And the effects in Transition were satisfying.  And the waltzy call-and-response in A New Light felt nice and warm 

nice atmosphere all around with the little details from the LFOs to the glitches/scratches and industrial samples and noise.  It feels almost like something you'd make to market an ambience sample pack you're coming out with. 

And all the set up really paid off after the LPF peeled back with that first real melody note on the impact halfway through Blood Angel.  Part of me thought it could've had even a little more dynamics, leaning more into the cut-outs and sharp impacts, but I think the mild dynamics are more appropriate for video game sound track.  And also as I'm typing this I'm getting to ~0:55 of Narayana Awakes where it really rips in the way I was thinking so you know what you're doing. 

Really consistently pleasing uses of sub sweeps and glitchy industrial sounds.  Some Tower of God shit

Even just the slow lead-in sound for the title theme track I could've listened to for a few minutes. Also in that track I loved the simplicity of the little bell diads moving around and I thought the big interval jumps in the melody felt memorable and evocative. 

That track was a very nice lead-in to Calming Waters which felt very professional.  You really give each instrument the space it deserves and lean into the soft stillness and gradual wobbling and rising.  This feels like a track to come to terms with mortality during a peaceful sunset to.

I have less to say about Nautilus only because it disturbed the slumber your first two pieces masterfully put me under.  No, but it's cool.  I liked the lead coming in intermittently like it was reminding you of some element of the fight and the percussion and low passing felt urgent and intense

0) ooo regal and maybe a little hint of nefariousness or suspicion with the timing gradients (or maybe it was just in free time and I'm reading too far into it).  I think that captures impressions from the artwork nicely!

1) what a pleasant blend of classical riffing and harpsichord with the 80s pad-y synth sound.  Nicely evocative of like 80s/90s video game "rise for the royal court" kinda scenes

2) the slides, the soft clippiness.  The classical harmonies feel like they start to borrow a little more from rockier genres here which is a nice distinction for battling presumably the first distinct foe

3) aww yeah it definitely starts to feel like Shadow Universe Elton John is puppeteering the villains we're battling which I mean as a compliment.  I like how big it feels when the crashes start going crazy (maybe wish they took up more of the volume budget).  I also love how relentless the progressions felt going into the latter half

4) from the first bar I could already tell I was in for some intrigue and fun

5) oh even  more of a big initial impression than track 4.  The formant filter synth and the traditional piano sound blend together scary well.  Also a ton of nice building and falling feelings evoked.  "Climbing" definitely fits but this could be an entire narrative by itself.  I particularly love the one motif with the little run down the scale (at, e.g., 3:00).  Favorite track

6) I  like the sense of triumph coming in after the trials of the last tracks

7) Huh with the most traditional sounds at the forefront for the "going home" finale, I wonder if the synth elements were meant to represent a corrupting influence?  I'll have to go back and click around to see how they line up with the other feelings

overall thoughts: generally very compelling progressions and fun melodies and dynamic compositions and rad synths/sounds

ROFL I also really wanted to do a waiter spin on the theme but it wouldn't have been nearly as funny as this.  Good stuff!

awww tyty! I usually use some random google images for the textures like that but this time I made a point to export them from blender (except the bell's texture which was a random google image).  All of the compliments mean a lot

NOICE SNAKE